Talk:Flea

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Article Grading: The following comments were left by the quality and importance raters: (edit · refresh) Since the main thrust of Wikipedia is neutrality and accuracy, I respectfully request that evidence for the evolution of a flea be presented before language can be used that presents flea evolution as fact. To my knowledge (and I do want to learn) no one has gathered any definitive proof that a flea has ever "evolved" in the truest since of the word. Wereyouthere 21:11, 4 January 2007 (UTC)

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	To-do list for Flea:	edit  · history  · watch  · refresh
Here are some tasks you can do: Expand: Physical description and behavior; Life cycle

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B	This article has been rated as B-Class on the Project's quality scale.
Article Grading: The following comments were left by the quality and importance raters: (edit comments - comment history - watch comments · refresh this page) Since the main thrust of Wikipedia is neutrality and accuracy, I respectfully request that evidence for the evolution of a flea be presented before language can be used that presents flea evolution as fact. To my knowledge (and I do want to learn) no one has gathered any definitive proof that a flea has ever "evolved" in the truest since of the word. Wereyouthere 21:11, 4 January 2007 (UTC)

Contents 1 External Link 2 arachnids? 3 High jump - How high do fleas jump? 4 Bites from the Berkeley 5 How large and heavy are fleas? 6 Flea infestations sans animal 7 flea question 8 Duplicate page 9 Request for expansion 10 Start rating 11 Hard body 12 Lack of fleas 13 Methoprene and cats

[edit] External Link

I've gots me a page about how to get rid of fleas here that might be of some interest to readers. I would even be willing to do a little pest management section focusing on organic and biological remedies, for instance nematodes. Should I include the site in external links or go ahead and drop it in a flea control section? Some other topics concerning common pests look to have sections entitled "(topic) and humans." Might I start a section like that?

I'll drop the link in external for now and get to work on flea control. --[[User:Samoya|Samoya]] 18:36, 7 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] arachnids?

aren't fleas arachnids?

Why does sand flea redirect to this page? Aren't sand fleas the superball sized crab-like critters that dig in the sand on the beach?

You are right; that was a bone-headed redirect. Fixed. -- tooki 03:14, 21 July 2005 (UTC)

[edit] High jump - How high do fleas jump?

About hundred times of their lenght if that helps.

Considering a flea's jumping acceleration is 10X that of that space shuttle it might be worth having a section discussing flea's jumping powers in this article.

[edit] Bites from the Berkeley

"Bites from the Berkeley can be ..."?

rocks in the rhcp

[edit] How large and heavy are fleas?

The article does not give any indication about the size of fleas, except that you can guess from the text they are probably significantly smaller than mice. But how large are mice? That article does not tell either. Basically the reader can read the article and walk away with the idea that a flea might be as large as a Hercules beetle. (Aargh — Attack of the Killer Fleas.) Shouldn't the article give the reader some kind of idea (verifiable — no OR; don't start measuring your fleas now)?

The article Planck mass suggests (without source) that fleas could weigh (roughly) as little as 22 µg. Is that plausible?

Lambiam^Talk 21:12, 18 March 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Flea infestations sans animal

The article doesn't say what to do about a flea infestation once there is no more animal (e.g., new tenants in an apartment that perviously had a flea-infested cat). The Cat Flea link says that fleas cannot be sustained on human blood, but does that mean that without a cat to feed on, the fleas will die? How soon? When will the infestation have killed itself out if the cat fleas only have humans to feed on?

Brigittefires 17:36, 15 August 2006 (UTC)brigittefires

This article says to use the vet prescribe products over over the counter products, but my experience differs. I used can after can of the vet product and those things were juming around everywhere. I got a can of black flag, and they were gone.

[edit] flea question

What part of the world did fleas originate historically? How about lice? Were they introduced by the old world into the new world? What does science tell us about fleas archeologically? Might you think it worth adding to the description about FLEAS?

[edit] Duplicate page

The text in the section now labelled Fleas dates back (mostly) to the original version of this page in 2002, so I think this is not a case of copyvio, but just for general reference, the info at http://www.fleasmart.com/life.htm is nearly identical; clearly one copied from the other. (Of course, if they copied it from WP, as I currently suspect, there's nothing wrong with it any way you look at it.) Just thought I'd make a note of it here. /blahedo (t) 07:38, 27 September 2006 (UTC)

Ok, the Wayback Machine is back up today, and in fact page at fleasmart.com predates this page completely (and by several years at that).[1] I'm removing the offending material. /blahedo (t) 05:51, 28 September 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Request for expansion

