Today’s Wild Fact is going to look at an animal that received a little bit of negative media attention a few years ago. We will talk about why the tabloids were bashing the poor little Oriental Rat Flea (also known as the Tropical Rat Flea) shortly but first let’s find out where we need to travel to today in order to study this insect. Well, you probably won’t have to travel too far since the Oriental Rat Flea can be found worldwide, but usually hangs out in the warmer tropical and sub-tropical climates. And really, can you blame them? I have done winters in Northern Canada and I think these insects have the right idea.
Okay, so why is the Oriental Rat Flea so famous and what did they do to receive some bad press? It is time to go waaaay back in your memory banks and think about what was happening to Europe in the mid 1300’s. Granted, my dad is probably the only one reading this blog that was alive back then but that is besides the point (just kidding, dad…. I know you were born in the 1400’s). Have you figured it out yet? Of course you have, I am talking about a little pandemic known as the Bubonic Plague, also known as The Black Death, which sounds much more ominous so we will go with that one. Yep, the Oriental Rat Flea was one of the main vectors that transmitted the plague from those scurrying sewer rats to humans (wait a minute, I don’t think they had sewers back then but they should have to help prevent things like, I don’t know… The Black Death!). As you can imagine, the Oriental Rat Flea had a tough time making friends during that time.
But we haven’t experienced any major plagues lately, so maybe now is a good time to befriend this little critter. Let’s learn a little more about this Flea before we decide to accept them on Facebook. The Oriental Rat Flea is about 2.5 mm long and is designed for jumping long distances. These little long jumpers can leap an amazing 200 times their body size, which is somewhere around 50 cm (20″) AND they are capable of jumping 130 times their height, so about 33 cm (13″). If you sit down and think about it, this is crazy! That tiny flea can almost jump 2 feet – I can’t even jump two feet!
So we all know the Oriental Rat Flea was responsible for transmitting the Plague but how did they do it? Well, their mouth parts are designed for doing two things. First, they will spit some saliva or digested food particles into the wound and then they begin to suck up some scrumptious blood (scrumptious for the flea…not for me, that is gross). Now do you see how they were able to spread this deadly disease? I mean, do they really have to spit on you?
So that does it for our little trip into the history books. I don’t know about anyone else, but I feel a little itchy after today’s Wild Fact. I hope I don’t catch The Black Death. See you tomorrow…..maybe!
