Flea
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- This article is about the insect. For the musician, see: Flea (Michael Balzary).
Flea | ||||||||||||||
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SEM of a flea
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Aphaniptera |
The flea (siphonaptera) is an insect that lives on many kinds of animals and sometimes humans. Fleas are considered parasites, and they drink the blood of the animal they bite.
Fleas can live outdoors in sand or tall grass, and they will jump to any passing animal and lay eggs. Flea bites are usually red bumps and they itch. They can carry disease and make animals sick.
There are several types of fleas including the dog flea, cat flea, human flea, northern rat flea, and the oriental rat flea. During the Middle Ages, the oriental rat flea that spread a virus that caused the Bubonic Plague, also known as the Black Death or Black Plague, a huge epidemic the size of today's bird flu. The oriental rat flea would become infected by this virus. After infected the bacteria grew inside of the flea eventually blocking the path to their stomach. Because of this the flea was always hungry. When the flea would bite a human it opened up the skin and since the stomach of the flea was blocked, the blood from the human was heaved up back into the human, but only this time it was infected with the Bubonic virus.