Lice, fleas, bugs, ticks, body lice [2]

Poux, puces, punaises, tiques, morpions (Parasites humains) [2]

Tiny ones nor so trivial : I am frightened ! [Genista]

By Nicolle Mathé, 'Genista Informations' No 279, December 2001 (Strange animals)

In the beginning of the 21^st century, the conditions of hygiene are still the origin of numerous diseases due to parasites, in spite of all the pesticides that have been imagined through the progress of chemistry and biochemistry. If your children and your pets are clean, they may at any time get in touch with less clean children or untreated animals.

Fleas not so harmless !

Fleas have a preferential host, a mammal or a bird, but Ctenophalus felis and canis may attack humans !
The flea, ¹/₃₂ to ²/₁₆ inches long (0·8 to 6 mm), is an insect the body of which is compressed laterally, with a tough carapace furnished with stiff hairs. It has no wings, and its three long pairs of legs allow it to skip 16" (40 cm) away.
It is a hématophagus¹, too, the mouth organs of which allow the insect to sting and comprise one upper lip and two long mandibles which delimit a canal through which blood is sucked.
Its bite causes an intense pruritus² with an erythematous area, a red spot around the place of the bite. Thus, germs may penetrate into the blood and cause tularemia³. Dipylidium caninum, the tapeworm conveyed by the dog-flea, causes provoque nausea, vomiting, nervous troubles and a loss in weight.
If the home is visited by fleas and rats which leave dejections, we now face various rickettsioses such as typhus fever, which is caused by Rickettsia mooseri : high fever, cutaneous eruption, a tuphos, or state of stupor and indifference take place in the sick person.

flea [puce]

Plague

Bubonic plague⁴ is conveyed when the rat puce is infected by the Yersin bacillus : a high fever, vomiting and diffuse pains appear suddenly. At the point of inoculation, a red hyperthophied ganglion or plague bubo evolves towards fatal septicaemia⁵ or towards suppuration and recovery.
Pulmonary plague, conveyed by the saliva of a sick person, is expressed through a sensation of distressing asphyxia and abundant expectoration, rich in Yersin bacilli, and therefore very contagious. The prognosis is fatal.
Fleas lay large eggs from which are issued vermiform blind larvae which spin a silk cocoon.

Anoplura not known well enough

This is the Pediculus, a parasite of numerous animals, three species of which are bound to humans : Pediculus humanus capitis, Pediculus humanus corporis and Phthirus pubis.
We know them fairly well, since they are the lice, wingless insects with a flat, long, soft body, ¹/₆₄ to ¹/₄ inches long (0·4 to 6 mm), covered with hairs. They are hematophagus insects, too, and they have mouth stylets adapted to perforating the skin and sucking blood. They cling with the grippers made by an internal projection of their tibias and a think, curved claw.
Their bite conveys numerous infectious diseases. Louse borreliosis is due to a lack of hygiene and is transmetted by squeezing a louse on the skin. The incubation takes a week. A high fever appears, with a general uneasiness and then a hepatic attack and meningeal problems. On the sixth day, all these symproms disappear. A new attack begins one week later. Ocular complications may appear.

louse, pl.: lice [pou, pl.: poux]

Les poux

Pediculus humanus capitis, or head louse causes a pediculosis of the scalp, together with pruritus and scratching lesions which get over-infected.
Pediculus humanus corporis, or body louse, is small, with legs ending with a hook ; it moves very quickly and nestles in the folds of the skin, the hairs, and clothes. It may live one month if the temperature is 22°C.
It is responsible for a pruritus, particularly at night, with scratching lesions, du exanthematic typhus fever which begins after two weeks' incubation, with important shivering, a high fever, headache, des articular and other pains. After 4 to 5 days, there appears a red eruption, or exanthema⁶ and tuphos. The temperature stabilises. The eruption becomes general and its colour turns to dark red. Without a treatment, serious complications with myocarditis and coma are responsible for a large number of deaths.
The female lays about ten eggs every day. The eggs, or nits clutch to the hairs and hair of the host, or on textile fiber. The young ones suck the host's blood immediately after hatching.
Contagion may be made by the simple contact with bedclothes, clothes, headrests, cinema seats, and so on.

Le morpion

Phthirus pubis, or body louse, a small animal, stays motionless in the hairs of the pubis, the chest, the armpits, the eyebrows, and causes papulas⁷ and a pruritus.
This parasitosis is listed in STDs or sexually transmitted diseases.

Health obliges !

• I inquire at my chemists's ;

• I respect the rules of hygiene for every room, animal, child, and I keep an eye on animal furs and people's hair ;

• I use every preventive resource that is at my disposal ;

• In case of attack, I apply to the whole family the recommended treatment,

and

• I warn the school if they are lice.

Notes :
¹ hematophagus : blood-eater.
² pruritus : a sharp itch.
³ tularemia : the disease of hares and rabbits, which may be transmitted to humans.
⁴ bubonic : related to the bubo, an inflammation of lymphatic ganglions.
⁵ septicaemia : a generalised infection of the blood caused by bacteria.
⁶ exanthema : a local eruption of the skin.
⁷ papula : a small lesion (pimple) on the skin.

Top of Page • [Haut de Page]

Part 1 : Such trivial tiny beasts • [Première Partie : Ces bestioles si banales]

Cette Page en français • [This Page in French]

Contents : Nature & Environment • [Sommaire Nature & Environnement]