Fleas and Mites Pest Control Sydney, Pest Management Sydney

Types of Pests - Flees and Mites

Fleas are small 1.5 to 3.3 mm long, agile, usually dark coloured wingless insects with tube-like mouth-parts adapted to feeding on the blood of their hosts. Their legs are long, the hind pair well adapted for jumping.

Fleas lay tiny white oval-shaped eggs the larva is small, pale, has bristles covering its worm-like body, lacks eyes, and has mouthparts adapted to chewing. The larvae feed on various organic matter. The adult flea's diet consists solely of fresh blood. In the pupa phase, the larva is enclosed in a silken, debris-covered cocoon. Fleas go through the four life cycle stages of egg, larva, pupa, and adult. The flea life cycle begins when the female lays after feeding. Adult fleas must feed on blood before they can become capable of reproduction. Eggs are laid in batches of up to 20 or so, usually on the host itself, which means that the eggs can easily roll onto the ground. Because of this, areas where the host rests and sleeps become one of the primary habitats of eggs and developing fleas. The eggs take around two days to two weeks to hatch. Completion of the life cycle from egg to adult varies from two weeks to eight months depending on the temperature, humidity, food, and species. Normally after a blood meal, the female flea lays about 45 to 50 eggs per day up to 600 in a lifetime.

Larvae are blind, avoid light, pass through three larval instars and take a week to several months to develop. Their food consists of digested blood from adult flea feces, dead skin, hair, feathers, and other organic debris. (Larvae do not suck blood.) Pupa mature to adulthood within a silken cocoon woven by the larva to which pet hair, carpet fiber, dust, grass cuttings and other debris adheres. In about five to fourteen days, adult fleas emerge or may remain resting in the cocoon until the detection of vibration (pet and people movement), pressure (host animal lying down on them), heat, noise, or carbon dioxide (meaning a potential blood source is near). Most fleas overwinter in the larval or pupa stage with survival and growth best during warm, moist winters and spring. Newly emerged adult fleas live only about one week if a blood meal is not obtained. However, completely developed adult fleas can live for several months without eating.

Bird mites belong to a group of arthropods.
Bird mites or Starling Mites are the common names used to describe the mite sometimes are incorrectly called bird lice
Bird mites are most active during Spring and early Summer.
Small but extremely mobile mite, barely visible to the eye,
Eight legs, oval in shape.

Widely distributed throughout warmer regions of the world.
It is a parasite, feeding on the blood of common birds. Semi-transparent in colour, difficult to detect on skin until blood is ingested and then digested; when they may appear reddish to blackish.
Contact with humans can occur after birds gain entry to roof cavities, eaves, of premises where nests are developed, some infestations can occur from birds roosting on the outside of dwellings such as window ledges or awnings.
The mites feed on the unfeathered nestlings, as well as the adult birds, and the large amount of nesting material used by the birds provide the mites with an ideal environment in which to thrive.

Mites have a short life cycle (approximately 7 days) and can rapidly generate large populations.
When the young birds leave the nest, or die, many mites (often many tens of thousands) are left behind in the absence of a suitable host, and these will disperse from the nest into and throughout the dwelling searching for new hosts.
Most mites will die within 3 weeks without a blood meal from a bird host.
They will bite humans they encounter but cannot survive on humans.

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