Fleas

Thirty plus years ago most of our iowa fox and coyote had fleas.
The Wyoming ones had 4-5x the fleas that our iowa ones did.
Then about 10-15 years ago it seemed fewer coyote had fleas here.
Last 4-6 years I remember getting 12-20 or so before I saw a flea.
This year one of the 29 I skinned had a flea.
Just thought it was odd how rare it is to see one now.
Wonder what the reason is

Interesting

I was just telling Flint hill fur the other day our coyotes are loaded. By loaded I mean I see 100 when skinning one and spend the night feeling like a have them. I’ve never seen them like this before. It’s been a warm winter here so maybe that’s it. But dang!!!

Them little desert foxes in Arizona were the worst I have ever came across.

T20 describe the appearance of those nasty little fellows ?

size-shape-colour-er sorry color

Fleas are insects, correct.? Maybe certain combos of ag chemicals are putting the hurt to the fleas? Maybe your yotes are just getting cleaner by themselves, you know, more personal hygiene and grooming. I didn't know you had a growing pop of metrosexual coyotes over there in northern Iowa...

Wish I could say the same about ticks.

I wish I could skin that many coyotes without fleas. I bout get covered in them just carrying the dang things from the set to the truck.

I suspect the insecticides used to treat corn and soybeans have a lot to do with the lower number of fleas on furbearers nowadays.

Keith

i spray all fox and coyote's, asap, with bug spray , before they go in back of truck

Foxes here seen to have more leas than the coyotes. Almost every fox. Coyotes maybe one in ten do I see a flea. But I keep spray handy.

I have to agree with the members that suggest insecticides are the culprit. During July and August there tons of insecticides applied to our corn and soybean fields. I cannot remember when the last time I had a mosquito bite me. I only saw one cricket last fall and he was dead. I never saw any Japanese beetles or lady bugs this fall. I used to have bees hanging around my garden and flowers, no more. We used to have flys hanging around the doors and windows in the fall trying to get inside, no more. I haven’t a tick on me for I don’t know how long.

I have contended some of the loss of our baby pheasants is due to the application of chemicals. They need small bugs to eat to survive. I also suspect the lack of birds at my bird feeders has something to do with the spraying of crops.

No doubt pesticides and herbicides have a trickle down effect to all those that have exposure and consume the food stuffs and insects that have been exposed to it. These high spectrum chemicals are very systemic materials that have far reaching effects.

They must have all moved to Kansas. Fleas all over Coyotes, fox and beaver this year.

I never thought of that

It could be why I guess, other area are loaded with them

I second that I see less flies than I used to, but for the wife, even a few flies are too many.

I still think there can be plenty of say pollinators out there, at least in some areas. A couple of seasons ago, in my backyard garden, I had a stand of fancy sunflowers next to a patch of squash. There were different bees all over their blooms. There were what appeared to be honey bees on the squash blooms and a more native dark bee on the sunflowers. Bumble bees sort of went back and forth between the 2 types of flowers. On a good day, there were dozens and dozens of bees on the flowers in this fairly small space. Big typical crop field less than half a mile from me. But that's just anecdotal evidence...

Beaver too, interesting.

Fleas are parasites so tend to fluctuate with the density of host populations. We have a red fox explosion around here and they have lots of fleas. Coyote abundance is down and so is the rate of infestation.

Glad to have flea's , makes me skin'um fast.
Besides if stuff didn't have flea's it wouldn't be right.
Right

Before our coyote population dropped I got 12 coyote before seeing a flea, I got twice as many coyote then.
I bet you are right low host numbers lower flea population

I find more fleas on beaver than any other critter. crazy I know but it happens.

Probably a lot of this. When shooting in the west it’s always foxes that have the most fleas. Considering their fur valu versus the hassle I haven’t shot one out there since I can’t remember.
Coming across Dakota just a while back they were picking corn, I was amazed how clean the rows were between the stubble. No wonder pheasants and even bugs don’t find enough to live on especially thru winter. This being considered BucksnBears is an an area of agriculture and they have the same clean field environment but every mile corner has bee boxes it seems and I hear they do pretty well?

Osky

Could it be something as simple as high moisture from the last several years? Fleas prefer dry areas.

I don’t think they are fleas.

A few references about the Beaver Beetle>

https://www.bugaddiction.com/apps/blog/show/4370264-beaver-beetles

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beaver_beetle

https://www.mammadaba.lv/en/news/2647-beaver-flea-that-is-not-a-flea

35 miles north of you T20 skinned a few more than that this year with no fleas but had one with lice that wasn’t worth skinning

Lice are nasty, I had mange and mites on some of mine, threw 6 away.
Usually about ten percent are no good, this year more than 10%