It seems to me like this page could use way more information than is currently presented. Areas such as treatment to get rid of fleas. Descriptions of the differnt kinds of medicines/treatments, and their effectivness. More information about habitats and common areas fleas can be found, etc, etc. Cavell 17:43, 4 November 2006 (UTC) Re-added Stub tag. Much is missing. I will try to add to this section when I find some timeCavell 04:54, 9 November 2006 (UTC)

I think in this case, {{expand}} is more appropriate. Not every article with some information missing is a stub. Indeed, almost all articles are missing something. --Stemonitis 09:24, 9 November 2006 (UTC)

I removed the expand tag, it was gnarling the layout. According to WP:RFE, expand tags should only be used for a specific request, not just "this needs to be bigger." Oasisbob 04:47, 13 December 2006 (UTC)

• I don't believe you interpreted that correctly. WP:RFE says "Articles to list here:

Stubs - Articles that are very short. These should be tagged with {{stub}}, or a topic-specific stub tag.

• Longer articles that still need expansion. Be sure to tag these {{expand}} when you nominate them."

Sounds to me like an expansion tag is perfect. I feel this page is lacking. More info is always better. Cavell 18:35, 13 December 2006 (UTC)

More info is always better, but just about every article in wikipedia could qualify for {{expand}}. For this reason, use of the tag is controversial. Last time the expand tag was added, the WP:RFE process wasn't followed, to quote: "Almost every article in Wikipedia could do with some expansion. This page is for listing those for which there is a specific request." I don't think this means, "use the expand tag for everything, only list those with specific requests here"; rather, "Everything on wikipedia could be expanded, use the expand tag for those things for which there is a specific request." WP:RFE is the instructions page for the expand tag. I may be misinterpreting something, but I believe the intention of the expand tag is that pages marked expand should be listed on the RFE page with a specific request, or at the very least on the talk page.

Template_talk:Expand says:

Instructions to add template: 1. Add the template {{expand}} to the article or its discussion page. (Consensus is not yet reached on which is preferred. See discussion here and Wikipedia:Template locations.) 2. Add description of what is lacking in the article on the article's discussion page.

I think the exact purpose and future of the expand tag is unclear in the community, but to me the expand tag is useless unless its specific. This is a wiki, expansion is expected. Oasisbob 21:07, 13 December 2006 (UTC)

The ideas that Cavell mention at the beginning of this section is a specific request. If this talk page is not tagged, many people who might be interested in this topic would miss this request. WP:PNA, for example, creates automated lists of articles that have expansion requests pending. -- Beland 10:09, 26 December 2006 (UTC)

I've rearranged the pictures, reorganized the categories, added some material on evolution and morphology and added some citations to the article. Hopefully that takes care of some of the major concerns raised, however we still need more material (behavior, habitat, and most especially a life cycle section). I've also added a to-do list at the top of this page so we can monitor progress and anyone can added requests to the list. Any further requests for expansion of specific areas are appreciated. I hope to at least contribute to a decent life cycle section and get the article up to a B-class rating. Richard001 06:49, 27 December 2006 (UTC)

Finished the life cycle section this evening, I'll now take down the expansion notice. Richard001 09:20, 29 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Start rating

I've rated the article as start class becuase it has little information, but not so little for a stub rating. Also, the pictures look out of place & there are little or no refs. Expand the article as it is a needed one... Spawn Man 07:53, 13 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Hard body

The tough nature of the flea's body is quite notable - an evolutionary adaptation presumably developed over the millenia to avoid being killed by the host organisms response to attack the offending flea. I have no books available for a citation, though I'm sure if anyone can lay their hands on a detailed description of fleas it will mention this at some point. This information would also make an interesting addition to the itch article - scratching (or flicking the tail, pecking etc) being a behavioral adaptation to an itch, then the fleas body in turn becoming adapted to survive this defensive mechanism. Richard001 05:23, 24 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Lack of fleas

Since I moved to the high desert (Boulevard, CA, and Sparks, NV) I haven't had any flea problem on my cats, I haven't seen a flea on my pets for almost 20 years. What's up with that? In El Cajon, CA my pets and me had a constant fight against them. Might be worth a mention in the article somewhere about where fleas can't survive and what conditions they need to live. Thanks Kidshare 21:32, 13 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Methoprene and cats

I am editing the statement about methoprene and phenothrin containing products being pulled by the EPA for the following reason: The statement, while true, is misleading. It can lead readers to believe that methoprene is dangerous to cats. It is not, the phenothrin was the cause of the adverse reactions. The fact that the product contained methoprene is purely incidental. Please read http://www.epa.gov/pesticides/factsheets/flea-tick-drops.htm carefully. Observer31 09:20, 14 January 2007 (UTC)