Adult Fleas

Adult Fleas

Pet owners should wash pet bedding often and vacuum and mop the floors where animals rest. Keep each pet on a flea preventive your vet recommends, and have a professional treat problem areas inside and out. In the yard, rake out leaf litter and other damp debris that shelters larvae.

Flea Facts

• Found worldwide, feeding on people, pets and many wild animals
• Grow through four stages: egg, larva, pupa inside a silk cocoon, and adult
• Adults need blood meals to survive and lay eggs
• Some species can carry the germs behind murine typhus and plague
• The oriental rat flea helped spread the Black Death of the 1300s

Identifying Adult Fleas and Where They Live

An adult flea is about 1/16 to 1/8 inch long, reddish brown to nearly black, and wingless. Its body is flattened from side to side, which lets it slip between hairs, and its long back legs let it jump many times its own length. That flat-sided shape and the jumping are the easiest ways to tell a flea from look-alikes. Bed bugs are flattened from top to bottom and crawl rather than jump. Springtails also hop, but they are smaller, live in damp spots like potted plants and drains, and do not ride on pets.

In Florida, the flea found on both dogs and cats is almost always the cat flea. Despite the name, it feeds readily on dogs, cats, opossums, raccoons and other animals. The dog flea exists but is far less common.

• Diet: adult males and females feed only on blood. Larvae eat organic debris and flea dirt, the dried blood that adults pass.
• Where they live: adults stay on the animal. Eggs fall off into bedding, carpet and shaded soil, where the larvae develop.
• Season: larvae need warmth and humidity and die in hot, dry, sunny spots, so Florida’s climate suits them. Activity can continue year-round, with numbers often highest in the warm, humid months.

Learn what an established problem looks like on the adult flea infestation page.