Tag Archives: fleas
Bug bombs away
For many of us, the ultimate solution for cockroaches and bed bugs and other household pests is the “bug bomb.” Remember the old Raid commercials, where bugs flee from Mr. Raid, only to be followed home by the ominous cloud of death? The implication is that the cloud from a bug bomb is like a heat seeking missile, able to follow pests into their deepest safe houses. So how well do bug bombs really work? It turns out, not nearly as well as the animated ads suggest. Give… Read More →
Its the flea’s knees…or not
In this NPR Science Friday video, scientists Greg Sutton and Malcolm Burrows, of the University of Cambridge, filmed fleas jumping. They then sorted through different theories of how they jumped and concluded that fleas use their feet and not knees to push off the ground and jump on your cat or your dog. The high speed photography is amazing and I especially liked the slo-mo- photography of a flea’s jump compared to the blink of a human eye. An adult flea can jump approximately 13 inches, a little… Read More →