Fleas and Ticks

Fleas and ticks often get lumped together as "bugs," although there are some significant differences. This article will focus on how fleas and ticks are different, but it will also focus on some important similarities.

Fleas and ticks have one very important thing in common. You don't want either of them on your skin, in your home, or roaming around your backyard. Both fleas and ticks can carry dangerous and even deadly diseases.

Physical differences between fleas and ticks

Fleas

First of all, fleas are reddish brown insects that are about one-eighth of an inch long. They have six legs, which they often use effectively to jump from one place to another (sometimes as much as a foot).

A flea has a flattened body, which makes it easy for the flea to crawl between the hair shafts of animals (or people). Fleas also have spines on their mouths. legs and backs which can anchor them to a host, even if the host is trying to scratch them away. 

Fleas are blood suckers. Generally speaking, fleas prefer to feed on cats and dogs, but some types will also attack people.

Someone who is sensitive to a flea bite may develop raised bumps within 24 hours.

The black plague (also known as bubonic plague or the black death), which killed twenty-five million people in fourteenth century Europe, was spread by a type of flea known as the oriental rat flea. The bite of the flea caused a bacterial infection that was often fatal. The plague was carried into Europe by black rats which got aboard ships.

Thanks to improved living conditions, sanitation, flea control and antibiotics, human infections are now uncommon, although occasional plague cases still occur.

Ticks

Fleas are insects. Ticks are not. They're arachnids, with eight legs instead of six, which means ticks more closely related to spiders than fleas.

Ticks are generally more rounded than fleas, and they do not jump (although many people think they do). You're more likely to have a tick fall on you from vegetation above, or attach itself to you as you brush past it in the woods.

Like fleas, ticks are blood suckers. They feed on mammals, birds, and occasionally even reptiles by biting into their skin. Ticks will also feed on people.

The mouth of a tick has a structure that looks like a harpoon. In fact, the tick uses this structure, called a hypostome, like a harpoon, to dig into the skin of its host. The hypostome has barbs which anchor in the skin, making ticks difficult to remove.

Tick bites may resemble mosquito bites. But a tick bite can also look like bruise or a bulls eye.

Ticks are also like fleas in the sense that they can spread disease. Ticks carry several diseases, but the two most common are Lyme disease and Rocky Mountain spotted fever. Both of these diseases are extremely dangerous to humans. Mosquitoes are the only "bugs" which transmit more diseases to humans than ticks.

Click on tick pictures to see examples of the physical differences between fleas and ticks. 

Related websites: Insect Bites and Stings.