No matter how small fleas are, they bite very painfully. Even relatively large, in comparison with them, insatiable bugs, and they do not cause such sensations as small jumping bloodsuckers can deliver.
Scientists have long figured out why flea bites are so painful and noticeable on the human body: it turns out that these parasites do not inject an anesthetic into the wound when they bite. It is thanks to this natural analgesic that the bites of ticks and bedbugs are felt only after some time, during which the parasite already has time to get enough blood and run away. But fleas do not disguise themselves at all: they do not seem to worry at all about going unnoticed.
As it turned out, the reason for this is the high invulnerability of fleas to their victims. Indeed, neither a dog, nor a cat, nor any other animal can catch a tiny parasite in the fur (although they try).
Yes, and a person, even catching a flea, can crush it only thanks to his nails - fleas have a very strong chitinous cover that protects the insect from mechanical compression.So these bloodsuckers are not worried about going unnoticed, and therefore their bites are painful - nature has not laid down a mechanism for masking the bite process as unnecessary.
Flea bites on humans have characteristic symptoms, thanks to which one can determine their cause without even finding the parasites themselves.
Appearance and symptoms of flea bites
A flea bite looks the same as most insect bites: slight redness with thickened swelling. The skin puncture site itself is usually not visible on it due to the very small size of the hole and the elasticity of the skin.
There is, however, a slight hemorrhage. It is for this reason that insect bites on nature excursions or hiking trips are often confused with irritations from various prickly plants.
The following photo shows characteristic fresh flea bite marks, and even lower is a photo of bites after a few hours:
What flea bites look like can be seen in detail in several more photos:
Of the types of fleas that often bite humans, cat fleas leave the least pronounced bite marks. Cat flea bites in humans usually stop itching within an hour, and the redness in their place disappears in one to two days.
The most pronounced symptoms of flea bites on a person are the following signs:
- sharp stabbing pain at the bite itself - it seems that an injection is made into the bite site with an ordinary medical syringe;
- rather severe itching after a bite, more pronounced than itching after a mosquito bite;
- dislocation of bites: insects bite mainly on the legs to the knee, and only attacking a sleeping person, they get to the armpits;
- characteristic series of bites - often one insect bites in a row in several places located at a distance of 1-2 cm from one another.
The photo below shows a characteristic series of flea bites:
By the last sign, flea and bedbug bites are similar to each other, and for this reason many tourists confuse the bites of these insects with each other. However, fleas tend to get a couple of bites, and even then they can only be noticed after a nocturnal attack of parasites: few conscious travelers will endure two bites in a row. For bed bugs, long paths of numerous bites on the body are more characteristic.
Review
“I would never have known that I was bitten by fleas if I had not looked at the photos of the guys from another hiking group. I thought it was the nettle that bit me, and only then I noticed several bites in a line. Indeed, either fleas or bedbugs bite like that. But on the campaign we lived only in tents, and there was nowhere for bedbugs to come from. I never thought before what kind of flea bites are painful. They really itch more than nettle burns.”
Ilya, Sevastopol
It is interesting
Flea bites look different depending on the type of insect. Cat and rat parasites are very small and their bites resemble small rashes, often confused with plant allergies. But the bite of fleas parasitizing on ungulates causes painful swelling, comparable to those from bee stings.
The most common human bite is the human flea. It leaves a red swelling the size of a cigarette burn at the site of the bite.
On a note
Science does not know such species as a domestic flea or a bed flea. Under such a collective name, the people usually understand any members of the family who may be in a person’s dwelling - an apartment, house or temporary hut. And the symptoms of the bites of these parasites will be those that are characteristic of a particular biological species.
Numerous bites of human fleas often lead to a generalized reaction of the body, considered by physicians as a separate skin disease.
The pathogenesis of the body's reaction to bites
The main consequences of flea bites for humans are associated with the toxic effect of enzymes introduced by the parasite into the wound with saliva. The main task of these enzymes is to prevent blood clotting. As a result, after injection of saliva into the wound, the blood in a thin stream, almost by gravity, fills the stomach of the insect.
Due to the elasticity of human skin, after the flea detaches from the bite site, the walls of the hole made by it are pressed against each other, and blood does not flow out of the bite site. However, pinpoint hemorrhage can occur under the skin, and a small hemorrhage forms at the site of the bite.
