Fleas are common with pets including cats and dogs, birds, and other warm-blooded animals in their feathers and thick fur (places that flea can hide).

• Fleas are brown-colored, wingless, and tiny bugs that’ll bite pests, and humans suck blood (use flea repellents). 
• Flea doesn’t live on humans – but they’ll jump about 12+ inches to land on animals, pets, and even humans. 

But can humans carry fleas from one home to another? Well, YES but it’s rare (there are only 5% inter-host transfers) – humans will more likely get fleas from places that pets live or sleep (like flea-infested beds). 

• The human skin is less furry and thus fleas tend to jump off quickly onto other hairy animals like cats or dogs – as they can hide better here. 

Do cat fleas or dog fleas live on humans? 

Fleas (either cat fleas or dog fleas) will bite humans but they won’t live on your body. 

A recent study reported that fleas would require to bite and suck blood from a human for a minimum of 12 hours to lay viable eggs. But within this long time, they’d already been discovered and killed. 

• However, these fleas (from the over 2,500 flea species ) can live on livestock, rodents, birds, and various other mammals. 

Fleas tend to love animals that have feathers and fur – as they can hide easily in them. 

• Therefore, while there, the fleas will bite and suck blood, plus they’ll lay eggs that’ll develop into larva and pupa – promotes the growth of the infestation – try flea foggers. 

For cat or dog owners too, they know that these furry pets tend to scratch when they have bugs in them and thus may lead to major alarm.

• One reason could be flea infestation as they’re massively irritating on the pet’s skin. So, though rare, humans may pick the fleas and carry them to other homes.

What Damage do Fleas Cause in the Home?

So, if you’ve noticed some itchy and tiny bumps similar to mosquito bites – ensure to bug-treat the spaces. 

• Fleas bite humans to suck their blood – being parasites, these pets could provide some real source of the fleas. 
• Despite that flea bites can be painful, these bugs will cause diseases such Cat scratch disease (CSD), Flea-borne (murine) typhus, or Plague. 

When fleas and their larvae stages get into your house, they reproduce fast – and start laying ~ 50 eggs daily. 

So, will Humans Transfer Fleas between Homes?

Yes, humans and other animal hosts can transfer fleas between houses or homes – but this happens rarely. 

• But recent research shows that just about 5% of flea movement happens between hosts occupying the same environment including in the garden. 
• Therefore, it’s less likely that fleas will spend long times on humans to be carried to another home. 
• However, as noted above, fleas will more likely transfer between houses through flea-infested beddings and pets.

Further, pets may get fleas dropped by wild animals such as moles or wild deer in the yard. The bugs will eventually fall off from the pet’s fur into your house space. 

• Fleas will hide in various locations and can get transferred to objects including old chairs, carpet, or couches – just like with bed bugs. 
• So, when you’re moving old furniture, ensure to flea-treat them to kill the pupas, larvae, flea eggs to prevent moving the bugs into other houses or rooms. 

Before the fleas get transferred to other rooms or houses (through furniture like pet beds), ensure to control them using techniques like diatomaceous earth, steam treatment, or borax. 

• Further, you may use a bubble wrap or even freeze those pet beds or even your couch. 

Also, don’t purchase vintage or second-hand furniture or even visit shady yards – as fleas could hitch rides on them to get transferred to your house. 

Can Fleas Hide in Human Hair?

Simply, NO – fleas don’t live or stay long on the human hair.

• Fleas will mainly bite the human’s lower extremities including the legs, ankles, and feet. They’ll largely have jumped from flea-infested pet beds or second-hand furniture. 

But will these fleas pose a danger to homes, pets, and humans? Yes, these fleas could be fatal to your pets and also cause severe illnesses to humans like Flea-borne typhus. 

• Flea-borne typhus is a bacterial disease that spread to humans via flea-infected pets and animals including opossums, cats, or even rats. 

For humans, fleas may trigger health problems like “cat scratch disease”, plague and typhus – these may even spread from pets like dogs and get to humans. 

• The tiny fleas may also attach to your clothes or even jump into your vehicle to get carried to your home.

Reduce Changes of Carrying Fleas to your Home

In this section, I’ve outlined how you can reduce the chances of getting into contact with fleas – or even transporting them to your home or various rooms. 

• First, vacuum the flea-fleas spaces and rooms that had humans and pets thoroughly.
• Also, ensure to flea-treat the pets that venture outdoors more regularly using suitable flea spray or flea repellents – also ensure you declutter the crawl and barns spaces. 

1. Lemon juice and Vinegar 

You may also repel those fleas and ticks using that spray mixture of lemon juice and vinegar. – spray the yard and other home surfaces. 

• But for smaller spaces that would make sense spraying, you can massage your pet’s skin using a piece of lemon.

Further, other pet owners could feed the apple cider vinegar to those pets (or sprinkle it on food) for flea control.

The remedies are herbal and organic – and hence they will apply to your pet’s bathroom water or food – these will help repel the bugs on your skin, fur, and clothes. 

The market has a variety of flea repellents – that’ll exterminate and also prevent flea growth. 

• Some of the natural repellents include dawn dish soap, lemon spray, coconut oil, baking soda, diatomaceous earth (food-grade), rosemary, and brewer’s yeast.

2. Essential oils 

The essential oils will be great flea- repellents as they’re both economical and eco-friendly.

• The oils include cedar, lavender, peppermint, citronella, lemon, and clove. 

Luckily, these essential oils will also blend greatly with various natural ingredients.

• For example, you can mix citronella and lemon oils in some bottle + vinegar and water – this will give you a flea-repellent that’s all-natural.

While vacuuming, also remember to clean the pet’s eating and sleeping areas – and thus you’ll cut the risk of flea growth and getting transmitted.

• Seal up the flea-infested furniture and carpets inside some plastic bags to reduce their chances of reproducing.

Also, you may mix peppermint, lavender, cedar, and lemon in the pet’s bath-water to repel the fleas while also keeping the pet smelling well.

• Further, you can also mix peppermint, lavender, cedarwood, tea tree oil into some bottle spray – and you may spray it on various surfaces like the floors.

Conclusion

So, on whether humans can carry fleas to another home, YES but rarely as fleas could have been found or simply jumped off before the person gets to another house.