The Good Old DOG FLEA
Dog Flea Control In History

Below, find the adventures of Zoe G. Williams and a person who is evidently her maid by the name of Cleopatra. Williams repeats for us her tale, and for Cleopatra's part, using the Negro dialect, which was popular at the time. Zoe evidently respected Cleopatra to the to the max. Keep in mind, by the way, that we're talking the most liberal (and possibly most dog flea infested) city in the world, San Francisco.

San Francisco also just happens to be a top dog flea capital to this day. Probably has something to do with the weather. Anyway, the tale below is as entertaining as it is telling. Note that the title gives the dog flea cure away. It's called coal oil, known today as kerosene.

Again, we don't recommend this unless you are truly desperate, and don't own whatever place you are treating. Coal oil is commonly used these days to power jet planes and moon rockets. If it can send a jet plane to the moon, it can surely burn your house down. Zoe, obviously, didn't know about moon rockets...

Several Species of Fleas and the Coal Oil Cure
Zoe G. Williams
The San Francisco Sunday Call
October 27, 1927

Do cat and dog fleas feed promiscuously? Ask the owner of a Maltese or Angora cat and you will learn that they do not; that each parasite restricts its diet to the animal it was created to prey upon, and that high bred cats never have any. The owner of a Boston terrier will tell you that short haired dogs are naturally flea less, and only occasionally carry one, received, probably, as a souvenir from some friend. The owner of a setter will say that fleas are everywhere and that the dog only shares the common fate in having them. But he will add that a dog flea,- or pulex canis of the dictionary, never leaves a nice, warm, woolly dog for a human it is too wise for that; 'the flea that worries the gesui homo is the pulex irritans or human flea lnhuman as its disposition is. Once, a little Billy and his sister Sue, wishing to engage in the chicken business, began by cleaning out an old abandoned chicken house. After working for an hour the children sought their mother in such distress that it took a bath and a fresh of clothes to quiet them. The garments they had worn were left out in the yard so that the fleas could go home again.

It is easy to become interested in this species, though only the proletarian of fleas, because of its responsiveness, breadth of mind and desire to travel and improve itself. Some people reason, if this insignificant variety, can show such catholicity of taste, a cat or dog flea, sunning itself on the sidewalk, might look at the approach of a pair of well filled open work stockings much as an American gazes into a French restaurant window and says to himself "No pork and beans and pie for me today. I'm in for a many course French dinner with wine."

In a pamphlet on household insects, Issued by. the entomological division of the United States department " of , agriculture, a paper by L. JO. Howard tells that; the cat and dog flea (pulexserraticeps ) has exactly those sentiments at times, also that the cat and dog, are both- bitten by the same flea.. Quoting from a paper by C. 'F. Baker, in. the Canadian Entomologist of August. 1895, Mr. Howard that there are 47 valid species of pulex which attack all sorts of warm blooded animals, but. the\pulexfserraticeps gerv. is the common cat and dog flea, well known over all parts of the world. It not only is found on the cat and dog, but has been reported from various wild cats and dogs, from herpestes ichneumon (Pharaoh's rat), foetorius j putorius (common' polecat of Europe), hyaena strlata (striped hyena) lupus timidus i (common hare) , and procyon lotor (raccoon). It is also said occasionally to sip human blood. It may be told at a glance from the so called human flea by the fact that the latter does riot possess the strong curved spines on the margin of the insect.

The entomologists various countries have, studied this and Mr. Howard gives 4 extracts from papers by Labulbene, Ivs who experimentally hatched and raised some in France. W. J. Simmins, who studied them Calcutta, and others. The notes of all these men regarding the development of the insect, from the egg: are very similar to the deductions which" he made .

Mr. Howard begins by saying, "Examination of many specimens sent to the department in recent years shows that the species which commonly over runs houses during the damp summers in our eastern cities and San Francisco is not the human flea, but the common, cosmopolitan flea of the dog and cat. The eggs of this species are laid in the cat or dog they infest and not being attached, are shed or shaken from the hair of the animal it moves. On some cloth or mat where a dog, or cat has been lying (they are usually found in abundance together.with dust composed of fragments of cuticle, hairs and fibers. As soon as it is hatched the grubs find a lodgings in the carpet, matting or cracks of the floor where they live , and thrive feeding on vegetable| dust during all but the last two stages| of their development. If rooms are undisturbed by : sweeping the fleas increase enormously. For that reason fleas are usually more numerous in city houses, at the end of , the summer, when people have been away and little or no sweeping has been done."

The larvae under the microscope look like caterpillars. The first nine segments bearing four, dorsal bristles and one lateral. The two following each dorsal and one lateral bristle| and.the penultimate segment; eight dorsal . and one ventral, the bristles becoming longer toward the end of the body. They move quickly propelling themselves by means of the bristles and the tubercle - like spines below the head. They feed on dust, air and, as some suppose on particles of dried blood found in flea infested places. The rapidity of: development depends somewhat on' the temperature, dryness, moisture of the surroundings but, the usual time it takes to progress from the egg to the adult flea is two weeks. Within two days the egg hatches, and during the next three or four days the larva casts two skins and begins spinning the cocoon. If disturbed while spinning it seems to make no difference hardy, which goes into the pupa state quite as happy wlth a partial covering, and, at the end of a week, emerges.

