What's a little bigger than the head of a pin and flies through the air? No, it's not Superflea – but you're partially right. It's a trapeze artist in a flea circus!

A flea circus? Yes – you heard right. Flea circuses are exactly what they sound like: Performing fleas. Some walk a tightrope, some are shot out of tiny cannons and some even dance. How does something that makes your dog or cat itch do all of these things?

Flea Circuses and History

Flea circuses have been around for hundreds of years – maybe as far back as the 1600s. In the early 1800s, flea circuses were made very popular in London, England.

Fleas would dance to "flea music" and dress in tiny dresses and coats, pull little carriages around and even play "flea music" that you could really hear.

Fleas Are Ugly Buggers

If you've never seen a flea close up, then prepare to be grossed out. They aren't very handsome. In fact a flea close-up looks a whole lot like it should be in Stars Wars than in a circus. Want to see what a flea looks like? Try following this link to see a close-up of a cat flea:

http://www.pbrc.hawaii.edu/bemf/microangela/flea.htm

That one's not going to win any beauty contests! But remember – the photograph on that website is magnified (which means made larger) many, many times over. Fleas are much smaller – so small that you can't see their eyes or antennae without a microscope.

How Do You Train a Flea?

If you think training a dog is hard, you ought to try and train a flea! In the old days, trainers would do things like glue the flea to a tiny chair to make it sit down. Now fleas are made to perform by using what is called a tuning fork, as well as other ways.

A tuning fork is used for many things, even to set up the kind of radar that police officers use to catch speeders. The tuning fork, when struck, gives off a high-pitched sound that causes the flea to behave in certain ways. If you want to read more about it, you can go here:

~http://home.pe.net/~magical/flea/train.htm

Where Do They Perform?

As you can imagine, flea circuses are very small and only a few people can watch one. Fleas perform in tiny arenas and can be difficult to see if there are too many people, so only a few people at a time can watch.

Flea circuses are not very common, but they are fun to watch. There's even a free online game named after it, called "Flea Circus."

Here is where you can find the rules:

http://www.gamesdomain.com/GamesArena/flea/fleacircus_instructions.html

And here is where you can find the game:

http://www.gamesdomain.com/GamesArena/flea/fleacircus_easy.html

If you'd like to read more about flea circuses, try this link:

~http://home.pe.net/~magical/flea/index.html

And if you want see something that will make you laugh – check this out. You will need Shockwave to watch it:

http://www.angelfire.com/biz/vivek123/fleas.html

Care and Feeding of Fleas

Fleas are cheap to keep, but they don't make good pets, so don't try to make your own flea circus. They live off of blood from the host animal or human (that means the one they live on). Flea bites itch because they inject something into the host when they bite. The best place for a flea is not in your house, so – if you're interested in fleas – try playing the flea game instead!

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