If you have a flea bite, however, you probably won’t be worrying too much about what it looks like-you’ll be more concerned by how much it itches. On humans, flea bites look like tiny red dots. Some dogs have a stronger reaction to flea bites than others, which creates a much larger red area.įlea bites are much more obvious on humans, since we don’t have dense layers of fur. They are typically smaller than other insect bites, although they can become inflamed after a dog scratches. So what do flea bites look like? Fleas leave tiny, red, raised dots on your dog’s skin. Pre-emerged adults can survive for weeks and even months under the right conditions, which is one of the reasons why it is so hard to remove fleas from the home. The larva matures into an adult flea inside the cocoon and waits for a potential host to pass by. Indoors, the larvae burrow deep into the fibers of your carpet or outside into grass, leaves, or soil, where they then spin themselves a cocoon after a week or two. The eggs hatch 1-to-6 days later into larvae.
These eggs fall to the ground every time your dog shakes, scratches, or lies down, infesting your home and yard. As far as I am concerned, that’s 27 eggs a day too many. A female flea can lay as many as 50 eggs a day and an average of 27 eggs a day for up to 100 days. As gross as it might be to think about, you need to know how fleas feed and reproduce.Īdult fleas lay their eggs in the hair of their host-your dog. Flea Life Cycleįlea removal is tricky, and you need to have a basic knowledge of the flea life cycle to choose the right products for your dog. The widespread palette of fleas gives your dog plenty of opportunities to pick them up as she goes about her day. In the United States, they prefer dogs, cats, wolves, foxes, raccoons, opossums, ferrets, and domestic rabbits. While it might seem somewhat ironic that the fleas bothering your dog are “cat fleas,” this flea species is known to infest more than 50 different mammals and birds throughout the world. There are over 2,200 species of fleas in the world, but the flea that most frequently infests dogs is not the dog flea, which is relatively rare, but the cat flea, scientifically known as Ctenocephalides felis. What Are Fleas?įleas are tiny parasites that feed off of the blood of their hosts. The best way to find out if your dog has fleas is to look for symptoms of flea bites on dogs. Fleas are prime suspects if your dog is scratching without any apparent reason, but before you can blame fleas for your dog’s discomfort you need to do a little more investigating. An itching, scratching dog conjures up nightmarish images of fleas hopping everywhere-especially onto our furniture, beds, and carpets.