Flea Bites on Humans

Fleas are wingless, blood sucking parasites that are notorious for the irritation they cause us and our pets. Even though the fleas that are typically encountered in the urban environment are more interested in our furry friends than in people, flea bites on humans are not uncommon. It's a fairly accepted fact that if you're a pet owner, you're probably going to experience flea bites at some point.

Of course, people who don't own pets are not completely safe from the attentions of this small parasite. Fleas are surprisingly hardy creatures, especially in their pupae stage where they can survive in harsh environments for long durations with no food. It's a common horror story amongst people who move into new homes to be suddenly attacked by a horde of fleas. This is because the returned presence of warm-blooded people stimulate fleas to hatch from their protective cocoons for their first blood meal. All this can occur without a dog in sight! Perhaps it's not such a bad idea to flea bomb your new home before you move in, just in case the previous owners had a flea infestation.

Flea bites on humans rarely happen without warning. Since human flea, the only species whose preferred hosts are humans, is very rare and almost never can be found in our houses, that leaves cat flea or dog flea as possible biters – since human flea, cat flea and dog flea are the most common fleas on humans.

However,  the later two species prefer our pet – so when they come after us, it means that there’s not enough of the original host, and that one hell of the flea infestation is happening in our house.

This also means that when you see signs of fleas on your pet, it’s time to treat the entire house – sooner or later they will invade every corner of it, and it’s not that easy to get rid of fleas in your home, so the sooner you start, the better.

There are three main species of flea that infest humans:
- Cat flea (Ctenocephalides felis)
- Dog flea (Ctenocephalides canis)
- Human flea (Pulex irritans).