Human fleas are ubiquitous. This type of flea can live on a person no less than on his smaller brothers. Once upon a time, scientists suggested that only an insect belonging to the species Pulexirritans can appear on humans. Later, they proved that fleas in humans are also capable of appearing in cats.
How to determine that it is the human flea that conducts its vital activity on your body? It is easy to recognize by its characteristic external features. The size of the insect is approximately 2 mm. This agile creature has a flattened body and a head with a tiny mouth. Antennae allow the pest to accurately determine its location. Three pairs of legs help fleas move quickly. With their hind limbs, they push off before making a jump. Adult females are quite fertile. There are approximately 500 pieces in each oviposition. It is produced in the gap of the floor or baseboard. After a couple of weeks, the offspring get out and start searching for a victim. The larvae feed on decayed organic remains and excrement of adults. 
Video "Danger"
From the video you will learn what is the danger of a flea, what diseases it can carry.
The dangers posed by pests
As a reward from bloodsuckers, people can get not only all kinds of local reactions on the surface of the skin, but also some dangerous diseases. They are carriers of tuberculosis, rat typhus, tularemia, listeriosis, and plague. Their consequences, if someone is not lucky enough to become infected with one of the ailments, can be very deplorable. 
One of the most popular are flea drops. Preparations such as flea drops, when applied externally, penetrate only into the skin, hair follicles and subcutaneous sebaceous glands. Flea drops cannot get into the blood. Modern flea drops contain substances such as permethrin, phenothrin, etofenprox or imidacloprid, or fipronil and pyriprol, or diazonin. 
Drops from fleas most often drip on the withers. They provoke a failure of the normal development of the pest at the larval stage.
Migration of pests occurs when people come into contact with yard animals that are not well-groomed, which is why favorable conditions for pests are created on their bodies.
It’s also possible to catch bloodsuckers by visiting the basement or apartment where they are available. At risk are the inhabitants of the first floors, under whose apartments there are basements, and the inhabitants of the latter, since there is an attic above, inhabited by birds, which often have fleas.
Treatment of a wound after a bite
How to get rid
Can fleas be removed quickly and without harm to health? Yes, and for this purpose it will be necessary to carry out a number of disinfection measures. Insects are not constantly on people, they hide in various places in your home. How to remove fleas from a person, it was said above. In addition to using shampoo, you should comb out the larvae with a thin comb. It is advised to dip it in a solution of a special detergent. Then dry off with a hard towel. It is best to visit the bath three times a day. 
It is also necessary to apply solutions designed to eliminate pests to pet hair. Litters are subject to mandatory boiling. All fabric products that are located at a distance of 1 meter from the floor surface should be sent to the wash. It is recommended to organize wet cleaning in the apartment, walk on the carpets and carpets with a vacuum cleaner. Be sure to throw away the contents of the dust container, and disinfect the vacuum cleaner. If there are fleas, how to get them out again? It is necessary to apply a modern high-quality insecticide to the surface. When using special preparations, one should take into account the degree of infection of the room, its size, the health status of the inhabitants and pets. It is realistic to destroy the larvae with the help of dust intended for the destruction of cockroaches.
Folk ways
How to get rid of fleas in a person using popular folk remedies? Solutions of tansy, wormwood and a number of other plants showed themselves well. You can make them yourself by pouring boiling water over the plants and letting them stand. This mixture is useful for rubbing into pet hair and your own hair. Infusions are also indispensable for the purpose of prevention. The well-known soda also works great. It is advised to distribute it together with salt on the surface of a carpet or carpet. Next, you need to tamp, and vacuum in the morning. 
Most of us naively believe that fleas only pester animals, live in their fur and, biting them, feed on the blood of the host, while not touching people. But man is also a mammal, so he is not deprived of flea attention either. Moreover, the human flea is known to science under the name "Pulex irritans".
Worse, not only is she able to choose the human body for her constant nutrition, but also fleas of other species, usually living on rodents, birds, dogs and cats. The fleas of large and small cattle, chickens, geese, rabbits, brought from the farmstead into the house, having left their former owners, successfully rebuild and settle in people's dwellings for a long time, now feeding on their blood.
What do fleas bite a person look like
If larvae, cocoons or eggs are found within the dwelling, this is a sure sign that pests have settled in the house.
Important! Bloodsuckers move so rapidly that they can be seen on the body of people only at the moment of a bite and saturation with blood.
