Can Fleas Take a Blood Meal From Humans?

While you may be wondering if fleas can eat blood from humans, you should know that they can only feed on warm-blooded animals such as cats and dogs. If you have a pet, it’s very likely that you’ve seen fleas. They’re tiny, brown-colored parasites that live on warm-blooded animals and birds. They feed by biting their host’s skin, sucking blood from it. However, they can also bite humans. Once they touch your skin, they’ll usually bite you immediately. They usually won’t go higher than your legs.

Adult fleas have mouthparts specially adapted for puncturing animal skin and sucking blood. Although they prefer the blood of animals, fleas can also survive on humans and coexist with them, as long as they’re living in a warm environment. Fleas only feed on humans when their preferred animal host is unavailable. Without an animal host, they cannot lay eggs and their population would decline. However, once they have a blood meal, they can lay eggs almost instantly, sometimes within a few days.

It’s very rare to find a human flea infestation. Most infestations are caused by cat fleas, the most common species. The second most common species are dog fleas, but neither of these species can survive on human blood.