Northern Wisconsin advertiser. [volume] (Wabeno, Wis.) 1898-1925, 1902-06-26

Astonishing Feats of Strength of the
Pirate of the Insect World.

fifdtC u tiS tHSS$t W.T.
The flea possesses all the tiratical
instincts-thirst for blood, rs'pacity,
cruelty He is, further, as ina enious
in devising tortures as he is uintiring
in the torment of his victims.
The flea is built upon lineI that
make him forever hungry Butt his
continuous performance Appetite is far
from being the oldest thing Sabout
him. Proportionately to size, The is
the Sampson of the universe. \If an
elephant had the same relative
strength, he could come near follower
setting steel-frame sky-scrapery
A flea, wingless. with body }out of
all proportion to his head, and an over
less than the sixteenth of anfinch in
length, viii leap upon plan@ surface
more than a yard. This, tSo. when
he has been Matched in hair, br straw
or sand, and never known |what IL
was, to have a fun meal. More mar
velous still, he will spring p4rpendicu-
larry upward from one to Two feet.
Fancy man or a boy standing fat
footed and all of a sudden ieaping
over church spire!
Wonderful things have been done
With ileas They have been lput 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 a coachman on the box, postil.
lion and outriders, yet all so tidy i'll
was dragged by pair of fieas, work
ing in gold collars. They worked TN
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 fleas are bigger than the dog heas,
so should be always victors. But
here, as elsewhere, condition tells. I'll
the cat fleas 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 pair of prize-ring orna-
ments. As they have six legs, they
have plenty to stand on and still spare
a couple with which to belabor each
other Upon neutral ground, as floor
or walk, the cat and dog fieas keep
the peace. But let one invade litter
or a coat sacred to the other and there
is straightway fight to finish.
Something even more curious than
this Unborn antipathy is that dog fieas
will not live upon a cat nor cat fleas
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 feas breed
SO largely in hair sand, straw and
litter where other food is lacking
and after 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 whole brood of sand
fieas.
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 fleas
and bedbugs could thus carry tuber-
cular infection. Further, rats and
rat fleas are greatly dreaded as help
ing to spread the fearful bubonic
plague.