The annoying problem with these insects is definitely their bites which can be pretty irritating and cause certain problems for humans.
As it can be easily guessed from the name of the creatures, the fleas are found exactly in sand. That is you can often meet them in deserts and of course on the beaches – these places are their home. You’ll have no troubles detecting if this or that beach spot is infected with the fleas: if you come back home having numerous small welts all over your skin, then you’ve suffered the bites of the fleas.
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Sand Fleas Pictures: Looks and Peculiarities of the Insects
You might get really surprised to know how many various names this flea-like tiny creature features. That is more, the flea is not an insect in fact as we used to consider it. The correct name for it is a crustacean but most often you’ll hear people calling it a punky, beach flea or even a sand fly.
Talking about its physical characteristics, we can describe it as a tiny hopping creature featuring about 3 mm in size. Due to this people fail even to notice it in the sand or the pebbles, but the irritating results of their bites will take no time to appear on your skin.
Sea flea looks so.
Sand Fleas Bites: How They Look on Your Skin
Mainly the bites of these crustacean form clusters on the victims’ skin. The reddish spots of the bites are as a rule surrounded by haloes that are reddened as well. Unfortunately they not only look unattractive, but also present a great annoyance as the bites are very itchy and provide an extreme discomfort.
As it had been already mentioned above, the location of the bites is primarily human’s feet and lower part of the legs. But the fleas can bite animals as well and in this case the whole body of your pet might get infested. Keep in mind, that the fleas may be carried by many types of other wildlife species, thus you can find them not only on the beach. And if you have some animal stuffed with the pesky creatures around your place, it might happen that the fleas migrate to you or your domestic animals.
For humans the bites might cause allergic reactions of various intensity as well as other unpleasant results: major skin irritation and ingrown hairs.
For pets the results might be even worse: the saliva that the fleas give out when they bite causes FAD reactions, dangerous for health and even life of your pet, and increased scratching may lead to general hair loss and further infection due to bacteria getting inside. In the most severe occasions, your pet’s skin might get thinner in time and develop bad sores.
Despite the minuscule sizes of the fleas, their bites are pretty painful both for humans and animals. In majority of cases the pain from the bite is more intense than the one from a typical mosquito bites. The rash that you get after the bite may persist on the skin in the course of several days causing great discomfort. You can even have a fever as a result of the biting.
It stings a sea of fleas.
What is worse, the bites of the crustacean have been proven to carry various kinds of serious diseases: dangerous viruses and all kinds of parasites causing grave conditions.
Effective Treatment
All prevention and treatment procedures when it comes to the bites of the beach fleas fully coincide with those implied with mosquitoes. As a rule home aid is quite enough for treating the problem, but if some serious reaction have developed or you observe any signs of Leishmaniasis, than professional medical aid must be considered.
The major thing that you need to bear in mind is that the bites should be scratched as it only makes your condition worse and will most probably lead to secondary infections.
Calamine lotion is a perfect option for reducing somewhat the itching.
Some home remedies can be also highly effective. For example baking soda solution makes wonders with itching conditions. Certain oils as well as aloe Vera are also widely and effectively applied for providing relief when it comes to itching after the bites.
How to Catch Sand Fleas: Proved and Effective Methods
Of course there’s no use to catch the tiny boogers on the beach that is their home in fact and there are millions of them dwelling in the sand. But what can you do if the fleas got into your premises and make your life uncomfortable?
If you do need this you can opt for one of several commercial types of traps designed especially for trapping the sand fleas. They are available online and also you can find them sometimes in hardware stores. They work either electrically or by light and heat. you can just plug them in and they’ll capture fleas in your home.
You can also use sticky fly tape and reverse tape to catch the unwanted guests. Remember that fleas are attracted to heat and light, so use some source of it next to the tapes to welcome the insects. Leave it like this overnight in the infested areas and already next morning you/ll see how many tiny little black spots were caught with the help of the traps.
This is a type of crab Emirita that digs in the sand. They are not fleas . It is unfortunate that these pictures and video are posted with an article about “minuscule” fleas. These are not the biters you are looking for.
The animals you have in your hand in the first picture are not sand fleas. They are actually harmless, I used to catch them all the time as a kid at the beach. They like to live in the sand right just where the waves start to come back into the ocean. The dig into the sand and wait for the thin layer of water to cover the sand. They then stick their little antenna-like extremities to feed as the water recedes back into the ocean. Once the water is gone, they hide their antennas back into the sand and you will never see them.
You should seriously make an effort to do better research before posting an article like this one.
No talk of them being parasite laying eggs in skin?
If you’re at the beach and have been bitten by small creatures, chances are the culprits are a) biting flies, usually a problem in early fall, b) the fleas on your pet, c) bedbugs from your accommodations, or d) free-floating nematocysts from jellyfish in the water (if you were swimming). Mole crabs, the arthropods pictured here, are utterly harmless filter-feeders. Actual sand fleas, Platorchestia platensis, are very small amphipods that eat washed-up seaweed and other detritus. They don’t bite humans. As pointed out in the other comments, this article is crap that made a little money for some ignoramus who cannot even use proper English.
sand fleas: Tunga penetrans, as the pictures dont fit. correcting would be good!
This article is full of misinformation about the type of sand fleas pictured.