Can Cat Fleas Bite Humans?

by Michael
(London, UK)

cat flea

Can cat fleas bite humans? The answer is, yes. Although, this is a bit academic, I think, because how often do you think you have been bitten by a cat flea and how do you know?

That said my research indicates that people want to know.

I have a confession to make. I am certain I have been bitten by a cat flea! Shameful isn’t it…Well not really. I regularly comb both my cats for fleas. In any case they like it. It is like giving them effleurage or a kind of scalp massage. Charlie with his single coat prefers it more than my lady cat as the comb goes through the fur more easily.

Both are flea free at the moment (I hope) but as they both go outside they can pick them up. When you comb a cat with a flea comb, as you might have discovered, you pick them up on the comb and they can then jump off back onto the cat or in this case onto me. You have to be fast and attack them with brutal force while on the comb! Well, that is my style, anyway. On one or two occasions one has jumped off the comb onto my arm and I have not noticed, where they have bitten me. The bite leaves a small bump and the area is itchy for a while – the usual kind of thing.

As we know cat fleas are blood suckers and astonishingly ghuman foot with flea biteood  jumpers. If we were fleas we could jump over a house.

Fleas are incredibly strong too; taking a considerable amount of precision to crush them to death. They still wriggle when flattened. It’s war….. They can also live for long periods without feeding and jump on and off the host.

I think that we should always monitor, on a daily basis if we can, our cats for cat fleas (Ctenocephalides felis). Cat fleas are part of the life cycle of the tapeworm (see tapeworms in felines – and cat flea life cycle). Cat fleas infest dogs too.

Associated pages:

Cat Parasites

Flea treatments can kill

Controlling cat fleas (in a standard one or two cat home)

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Can cat fleas bite humans – Photo top right: published under a published under Wikimedia® creative commons license license = Attribution-ShareAlike License – Original uploader was Andybrookestar at en.wikipedia

Photo bottom right – unknown source – photo in the public domain.

From Can cat fleas bite humans to cat health problems

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Can Cat Fleas Bite Humans?

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Nov 26, 2010 Loving CATs!!!
by: mousum

I love this info on cats.
Nice information, valuable and excellent design, as share good stuff with good ideas and concepts, lots of great information and inspiration…


May 16, 2010 Been bitten by hordes of fleas
by: Finn Frode, Denmark

Oh yes, I’ve been bitten by hordes of hungry cat fleas, but fortunately not for many years now. Once we had moved into an appartment with dormant flea eggs from the previous tennants. In case people don’t know flea eggs can actually wait for years before they hatch. It was a hot summer and the problem escalated in no time. Just walking across the floor in the morning meant getting multiple bites from fleas, who were also up for an early breakfast! 😉

Back then the only solution was to spray the entire appartment with a toxic substance smelling like kerosine. It killed the fleas, but I’ve often wondered about it’s long time effects to cats and humans incl. our children. Also if you missed just a few cracks between the floorbords, some eggs would survive and the fleas were sure to return.

But for the last 15 years the cats have had no fleas at all – and neither have we. We medicate our cats with Program Vet once a month. It does not kill fleas, but it prevents the flea larvas from developing into fleas. I’m not sure what it’s called elsewhere, but the active ingredient is called Lufenuron. Actually now we only use Program during the summer half-year, becuse our cats are indoors only and not at high risk of catching fleas.

Finn Frode avatar


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