Flea bite symptoms
Unlike some other bloodsuckers, which, when bitten, inject an anesthetic into the body of the victim, the flea does not have this property. Therefore, a flea bite in humans causes a number of obvious symptoms and consequences.
Subjective sensations during a flea attack.
- Pain during the bite.
- Violent itching immediately after it, lasting from an hour to several hours.
External signs of flea bites.
- Swelling at the bite site.
- A small internal hemorrhage under the wound, which is noticeable for several days.
Consequences of flea bites.
- allergic manifestations.
- Pulicosis (skin lesion after being bitten by an exclusively human flea).
- Infiltration of bite sites, suppuration.
- Dermatitis.
A threat to a person with flea bites.
- Helminth infestation.
- Infection with dangerous infections (their science has already counted about 200 at the moment).
Causes of a flea attack
The appearance of fleas in a house or apartment is not uncommon, especially if there are pets. But even in their absence, the insect can get into the house with shoes or clothes. In the same way, eggs, larvae and cocoons of fleas enter the human dwelling.
Flea bite treatment
Immediately after a bite wound is found, the affected area must be treated with an antiseptic:
- iodine;
- green;
- alcohol;
- hydrogen peroxide.
If there are signs of allergy development, then it is necessary to take antihistamines and sedatives. The best way out for serious symptoms is to see a doctor.
For prevention when hiking, camping, staying on a farm or in the field, hunting, it is best to use special creams and sprays with repellent and wear trousers to protect your legs.
And of course, a set of measures will be needed to completely eradicate fleas in the home.
The human flea poses a serious threat to human health. It carries many serious diseases, some of which can be chronic and some of which can be fatal if severe. Studies by scientists have shown that 200 different microorganisms were found in the body of a human flea, which are provocateurs of diseases. However, this figure is constantly increasing, more and more new microbes are being discovered that the flea carries.
Among the most dangerous diseases are:
- anthrax;
- salmonellosis;
- encephalitis and many others.
Fortunately, cases of infection with these diseases as a result of a flea bite are very rare. In most cases, the problems are not so serious.
The most common phenomena caused by human flea bites are: 
- allergies in various forms (most of all rashes at the sites of bites);
- enlarged lymph nodes;
- inflammatory processes in the places of bites, wounds, redness, accompanied by severe itching;
- ulcers (including in the oral cavity);
- headache and deterioration in general well-being.
bites
Human fleas are known for their voraciousness: once a flea hits a body, it will not stop biting until it fills the stomach with blood. And he, as already mentioned, has the property of stretching.
Outwardly, a flea bite is no different from the bites of other insects. They represent redness, which has a compacted structure and is slightly swollen. But the puncture site is usually not visible, because fleas leave a very small hole from which they sucked blood, so that it is not visible at all to the naked eye.
Bitten limbs itch for a long time. If a person is unable to restrain himself, he can aggravate the situation by introducing an infection into the wound. After all, we usually do not run to wash our hands before scratching ourselves.
- egg;
- larva;
- chrysalis;
- an adult.
After fertilization of the female, she begins to lay eggs after a few days. The eggs are deposited on her body and she has to use force to throw them out of herself. After that, they are easily released into the environment, as they are light and not sticky. In a lifetime, a female human flea can lay between 400 and 1,000 eggs, depending on environmental conditions.
A few days after the egg is laid, a larva begins to emerge from it. This period may be longer, it all depends on the temperature and environmental conditions in which the egg was found. The larva goes through stages of development to the pupa. 
On average, the development stage takes about a week. During this time, the scales, which are formed as a result of the molting of the larva, form a cocoon. This indicates the beginning of the next stage of the life cycle - the appearance of the pupa. The pupa develops into an adult flea over a period of about a week. She then sheds her cocoon.
However, not all individuals develop according to the terms given above. For example, if the egg was laid in the refrigerator, then the stage from egg to adult can last up to one year.
Summing up, we can name such ambiguous terms for the development of the flea life cycle:
- egg 4-10 days;
- larva 6-100 days;
- pupa 6-220 days.
medical significance
"External" indicates that fleas do not infect body cells and internal organs, such as helminths. They are content with the skin and hair of their prey. 
There are three main factors of the medical significance of fleas, which indicate the greatest harm to health:
All these factors suggest that the threat posed by human fleas should not be ignored. It is better to immediately seek the help of specialists.
