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- Fleas can lay on average between 20 and 30 eggs per day, though some can lay up to 50!
- Each female lays a single egg approximately once every hour.
- Given perfect conditions, a single female can potentially lay between 2000 to 8000 eggs in one lifetime!
- Flea eggs often drop off your cat and into the environment such as bedding, furniture, clothing etc.
- The flea’s life cycle may be as short as 15 days or as long as 250. Often, a flea’s life is cut short by being eaten by your cat while they are grooming.
- Fleas have a flexible lifecycle and can lay dormant until conditions are just right to continue laying eggs.
- Flea larvae burrow deep into fabrics, bedding, and carpeting, so thorough, regular vacuuming and cleaning of your pet’s bedding (in very hot water) is recommended
- Flea pupae can stay in their cocoons for up to a year. Once the adults emerge, they try to find a blood meal immediately but, if necessary, can survive for one to two weeks without eating.
- Fleas almost never jump from cat to cat. Most flea infestations come from newly developed fleas from the pet’s environment.
- There are over 2,000 species of flea in the world, and they’re a problem almost everywhere.
- Not surprising for the cat owner, is that the most common flea species is ‘Ctenocephalides felis’, better known as, the “cat flea.” Despite its name, the cat flea affects both cats and dogs, as well as their owners, and wild animals such as raccoons and skunks.
- Fleas can also carry parasites, which they then transmit to their hosts. Tapeworms are most commonly transmitted by fleas.
- Flea populations are distributed with about 50% eggs, 35% larvae, 10% pupae, and 5% adults.
