150 HOUSEHOLD INSECTS 



a flea-infested dog or cat has been lying. We recall a pet 

 dog that came to the room and lay down a few minutes 

 on a piece of dark blue cloth spread on the floor. After 

 the dog had gone the writer noted many white specks on 

 the cloth and on carrying it to the light and examining it 

 carefully with a lens twelve beautiful pearly white flea 

 eggs were found. These, of course, had fallen from the 

 dog during the short time he had been lying on the cloth. 

 The dog received a thorough bathing in a solution of 

 creolin and his kennel, a barrel, was cleaned by burning 

 a large handful of excelsior in it, while the matting upon 

 which the dog had lain was burned. 



The eggs are white and waxy, plainly visible to the eye, 

 oval in shape, and it would take 

 about forty of them, placed end 

 to end, to reach an inch (Fig. 

 45). 



The eggs that fall upon the 

 carpets or floors in a house or 

 on the sleeping cloths of the cats 

 FIG. 45. Egg of dog flea, and dogs soon hatch into minute, 

 white, worm-like larvae. The 



body is composed of thirteen segments and the head bears 

 biting mouth parts, but no eyes. The larvae are active, 

 wriggling creatures and they soon crawl away into cracks 

 and crevices, where they feed upon whatever organic 

 matter they can find. In these situations, they attain 

 their growth in ten days to two weeks, under favorable 

 circumstances, and then spin a fine, white, silken cocoon 

 (Fig. 46), often covered with dust, inside of which they 

 change to a quiet, inactive form, the pupa. After a 

 week or ten days, the pupa transforms to the adult flea 



