Katrina, The resolution of the images leaves a bit to the imagination. From what I can see, these share certain similarities with squirrel fleas. Fleas frequently stray to feed upon diverse kinds of animals. You might look for squirrel scat on the floor or high up on rafters or elsewhere above.
-Rich Richard J. Pollack, PhD Senior Environmental Public Health Officer Environmental Health and Safety (EH&S) | Harvard Campus Services 46 Blackstone Street., Cambridge, MA 02139 C: 617-447-0763 www.ehs.harvard.edu President & Chief Scientific Officer IdentifyUS LLC Identify.us.com [A blue and black logo Description automatically generated]<https://www.linkedin.com/in/richard-pollack-6818997/> From: pestlist@googlegroups.com <pestlist@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Katrina Dring <km...@cam.ac.uk> Date: Tuesday, April 30, 2024 at 10:16 AM To: pestlist@googlegroups.com <pestlist@googlegroups.com> Subject: [PestList] Possible fleas? Hi everyone, We had an interesting find when we collected pest traps yesterday – possible fleas! These were found on two traps (one had a single one and the other a group of three). The traps were in two different areas of the store – one behind a door which is in constant use and where no collections are and the other partway down an aisle where archaeology collections are stored in boxes. We’re most of the way through a store move so collections are constantly shifting, the general environment is busy (but hopefully animal free!) and cleaned on a regular basis. The pest traps were placed on 25th January 2024 and collected 29th April 2024. I didn’t think to add a scale, sorry, but the pest trap sticky pad is 57x57mm. Two of the photos include a black sharpie lid which gives some idea of scale – the insects themselves are around 2mm. I’d love to confirm whether these are fleas or something else? My understanding is that fleas require a live host – we’ve had mice in the past but thought we had been rodent free for a while. We have also occasionally had birds find their way into the store in the past, but again not recently that we know of. Can someone offer another possibility?! Is this a collection concern? Or more of a human one? Thanks in advance, Katrina Katrina Dring (she/her) Collections Assistant (Stores Move) University of Cambridge Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology Search our online collection<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__collections.maa.cam.ac.uk_&d=DwMFaQ&c=WO-RGvefibhHBZq3fL85hQ&r=GO7C3XN3WgFy2IP-bFBbnUs_CYntqj57Dprtl40-_KE&m=dgtyKIUZT6UE0Yy-W19CzCzroYnO5nOOHRYivKBQXEhlJO1mLFUP8hREB5IJYKSk&s=bh1Cdys0ROyUnXEc01OGHe8g4NhL3ioNaTtqF_Pz63E&e=>, or find out more about the museum<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__maa.cam.ac.uk_&d=DwMFaQ&c=WO-RGvefibhHBZq3fL85hQ&r=GO7C3XN3WgFy2IP-bFBbnUs_CYntqj57Dprtl40-_KE&m=dgtyKIUZT6UE0Yy-W19CzCzroYnO5nOOHRYivKBQXEhlJO1mLFUP8hREB5IJYKSk&s=ERE3GHPi9EuHLbJW9TvKb7d8Yo4xp0eb5yt2_W6gopM&e=>. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "MuseumPests" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to pestlist+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com<mailto:pestlist+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com>. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/pestlist/LO2P265MB26547A8DC34D28B350176658ED1A2%40LO2P265MB2654.GBRP265.PROD.OUTLOOK.COM<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__groups.google.com_d_msgid_pestlist_LO2P265MB26547A8DC34D28B350176658ED1A2-2540LO2P265MB2654.GBRP265.PROD.OUTLOOK.COM-3Futm-5Fmedium-3Demail-26utm-5Fsource-3Dfooter&d=DwMFaQ&c=WO-RGvefibhHBZq3fL85hQ&r=GO7C3XN3WgFy2IP-bFBbnUs_CYntqj57Dprtl40-_KE&m=dgtyKIUZT6UE0Yy-W19CzCzroYnO5nOOHRYivKBQXEhlJO1mLFUP8hREB5IJYKSk&s=_B6CGtr2ywEfSbnZlYl0fExKWVUCLHOt1WSil5QJCiY&e=>. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "MuseumPests" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to pestlist+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/pestlist/MN2PR07MB7839F6FBFA014BB3E32F0C91941A2%40MN2PR07MB7839.namprd07.prod.outlook.com.