How to get rid
There is an opinion that most often they start up on the lower floors, allegedly climb out of the basements. In fact, experts say that fleas are the first to infest in those apartments and houses where sanitary conditions are poor and the level of hygiene is poor.
So, first of all, you need to carry out a general cleaning.
It should include the following actions:
If you notice flea bites on yourself, at the same time as cleaning the house, you need to take care of your health. Wounds after bites can be treated with iodine or brilliant green. To get rid of itching and allergic reactions, you can use any antihistamine drugs.
You also need to regularly wash your hair and take a shower. A good flea repeller can be tar soap and cosmetics based on which it belongs. In pharmacies, you can buy soap itself, shower gels, and shampoos with its presence.
Measures to combat the human flea
Here are some of the most effective: 
- get. The active ingredient in this remedy is chlorpyrifos. Its concentration in the liquid is 5%. This substance is poisonous to fleas. The advantage of this tool is the time of its action, which is six months.
- Dobrokhim. The active substance - fenthion insecticide, ensures the complete destruction of fleas. In two weeks, and that is how much the drug acts, the complete death of both larvae and adult fleas is ensured.
Human fleas, like others, move by jumping up to 1.5 meters, so they do not linger on a person for a long time. Unlike lice, they are much more mobile, so it is very difficult to catch them on the body.
Only a specialist is able to visually identify a human flea and distinguish it from another species. For the layman, a flea is a small brown, very mobile dot that can be seen on the body or on the floor, and then only at the moment of rest. It is not possible to see her in the jump.
Constantly located in places where people stay. They use a person as their carrier, but they breed in secluded corners. Here they leave their larvae to develop, the food of which consists mainly of organic remains. They attack a person during a period of hunger, saturate themselves with blood and quickly leave their prey. Fleas are not constantly on the body, they act like bedbugs - they drank blood, ate and hid.
For people, they are palpable, they appear very painfully, unlike the bites of the same. The latter inject a certain anesthetic substance into the human body, which is not at all characteristic of fleas. By the way, if you try to crush a flea, then nothing will come of it. Due to external features, namely flattened sides, it is very difficult to harm it.
The life expectancy of a flea is short - only a few months. But sometimes these insects live up to 1.5 years. In such a short period of its life, one flea is capable of producing offspring approximately 500 times.
What types of fleas can harm a person
Not only the human flea can harm its warm-blooded host. In science, there are approximately 1500 species of these insects. Therefore, if a flea was found on the body, this does not mean at all that it is human.
- Cat and dog fleas - these species are common in the human habitat.
- Rat. This type of flea in the Middle Ages was the most dangerous, as it was the carrier of a deadly plague.
- Rabbit. This type of flea harms humans only in the wild.
- Fleas living on herbivorous animals (moose). Moreover, people note that their bites are very painful.
What does a flea bite entail
The bites of these bloodsuckers can have negative consequences for human health. The skin disease caused by them is called pulicosis. It is possible to recognize the disease by obvious symptoms, which, however, are very similar to allergies:
- itchy rashes;
- purulent inflammation;
- ulcers in the mouth and throat;
- increase in body temperature;
- headache, weakness.
In addition to pulicosis, flea bites can provoke the emergence of other, no less dangerous diseases, including anthrax, encephalitis or plague. Of course, this does not mean that every bite received from fleas provokes any disease, not at all, but you should not forget about caution.
Flea control products
To get rid of the presence of fleas, it is necessary to use appropriate means and methods of processing the premises, since they do not permanently inhabit the human body. There are various preparations for the destruction of fleas. They are available in the form of aerosols, powders, concentrates (for example, "Delta Zone"). You can also resort to the help of a pest control service, this is more expensive than chemicals in a spray, but much more effective.
What to do in case of a flea bite?
If you have been bitten by a human flea, you need to disinfect the damaged area with soap with an antiseptic in the composition, then treat with an alcohol solution and grease with iodine or brilliant green. If the bite has given complications, it is recommended to immediately consult a doctor. There are no special recommendations for the treatment of the bite site. If you have an allergic reaction - severe itching at the site of a flea bite or severe swelling, immediately take an antihistamine and contact the clinic.
To understand how to get pests out of the house, you need to know for sure that it was fleas that settled at home.
They can be 2 colors:
- black in juveniles;
- brown color in more mature insects.