On a note
If there are too many flea bites on a small area of the skin, abundant small hemorrhages can cause the development of purpura with all the consequences.
For the first few hours, a noticeable blister is kept at the site of the bite, which quickly resolves. Microhemorrhages under the skin persist for a long time, and for several days a bitten person can walk with bite marks.
Different people have different sensitivities to flea bites.In some, itching and swelling at the site of the bites disappear within half an hour, while in others, changes in the skin may develop at the site of the bite: its thickening, hardening, and prolonged redness.
The combination of such symptoms is called pulicosis - a dermatological disease caused exclusively by flea bites. A characteristic appearance of pulicose irritations can be seen in the following photo:
Review
“I have a strange reaction to fleas. Their bites do not even turn red - only small dots remain where the insect has bitten. But as soon as you scratch this place a little, a huge spot of 20 centimeters in diameter suddenly appears, very dense and red. And it itches, infection. Five minutes if you don’t touch it, then it passes ... "
Alena, Minsk
It is characteristic that the human flea is almost always the cause of pulicosis. But the bites of cat fleas most often even in children pass quickly and without a trace.
On a note
Fleas have no preferences in terms of which person to bite. As a rule, they attack the first one they meet. And the belief that insects bite those who have thinner skin is not true. It's just that people with thicker, harder skin often don't notice their bites at all. There is a theory that fleas are more likely to attack people who have thinner skin and the smell of blood in the blood vessels is better for insects. But there is no experimental evidence for such an assumption.
Sometimes pulicosis can develop into complex dermatitis. However, such a development of events is extremely rare and is typical only for cases of permanent and heavy lesions. In rare cases, and usually only with very numerous insect bites, anemia and changes in the composition of the blood can occur in young children.
Even more serious and usually requiring treatment is an allergic reaction of the body to flea bites. But it is worth talking about it separately.
Allergy to flea bites
It is the saliva of the insect, rich in special enzymes, that causes an allergic reaction. Such a reaction develops with an increased sensitivity of a person to flea or insect bites in general.
On a note
Most often, children under the age of 12 are allergic to flea bites. It is they who can become signaling that there are these insects in the house: adults can regularly be bitten in a dream, but not feel them. The photo shows a patch of skin on the leg of a child bitten by fleas:
The most common symptoms of flea allergy are:
- increase in body temperature up to +40°C
- anxiety
- breathing complications
- fever
- diarrhea.
In case of human hypersensitivity to insect bites, anaphylactic shock may develop.
If signs of an allergy appear, you should immediately see a doctor. Usually, in these cases, antihistamines and sedatives are prescribed, and with exacerbated itching, analgesics and sedatives are given.
Possible complications after flea bites
But even allergies and pulicosis are not the most severe consequences of flea bites. The most dangerous are those diseases, the pathogens of which are carried by these parasites.
For example, the most massive epidemic in the history of mankind, which wiped out a third of the population of Europe in the Middle Ages - an epidemic of bubonic plague - arose precisely because of fleas that sailed to Italian ports on ships in the wool of rats.
Today, natural populations of rodents - gerbils, ground squirrels and jerboas - are the main natural reservoirs of the plague pathogen, and it is the parasites that parasitize these animals that can transfer a terrible infection from animals to humans.
In the photo - a small jerboa, the main carrier of plague in Central Asia:
No less dangerous are other infectious agents carried by fleas:
- salmonella and tularemia pathogens
- rickettsia - the causative agent of typhoid
- encephalitis virus
- trypanosomes
- anthrax spores.
In total, scientists have identified up to 200 pathogens of deadly diseases on certain types of fleas. Considering that these species themselves are practically indistinguishable from each other in everyday life, a bitten person can never know what kind of infection he will pick up with the next parasite.
It is very important that you never scratch flea bites. If the skin is damaged and the channel through which the parasite fed is opened, there is a risk of secondary infection of the wound with an infection.
Most often, scratched wounds begin to fester and cause even more painful sensations than the bites themselves. Instead of such combing, it is much more reasonable to immediately properly treat the damage caused by insects.
