Do Fleas Bite Humans?

This is the focus of this article. When fleas are mentioned, the discussion is mostly about dogs or cats (or pets generally). Most articles focus on how they make dogs uncomfortable and how to get rid of them. However, do these pests affect humans?

Fleas are pretty tiny bugs. Their sizes generally range between 1 – 4 mm while their color ranges from light brown to almost black in color, depending on how well they’ve been feeding on blood.

That’s right. Fleas love to feast on blood. It’s their favorite source of food when they’re not out in the wild, searching for their next host. Since they don’t have wings, finding a host is usually done by jumping onto them with their powerful feet – with which they can jump as high as 150 times their length.

Because of their rate of reproduction – a female flea can lay as much as 40 eggs per day – you won’t find fleas alone. Where you find one, there’s usually another lurking.

Fleas may be your pet’s worst enemy because of how easy it is for their furs to attract them and keep them well hidden. However, fleas are not just interested in your pets alone. Since they enjoy a blood-sucking feast – preferably every day, if it’s a female flea – your skin is not out of bounds to them.

In answering the question asked above, yes, fleas do bite humans.

Why Do Fleas Bite Humans?

Fleas can usually stay a period without sucking blood. Fleas that have not found a host can go without blood for days. Furthermore, a flea egg/larvae will usually remain dormant until it feels the vibration of a host which ‘awakens’ it. So why do fleas bite us? Why do they bother with our fresh skin and blood?

For female fleas, they need it to keep up their rate of reproduction – which is a daily thing. It doesn’t necessarily have to be human blood. However, when your pet brings along fleas into the home, the fleas usually alternate between attaching themselves on the dog’s skins and biting your skin.

Just because of this, you may end up with a couple of mysterious flea bites.

What are the Signs of Fleabites?

Red Bumps on Your Skin

When there’s a flea infestation in your home, one of the places where fleas love to hide is in your beddings. It just makes sense because it’s a way to get closer to you and pierce your skin with their mandibles.

Fleabites are not hard to identify. They are characterized by small, red bumps that appear in clusters. Unlike mosquito bites, these bumps are small.

Itchy Skin

Fleas don’t just bite any part of your body. There are certain areas of your body that fleas will bite more often because these parts are commonly left uncovered. These include your legs or ankles, knees, and elbows.

After a fleabite in these areas, you may feel an increased urge to itch these areas. It works the same for your pets too. They will scratch and bite the area where they feel the bite. If not well managed, you may scratch an affected area so hard that it can cause further damages to the skin and even lead to a bacterial infection

Allergic Reactions

If you’ve suffered a fleabite, you’re not at the risk of contracting a disease from this bite. This is because fleas are not disease-carrying pests.

However, there is a greater risk when you put into consideration those who have hypersensitive skin. When they suffer fleabites, some people can have reactions that vary from difficulty in breathing to welts appearing on the skin.

The rate at which fleas reproduce in your environment depends on a lot of factors, the chief being whether you have a pet or not. There’s a reason why your dog and your home are some of the most common places where fleas can be found.

Because of their size, it’s usually difficult to discover them early. And that’s why they can keep biting you for so long without being detected.

If they’re causing you so much trouble, you don’t have to keep living with them forever. Although they’re super hard to completely exterminate by yourself, you can get rid of them with a pesticide treatment.

“Do fleas bite humans?” Yes, they do. And everyone is susceptible to fleabites. Once you’ve discovered them, you can use anti-itch creams to relieve the symptoms of these bites. A more permanent solution is to concentrate on getting rid of the fleas.