Each mushroom picker, going to the forest, understands that not only mushrooms or berries, but also blood-sucking insects await him there. If a person can be protected from mosquitoes with special sprays and gels, it is unlikely to be protected from tick bites or deer bloodsuckers.
Who are elk fleas?
These blood-sucking insects have many names, but elk, or deer, they are called because these animals became the main breadwinners of fleas. However, often fleas can attack smaller forest inhabitants, such as foxes, badgers, and wild boars. They were found in the fur of bears and even on birds. Naturally, having come to the forest, a person can also be attacked by such insects as deer bloodsucker, whose bite is rather unpleasant.
The habitat of the insect is extensive: it is found in North America and in Scandinavia, in the European part of Russia, in Siberia and even in northern China.
More often than other regions in Russia, moose fleas are found in the Pskov, Novgorod, Kaluga, Leningrad, Tver, Yaroslavl and Vladimirov regions. The number of insects directly depends on the number of moose and deer in the area.
Moose fleas - photo
This insect does not look like a fly, except it has wings. A bloodsucker deer is distinguished by this feature: after it falls on the body of a new victim, sheds its wings and firmly adheres to the victim's hairs. Now the insect becomes like a tick, although it is not its relative.
Elk fleas have a flattened body, and the size of the insect is from 3 to 3.5 mm. There are two large eyes on the flat head, covering ¼ of the entire surface of the head. But besides these large eyes, the insect still has three simple eyes. A solid short proboscis is considered to be the mouth of insects. The legs of the bloodsucker are strong, with tenacious claws, thanks to which they cling tightly to the victim. The wings are transparent, reaching 6 cm in length, which is 2 times the length of the body itself. However, moose fleas fly very poorly and only for short distances.
For a bloodsucker to fly, a good reason is required. Such a reason is the smell and warmth of an approaching moose or deer. Insects hunt only during the day, when it is light. Clinging tightly to the victim, the pseudo-fly, without regret, throws off its wings in order to burrow deeply into the victim’s coat without hindrance.