How to handle flea bites
In order to maximally disinfect flea bites and reduce pain when they appear, you must:
- wipe the bites with warm water and antiseptic soap;
- in case of severe damage, blot the bites with an aqueous solution of vinegar or citric acid;
- lubricate the bites with an antiseptic lotion or gel. Boro-Plus or calamine lotion works great;
- with severe itching, treat the bites with hydrocortisone - it helps to relieve pain.
But the main recipe for getting rid of flea bites is to remove the parasites themselves from the apartment or house and prevent their bites in nature. Both tasks can be successfully solved today even by a non-specialist, and this approach will most reliably protect oneself from flea bites.
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My husband and I went to the village to his parents and stayed with them for three days. For three days, these fleas bit me so much that there was no living space left on my legs. I went to your page and looked at how to get rid of fleas and bites. They haven’t gotten rid of fleas yet, but acetic water has helped with bites. Thank you for being you, and with your help we can take everything useful for ourselves! ))
I got some kind of bites, and at first I thought that the mosquito had bitten and that's it. And my cat recently walked, left for 3 days and I was worried. And today I saw - the bite became bigger and redder.My mom thinks my cat got fleas and the flea bit me. I don't know what to do, I'm worried.
You have to wait until the bump jumps up to see the bite site. Then squeeze it out like a pimple. You will not see anything that will flow out, but apparently, it is this saliva that is squeezed out and stops itching.
I was bitten by fleas and I have an allergy, what to do, I have already tried everything, nothing helps ((
From allergies every evening, one tablet of the drug Loratadine.
Went to the basement for a cat, ran away, could not find him. I walked around five houses, and since it was hot, I went in shorts. I came home, the cat never returned, I did not find it. But all the legs up to the knee and arms up to the elbow were combed, it turned out, fleas. I did not know that it was impossible to scratch, now I am suffering, I cannot undress and go out into the street in a short T-shirt. All legs and arms in blisters and pimples, a nightmare. They also itch after a few days, you just have to touch it.
Margot and I went to the sea. All the days they drank wine, they lost themselves, a nightmare. When we woke up on Friday, we noticed that terrible points began to appear on our body. Oh God, it's scary. And in the sea there are leeches and bites. Our legs and arms began to take on an inhuman appearance, and also to go home, fear. What to do? That's a failure 🙁 Help people, what to do?
Fleas can be removed from the apartment with the help of herbs. Strong tincture should wipe the entire floor. Sprinkle grass around the entire perimeter of the skirting boards. The next day will be clean. List of herbs: wormwood, tansy, eucalyptus, geranium, cloves, lavender, juniper, pine and other conifers, thyme, essential oils of walnut, camphor, aloe, mint.
From flea bites, sinaflan ointment helps well. I smeared the dog when she brought it. There were huge scratches on the stomach, after three days the crusts came off and that's it. She did not lick her, because. bitter ointment. Haven't tried it myself but the reviews are good.
I have a family of cats in my basement. I live on the second floor. When I leave and come home from work, cats scurry up the stairs like crazy, run to me, sleep under the door. Once I came in the evening, went to bed. I wake up in the morning, itchy all over. I see that someone has bitten. The bites look like this: slight redness with a small hole, and they do not itch as much directly as they say here. In short, I smeared it with brilliant green, washed myself in the shower, washed some clothes and bedding. But the bites continued to appear. Once, before going to bed, I saw that a black dot was sitting on my leg - I slapped it (barely), examined it better. The body is 1 mm long, such a long one. I still doubt that this is a flea, because besides it, midges lived in our apartment, but then why was it so jumpy? Friends, help! I don't want to get infected!
From flea bites, camphor alcohol helps well. Always in the first aid kit. Lubricate every day for five days.
Onions should be smeared with bites. Itching passes quickly.
Our two cats are 7 years old, and they never had fleas, and neither did the neighbors. And this year, some kind of guard: the neighbor's cat went berserk, covered with sores, they wanted to clean it up, but they smeared the scruff of the neck - and after all, everything passed. And now I'm sitting in bites, the cat itches, the bites itch. Nightmare! I dragged wormwood into the house, spread it out, I’m waiting for the result ... I read who got rid of the bites with what, thanks.I will smear everyone! Or maybe such a year is favorable for fleas, our summer began only in mid-August ...
And what kind of vinegar do you need, how many percent?