Fleas and Lice

O

Orleander

OH JOY!!!!
Valued Senior Member
What is the difference between the two? Are fleas on animals and lice are on humans? If so, why don't people have fleas?
 
Many animals have fleas living on them but mostly humans have lice problems. That doesn't mean either can't go onto each of the other.
 
oh and the reason we cant get fleas i belive is that our hair is to thin and patchy

oh and one further note THANKS ALOT:mad: now my hair is ichy:(
 
Fleas are wingless insects that locomote by leaping, like grasshoppers. They are true parasites that subsist by sucking blood.

Lice are smaller wingless insects that don't move around as much as fleas. Some species are parasitic, sucking blood or eating living skin. Others are symbiotic scavengers, eating dead tissue and keeping their hosts clean.

Humans are susceptible to three species of lice: head lice, body lice and pubic lice. They all suck blood and are true parasites. However, their real danger is in transmitting diseases from one host to another.

Body lice evolved to live only on humans, and lay their eggs in our clothing. The species separated from head lice 70,000 years ago, which gives us an approximate date when we invented clothing. Head lice and body lice are still closely enough related that the two species can interbreed and hybridize.

70,000 years makes body lice one of the most recently speciated non-microscopic organisms. Polar bears differentiated from grizzlies 100,000 years ago.
 
Fraggle Rocker said:
Fleas are wingless insects that locomote by leaping, like grasshoppers. They are true parasites that subsist by sucking blood.

Lice are smaller wingless insects that don't move around as much as fleas. Some species are parasitic, sucking blood or eating living skin. Others are symbiotic scavengers, eating dead tissue and keeping their hosts clean.....
Click to expand...

so why don't people get fleas? I know people who's dogs have fleas, so why don't they?
 
i already answered that, patchy fur

The chemicals we use to wash ourselves probably dont help either, fleas CAN live in clothing though, and carpet, couches ect and they will still bite us. They just dont LIVE on us
 
I've seen Chihuahuas with less hair than this guy. Now fleas might not live all over a person the way they do an animal, but why not the scalp? Considering the medicine we put on our cat, I think its takes more than shampoo to get rid of them.

th_HairyMan.jpg
 
fleas only live in very specific places on the animals body, behind the ears, under the arm pits ect where its warm. Now though we do have "fur" there its compleatly different from that found on an animal like a cat or a dog. Theres is quite short and thick where as ours is all spread out, yes even on that guy.

i honestly dont know if fleas can live on someone with wearwolf syndrome, its not common enough to really find the answer to

Lastly the shampoo's, conditioners, other products we use are MUCH stronger than what we use on our pets. Thats why even baby shampoo cant be used on animals and the normal stuff is ALOT stronger than that.
 
Also, I suspect dexterity of our fingers and hands, together with the ability to reach almost anywhere on our own bodies (except perhaps a small area between the shoulderblades, varies with the individual), makes being a flea or louse on a human a rather hazardous existence.
 
as i said other animals CAN get lice, birds are famous for it (as are fish but those are a different type of louse
 
you didnt even read the links i posted for you did you?
why complain in the other thread that i dont have the surporting evidence if your not going to read it when surplied?

"They are obligate ectoparasites of every avian and most mammalian orders. They are not found on Monotremes (the platypus and the echidnas or spiny anteaters) and a few eutherian orders, namely the bats (Chiroptera), whales, dolphins and porpoises (Cetacea) and pangolins (Pholidota).
"
 
I think the head lice variety is really a problem now...as the little bloodsuckers are evolving immunity to many of the treatments that are used to kill them. My sister fought a six-month battle with them last year with her kids.
 
MacGyver1968
they are quite easy to treat, tell her is she has a problem with them again to buy a bottle of teatree oil and a shower cap.

Mix the teatree oil with shampoo at 1:1 i think and aplie it to EVERYONES head who lives in the house (parents included). Put the shower cap on and leave it for 15 min

The teatree oil suffercates them so no immunity is possable

Then just go through there hair over a black sheet of cloth or paper with a nit brush, under bright light and pick the nits off inderviduallt
 
Thanks As, I think she's finally won the battle...but it it crops up again, I'll pass that along. I think she was using the common pyrethrin or permethrin (sp?) based shampoos. I think that is what they are getting amune to.

I think her problem was compound by having 5 kids, and not being that good of a house cleaner.
 
Asguard said:
you didnt even read the links i posted for you did you?
why complain in the other thread that i dont have the surporting evidence if your not going to read it when surplied?

"They are obligate ectoparasites of every avian and most mammalian orders. They are not found on Monotremes (the platypus and the echidnas or spiny anteaters) and a few eutherian orders, namely the bats (Chiroptera), whales, dolphins and porpoises (Cetacea) and pangolins (Pholidota).
"
Click to expand...

Because I don't know what THIS is. If they are not on spiny anteaters, are they on porcupines? And what is a pangolin??
 
actually the state of the house doesnt matter for lice, only fleas

I wish you people would read links, fleas live in dirt and get onto animals, lice ONLY live on animals. They cant live in the carpet or the furniture ect.

The only thing that matters in controling a lice outbreak is that everyone is treated together (especially across a whole school)
 
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