The larva is easily destroyed during the first stages of its growth, but on the other hand, it is so small and slender that it readily finds a crack in the floor, a secure nook in matting or carpet where it can rest undisturbed if the broom does not find it . But the adult flea wears an armor that resists most of the flea destroying agents.

These statistics agree with an experiment in flea history, a flea expulsion once made in San Francisco, where the insect was so conspicuously and so undeniably established that people can now hear its name without blushing.

At the time I was living in an old, dilapidated but comfortable house in the Western addition and on returning home from a vacation found that some cats had discovered an un-boarded place in the basement and had made their way to my sewing room. It was a small, many windowed room with matting on the floor, inside blinds, but no curtains or shades and, on sunny days was as hot as a conservatory. During the two months of my absence the dust, cats and fleas had owned the place. When I entered, several large cats scampered away and a mother cat surrounded by kittens looked an indignant protest from the middle of my mending basket. Banishing the cats, I put the room in order and settled down to sew only to realize in a short time that sitting was impossible for something as powerful as the seven plagues ceased me. Horrified I next noticed that a border of black specks had appeared close to the hem of my light woolen dress skirt and was spreading, as in ancient times the Goths and Vandals over spread the map of Europe.

Cleopatra was as good a doctor as she was a nurse, cook and cleaner, and never risked by too hasty a guess her reputation as a diagnostician.

It ain't exactly chicken pox, honey,", she murmured. . "But " she rubbed her glasses and looked again, "Seems to me like you been a-hangin' 'roun' some chicken yard." she insinuated and waited for an explanation.

I took her to the sewing room and laying a piece of white paper on the floor, watched the fleas drop like grains of| pepper on it while I recounted the history of my home coming.

"De cats brung 'em," she declared, "and the cat kind is de biteinest of all. How's you gwine to get shot of dem before dey invades de whole premises? Seems like you'll have to move an' give em de house."

"I can't afford moving, Cleopatra. I spent every cent I had during my vacation."

"Wouldn't. a friend lend you non ?"

"Not enough,"I admitted. "It takes money to move." But calculating. "Well the Johnsons are away now, that gives me Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday."

" I reckon we's got time enough to try chloride of lime. It says on de can 'dat varmints, microbes, rats and germs ,can't none o dem stand up against it"

"How do you apply it" I asked.

"Mix it wid sand an' sweep it into de matting and den out again. Dat 'll fetch em."

"Sand will never do," 'I protested. "'They thrive in sand."

"They'll die in it mighty quick when dat chloridy tetches 'em, and if it don't jes strike 'em" de' power of de smell move em. You'll seem a-settlin on de winder sill a-lookln for a spot in the yard to jump to. Jes like dey sets on de edge of de tub after de dog's had his bath and a-waitin fo him to git dry an' come back along dat way."

We applied chloride of lime, swept it out of the room for the rest of the week without any apparent effect on the fleas. On Saturday I studied the situation, and concluded that the matting had to come up. Thinking a bathing suit the safest costume to work in on account of its being farthest from the floor I put one on and attacked the 'matting. Working with hammer and hands I soon pulled it up and threw it out of the window, and after it every, movable thing in the room.

On Monday, Cleopatra scoured the place with boiling water, strong with soap, soda and chloride of lime, and the room was closed for a few days to test the remedy. It was a failure. My next visit there disclosed the fact that a flea can shut down its thoracic segments and swim through mineralized boiling water as happily and securely as a submarine boat sports in the ocean. I was still weeping when Cleopatra came again.

"Never min' honey," she crooned, I been a-vestlgatin' dis yere worriment, an' dey tells me dat coal oil's de business dat'l settle it. Now I'll scrub dat room again. an' before yo fleas recovered from dare 'stonishment at da : billln water an chloridy, and deys kind o' boozy, we'll pour coal oil along de cracks of da flo,' an' if dat don penertrate clar down to dere legs I'll help you move for nothin an hire de express wagin." .

The treatment was like a miracle. After a few hours, the room was again habitable. Cleopatra turned her attention to the rest of the house sweeping, dusting and afterward going over carpet, woodwork and upholstered furniture with a cloth moistened in a half and half mixture of turpentine and kerosene. The odor made one's nose ache but after a few hours airing of the rooms it was over and the fleas were killed. I was too grateful and happy at the result to inquire if the absence of the Johnsons and the Tuesday and Wednesday people had deferred the use of the kerosene.

Returning to Mr. Howard's report he mentions that as remedies the application: of benzine, pyrethrum is not entirely satisfactory. The placing of some raw meat on fly paper in the middle of a room has been tried but it never deceived even the most gullible flea, but the encasing of the' janitor's legs in sticky, fly paper and making him walk around until all the fleas were caught was tried at Cornell university.
Perhaps worthwhile, he recommend the thorough scrubbing of a place with soap and water and the sprinkling of benzine... but if he had consulted her he would probably have said that Cleopatra's coal oil is the business that settles 'em.