A feature is that insects feed on human blood, after which they multiply rapidly. That is, if measures for destruction are not taken in a timely manner, then in a week the whole apartment will be teeming with unpleasant insects.
Today, scientists know a large number of different types of fleas, but only some of them can settle in a person's home. Among them:
- Home.
- Earthy.
- Sandy.
Domestic - the most common type of blood-sucking insects. They enter a person’s apartment along with dogs, cats, rats. Fleas can feed with equal pleasure on the blood of a person or any animal.
Earthen ones have a second name - basement. To distinguish them from other pests, you need to know what earthen fleas look like. Adult insects have a body size of 1 to 5 mm, and get home through the basement. After that, they settle in fleecy objects, for example, a carpet. The main difference will be the inability to jump higher than 1 meter.
Sand pests settle in the ground. Adults are light white in color and reach a body size of 1 mm.
All of them are united by one thing: the presence of a piercing-sucking apparatus of the mouth. So the insect feeds on the blood of a person, an animal.
Folk methods for eliminating fleas
To understand how to get rid of earthen fleas, people often resort to unconventional methods of dealing with blood-sucking insects. Namely, the use of folk remedies, which have proven themselves exclusively on the positive side.
They have been used for a long time by grandmothers, which means that their action has been proven in practice and time-tested. For humans and pets, folk methods are safe, do not pose a threat to life and health.
The most popular folk methods to destroy earthen fleas are:
Ventilation of the premises will help in the fight against fleas
- The use of wormwood and coniferous shavings. It is necessary to spread out in the corners, as well as in places where insects accumulate.
- Application of baking soda.
Soda is a good, and most importantly, simple way to poison pests. It is necessary to mix baking soda with ordinary salt. Then carefully treat all surfaces with a pile with the resulting powder. After a couple of hours, the areas where the powder was applied are vacuumed.
Ground flea remedies are useful in pest control. The main thing is to quickly destroy the pests, because in case of delay they will fill the entire apartment.
Modern methods of struggle
The fight against earthen fleas today consists in the use of various aerosols and other special means. The most popular was "Dichlorvos".
Destruction of fleas by this method consists in the following steps:
- Remove all living creatures from the premises and put on a respirator and gloves.
- Spread this drug in the apartment on all surfaces.
- Leave the closed room for several hours.
- Open and ventilate the apartment well.
"Dichlorvos" and other aerosol means that destroy blood-sucking insects, you can clean the room from pests in 1 day.
Means that remove various types of fleas from an apartment can be divided into 2 large groups:
- Applied on the surface of furniture and other planes.
- For pets.
The human flea is exterminated with the help of various chemicals. They must be used with the utmost care. You can not stay in a room that has been treated with chemical compounds. It is best to leave your home with your pets for a day. Be sure to use gloves and a respirator when working with various chemicals.
How can experts help remove insects?
Destruction of fleas will be undertaken by exterminators. Their services are much higher in cost than the destruction of insects on their own, but they are fully justified.
Specialists in a minimum amount of time can easily cope with any type of flea and permanently clean the room. The owners of the apartment and their pets will be able to live peacefully in their living space immediately after the end of all events, no longer feeling discomfort from annoying "neighbors".
The materials and tools used in the work of exterminators are safe for the life and health of humans and their pets. Fleas, as vectors and spreaders of dangerous and serious diseases, must be quickly and effectively eradicated. After the work of specialists, the reappearance of insects is practically excluded.
Preventive measures
To know how to deal with fleas, you need to understand where the pests came from. First of all, people living in a private house or on the ground floor of multi-apartment buildings fall into the risk zone. To minimize the risk of living in the neighborhood with fleas, you need to take the following actions:
- Regularly clean carpets and other hairy surfaces with powders or take them to a dry cleaner.
- It is best to clean often and with additional special cleaning products.
- All cracks, cracks and chips on floors, walls, windows or doors must be sealed immediately. Since through them fleas can enter the premises.
- Washing floors with vinegar, previously diluted in water.
Floors in the fight against fleas need to be washed with vinegar
It is necessary to walk with vinegar solution in all rooms of an apartment or house. The gaps in the floor and the plinth are more carefully and carefully processed. You can wash the walls if it does not harm the surface.
In addition, you need to carefully monitor your pets. If for some reason an animal infected with fleas has got into an apartment or house, then it must be removed immediately. And also disinfect all the places where it managed to visit.
