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The Best Flea Slayer: the Vacuum Cleaner!It kills 96 % of the adults and 100 % of the larvae |
By Stefan Anitei, Science Editor
18th of December 2007, 10:34 GMT
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Is your body covered by flea bites from head to toes? Buy a vacuum cleaner! It will kill 96 % of the adult fleas and all their larvae! These are the results of a research carried on at the Ohio State University and published in "Entomologia Experimentalis et Applicata".
The researchers were so amazed by this that they had to repeat the tests several times to be sure. The study was made on the cat flea (Ctenocephalides felis), the most common type of flea embittering the comfort of our houses. The researchers put the killer effect of the vacuum cleaners on account of the damages caused by the brushes, fans and powerful air currents. Even if the research was made with an upright vacuum, any type of vacuum has the same effect.
"No matter what vacuum a flea gets sucked into, it's probably a one-way trip. The vacuum brushes wear away the cuticle, a waxy outer later on fleas and most insects that allows the bugs to stay hydrated. Without the waxy protection, the adult fleas. larvae and pupae probably dry up and die. We didn't do a post-mortem, so we don't know for sure", said co-author Glen Needham, associate professor of entomology at OSU.
Previously it was thought that vacuum cleaners just removed the fleas physically, and their bags should be emptied, burned or frozen.
Lead study author W. Fred Hink, professor emeritus of entomology at Ohio State, is interested in nontoxic ways of combating fleas on dogs. Adult fleas suck blood from their hosts. Their larvae develop in the floor, furniture
or pet bedding, feeding on dust particles (like skin cells or dandruff). They hatch from the eggs after 2 to 14 days, and after moulting three times, they form a pupa, from which adults emerge in 1-2 weeks.
The team tested 100 adult fleas at a time, but also groups of 50 pupae and 50 larvae, which were vacuumed up from a tightly woven kitchen carpet. 6 tests of vacuuming showed an average mortality of 96 % for adult fleas and 100 % for larvae in their third stage! In parallel tests checking for toxicity, just 5 % of adult fleas died after being kept in paper vacuum bags , and just 3 % in circulating air.
"I did not include eggs in the vacuum study, but I'm sure they would not have survived", said Hink.
"Flea survival in general is on the wane these days, because of numerous effective chemical treatments on the market that kill fleas on companion animals. There are all kinds of ways to manage the problem, but how people feel about insecticides and how much money they want to spend factors into what they're going to do for flea control. Vacuuming is a great strategy because it involves no chemicals and physically removes the problem", said Needham.
"The effectiveness of some insecticides is likely to decrease as fleas inevitably develop resistance to the currently available compounds", he warned.
The team will check also for other nontoxic methods of killing fleas and other household pests, like the use of UV light.
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