Species of fleas that bite humans
Several species choose to feed on animal blood rather than human, nevertheless some of them still bite people usually when there is no available animal or if the animal host cannot provide sufficient blood meal. These insects will not permanently live on humans but will feed intermittently on them, for instance cat fleas never turn humans to hosts, they feed for ten to twenty minutes and drop off.
Types of fleas that bite humans
- Cat Flea / Ctenocephalides felis: This particular species is the most common in the United States, selecting dogs, cats, and humans as its preferred hosts. Cat fleas rarely take a blood meal from humans as they prefer to feed on cats and dogs instead. They are spread throughout the United States amounting to ninety percent of all the fleas found in the States. They are good carriers for some diseases such as Bartonellosis, Murine typhus and the Plague. The occurrence of these diseases in humans as a result of activity is low because they prefer to feed on dogs and cats before people.
- Rate Flea / Xenopsyllacheopis: This species infest rodents such as cottontail rabbits, mice and rats. They are distributed worldwide. This insect bite can transmit a number of diseases to humans with just a single bite, if they are carriers of that disease. They transmit bubonic plague most commonly.
- Human Fleas / Pulexirritans: They are not common in the United States but can be found just about anywhere in the world. They feed on mammals generally and its first host was known to be guinea pigs followed by dogs, chicken and humans. Human fleas can only serve as transitional hosts to a couple of parasitic tapeworms because they cannot serve as carriers for any disease.
- Chigoe Flea / Tungapenetrans: Chigoe species are mostly found in South America, tropical regions of Africa and Central America. Female Chigoe or jigger species pierce and burrow under people’s skin to feed. They can only be taken out surgically.
Appearance of bite marks on humans
Mosquito and flea bite marks look very much alike, they are usually swollen and red in color. They are painful and itchy, if the person suffering from the bite is sensitive or allergic to the bites, symptoms will be a lot more severe.
Almost every bite is similar in appearance except for Chigoe species which burrows underneath the skin. It continues to feed the area will then swell up without opening to an open wound at first.
Once a infestation is conformed, treat your pets and notify your local exterminator to provide solution that will get rid of them completely, every rash that seems suspicious should also be tested medically to prevent a bite from turning into something a little more serious. Read More…