Wash the bites with antiseptic soap to reduce the risk of infection. Apply an icepack frequently to help relieve swelling. Use calamine lotion, anaesthetic creams or similar to treat the itching. See your pharmacist for advice on appropriate antihistamine medications to reduce the swelling.
The skin may become irritated and painful around the bite, and sometimes hives and a rash will appear. Scratching the bite can cause a secondary infection. In most cases, fleas will be a nuisance and can indicate a household infestation that needs to be dealt with, but they will cause no serious symptoms.
Just One Flea Can Be a Sign of a Problem
Although the random flea might show up if you've just taken your pup for a walk, more than one or two could be a sign of a problem. As few as 20 fleas might mean your pet is infested, while the most could be between 200 to 300.
If you're squeamish about snapping fleas, you can also keep a bowl or warm sudsy water near you. Once the flea lands on you, pinch it and dunk it in the water to drown it.
Due to the high body temperature of fleas, they cannot stay long on humans. They cannot breed on humans too, so they need to find animal hosts or else, they cannot increase in numbers. Studies have shown that female cat fleas can stay on humans for only 7.4 minutes, and male cat fleas can only stay for 4.4 minutes.
Washing clothing and fabrics might not be a 100% cure for a flea infestation, but as long as you wash absolutely everything, it will take a sizable chunk out of the population.
While fleas can technically lay eggs on our scalp, the possibility of this happening is extremely rare. Given how much these small parasites can disrupt a household, however, knowing all you can about fleas can help you avoid an infestation or manage an existing flea problem.
It feels as if every time you walk across your carpet or sit down on your couch, more bites appear. While you can hop in the shower every time you're in a flea-infested area of your home, doing so will only get rid of those fleas on your skin.
Squeezing them in your fingers is nearly impossible. Even though it may seem impossible to kill them with your fingers, there is one way to kill them. If you roll them back and forth several times it keeps their legs from moving and that will kill them.
Just as with wild animals or pets, fleas make their way on to humans by jumping. If you have fleas on you, you will more than likely experience small, red bites on your ankles or lower legs. These tiny bites are usually surrounded by a “halo” and are very itchy.
In fact, the only time when a single flea shouldn't worry you is if you don't have pets – because a flea in an animal-free home won't have a food source and won't be able to breed, so it will quickly die along with any others that might be present.
More likely than not, if you are a man or a women, and you think you have fleas, it is probably becuase you caught them from your pets. If a flea has gone without a blood meal for a long period of time, they will search for whatever they can find.
So, yes, one flea can—and often does—become a problem. Flea eggs usually fall off your pet and land anywhere your pet spends time: carpets, furniture and in bedding. If your pet sleeps with you, fleas could end up on your bed as well. In only a few days, these eggs hatch.
The first sign of fleas in your bed may be waking up with itchy bites on your skin. If fleas fall off a pet and land in the bed, they may bite humans if the pet is not nearby. For some people who aren't sensitive to flea bites or don't sleep with their pet, the first sign of fleas is a pet's constant scratching.
Can Fleas Live in Your Bed? These pests infest multiple areas in homes, especially mattresses, cushions, and carpeting. Pets transfer fleas to the beds and furniture where they sleep. From here, the insects quickly spread around the house.
Signs that Fleas Are in Your Bed
Signs of fleas in your bedding include tiny black specks that are sometimes called "flea dirt." These are flea excrement; if you sprinkle them with a little water, they'll turn a dark-reddish brown. Another sign that fleas have invaded your bed are flea bites on your body.
Will a flea die without a host? Fleas are parasites; they need a regular supply of blood to survive. Adult fleas develop a dependency on the blood of their host, so yes, they will quickly perish should they be separated from them for a certain amount of time – this could be as short as a couple of days.
After a flea bites you, a small, discolored bump forms. A discolored ring or halo may appear around the bite. Flea bites may appear in a straight line or a cluster of many bites. Flea bites most commonly occur on your legs, especially your feet, calves and ankles.
Fleas are blood-sucking parasites, and if they continue feasting on cats or dogs for any length of time, the pet may develop anemia. This condition can cause lethargy at the very least and may even cause death in puppies, kittens or older pets.
That's because fleas are not host-specific — while their preferred host is a cat or dog, they will happily feed on either cats or dogs, and sometimes even humans!
Fleas are tiny red lesions on the body. They are often difficult to distinguish from other insects but can be identified by their wingless appearance and the specks on your clothing that they leave behind. Mosquitoes usually bite at dusk, but adult fleas can be found at any time of day.
THE HUMAN FLEA
This flea does live its adult stages of life anywhere on the body where there is hair. This can be the eyelashes, eyebrows, armpits or pubic areas.
At What Temperature and How Quickly Do Fleas Die? Adult fleas die at temperatures colder than 46.4°F (8°C) and hotter than 95°F (35°C).
In the United States, some fleas carry pathogens that can cause human disease, including: Plague — most commonly transmitted to humans in the United States by infected ground squirrel fleas, Oropsylla montana, and globally by infected Oriental rat fleas, Xenopsylla cheopis.