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June 2, 2009

Blood Suckers

First glance at the words "Blood Sucker", many will start to think of vampires or mosquitoes. BUT, I am not going to talk about either of them. The two extreme creatures that I am going to talk about, not only do they have disgusting appearances but are also blood-thirsty creatures.
They are the Fleas, and the Ticks.



Some facts about Fleas

Larva of a Flea. Source: Click Here


  • Flea larva may live on the carpets, or any fabric surfaces.
  • The flea larva actually feeds on the poop of an adult flea besides dead skin debris of animals.
  • Eventually, it will spin itself into a cocoon, and can stay inside for more than a year waiting for a host to arrive.
  • Flea can jump 150 times its body length, which is about 240m high for a human being of 1.6m! In order to attach itself onto its host.
  • The flea has a very poor eyesight, it can only sense its hosts through movement and concentration of carbon dioxide.
  • It can drink blood of up to 15 times its body weight. In conversion, it is approximately 750kg of liquid consumed by a person with 50kg body weight!
  • The poops it produces are rich in nutrients for larvae to grow.
  • One of the best way to get rid of fleas, is the use of vacuum cleaner.

Some facts about Ticks
  • A tick is an eight-legged bug, a relative to spiders.
  • Very similar to fleas, a tick tracks its host by following the trail of carbon dioxide released by the hosts.
  • A tick locates the blood vessels closest to the skin surface of its host, at which it will bite and start leeching for blood.
  • The horrifying fact is that, a tick can drink up to a maximum of 600 times of its body weight of blood! (which is 30,000kg of fluid for a 50kg-person)

A female tick with eggs. Source: Click Here
  • Once latched on a host, a tick may be 'glued' onto the host and suck blood for up to a few days. Until its body weight increases about several hundreds times its original weight!

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