Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1902-06-26
LITTLE, BUT MIGHTY.
Astonishing Feats of Strength Of the
Pirate of the Insect World.

The flea possesses all the piratical
instincts-thirst for blood, rapacity,
cruelty. He is, further, as ingenious
in devising tortures as he is untiring
in the torment of his victims.
The flea is built upon lines that
make him forever hungry. But his
continuous performance appetite is far
from being the oldest thing about
him. Proportionately to size, he is
the Sampson of the universe. If an
elephant had the same relative
strength, he could come near to over
setting a steel-frame sky-scraper.
A flea, wingless, with a body out Of
all proportion to his head, and all over
less than the sixteenth of an inch in
length, will leap upon a plane surface
more than a yard. This, too, when
he has been Matched in hair, or straw
or sand, and never known what it
was, to have a full meal. More mar
velous still, he will spring perpendicu-
larly upward from one to two feet.
Fancy a man Or boy standing fiat
footed and all of sudden leaping
over q church spire!
Wonderful things have been done
with feas They have been put into
gold collars and set to drag about
lengths OF gold chain at least one hun
dred times their own weight. Further,
an ingenious goldsmith back in the
leisurely seventeenth century made a
coach and four in ivory and gold,
with coachman on the box, pOstil-
lion and outriders, yet all so tidy it
was dragged by pair of f1eas, work
ing in gold collars. They worked I'M
der bell glass and were exhibited in
London and Paris.
To fight like cats and dogs is the
synonym of continuing strife, but
even cats and dogs do not fight as bit
terly as fieas. Oddly enough, the
cat fieas are bigger than the dog fleas,
so should be always victors. But
here, as elsewhere, condition tells. If
the cat f1eas are lazy and luxurious
fat they can never grow-the small,
lean dog flea kills them out.
The combatants stand UP to fight
quite like a pair of prize-ring orna-
ments. AS they have six legs, they
have plenty to stand on and still spare
couple with which to belabor each
other. Upon neutral ground, as a floor
or walk, the cat and dog fleas keep
the peace. But let one invade litter
or coat sacred to the other and there
is straightway fight to a finish.
Something even more curious than
this Unborn antipathy is that dog f1eas
will not live upon a cat nor cat fieas
upon a dog.
Fleas lay eggs after the insect man
ner which hatch out tiny wrigglers
very nearly invisible to the naked eye,
yet capable Of feeding on moisture
and microbes-at least one judges
that to be the diet, since fieas breed
so largely in hair, sand, straw and
| litter where other food is lacking
and after a while spinning themselves
| cocoon.
The cocoons are no bigger than
tiny grains of sand, but under the mi
crOscope show semi-translucent ovals
beautifully banded together with pink
and pearl. They are formed upon top
OF the matriX, whatever it may be
where the sun or the light can strike
them fair. Rain just at the Matching
time often kills a whole brood of sand
fleas.
A fea's beak is sharp and hard
something like a birds, only more
pointed. The flea bite is not poison
Gus. save and except in rare cases
where a flea has previously been bit
ing infected tissue. Certain French
scientists have shown that both fieas
and bedbugs could thus carry tuber
cular infection. Further, rats anC
rat fleas are greatly dreaded as help
ing to spread the fearful buboni
plague.