What Are Signs of Fleas in Your Bed?
Cozying up to a dog or cat in bed can be soothing, unless your furry friend has fleas. Fleas bite people as well as pets — and if your pet typically shares your bed, they may bring fleas with them.
Many pet owners sleep with their companion animals. One older small 2015 study in people with sleep disorders found that more than 50% of pet owners let their four-legged pals share their bedroom.
While fleas are typically harmless to humans, flea bites do itch. They can also make your pet very sick.
If you're wondering why you and your pet can't stop scratching, read on to learn about the signs of fleas in bed and what you can do to get rid of fleas forever.
What are some signs you may have fleas in your bed?
Thousands of flea species exist. The most common types in the United States are dog fleas (Ctenocephalides canis) and cat fleas (Ctenocephalides felis). Either kind will bite dogs, cats, rabbits, and other furry mammals. If they have access, they may also bite birds.
Fleas bite people, too, though they won't stay on you for long. Fleas prefer to nestle in fur or feathers, rather than skin or hair.
Fleas like to live on a blood host. They won't take up residence in your bed, but they will leave evidence that they've been there.
If your pet has fleas, the eggs may roll off their fur and onto your bed, where they'll hatch. Adult fleas can jump long distances and may make their way onto bedding.
Signs of fleas in your bed include:
Bites
If you notice itchy red dots on your body, you may have a flea infestation. Multiple flea bites may appear as a straight line. In some instances, flea bites may have a red halo surrounding their center.
You may have additional side effects if you're allergic to fleas or have a strong reaction to the bites. Symptoms include:
Residue (flea dirt)
All insects poop, including fleas. Flea dirt, or residue, looks like tiny black dots. If your pet has fleas and sleeps with you, you'll likely see or feel flea dirt on your sheets.
Flea dirt is primarily made up of the host's blood. Fleas with a host nearby consume much more blood than they need to survive daily. Fleas often excrete while biting and may release 10 or more drops of flea dirt while they feed.
Pet scratching
It can be hard to see flea bites on your pet, so you may want to pay attention to whether your pet is scratching or appearing to gnaw or bite its own skin.
Fleas can infest an animal's entire body. This causes widespread itching and discomfort. If left untreated, your pet may develop skin infections or a rash from constantly breaking their skin while scratching.
Even if your pet is housebound and never goes outside, they can still get fleas. Fleas can travel into homes on the soles of shoes or on clothing. If your pet is scratching, they may have a flea infestation.
What do fleas and eggs look like?
Fleas don't live long lives, but they do go through several stages of development:
Eggs: Female fleas lay up to eight eggs after each feeding. The oval-shaped eggs are loose and can roll around. They may land on any surface, including your bed. They can remain there until they hatch, 1 to 12 days later. Flea eggs are clear to white in color and resemble dandruff flakes or salt.
Larvae: Flea eggs grow into larvae. Flea larvae look like small, translucent worms or maggots. You may be able to see black matter inside their bodies, especially under a microscope. This stage lasts for about a week.
Pupae: Flea larvae grow a cocoon to become incubating pupae. Their cocoons are sticky, so dust can get caught on them. Flea pupae look a lot like flea dirt. Pupae can remain alive and ready to hatch for up to 1 year under warm, humid conditions.
Adult fleas: Fleas are tiny, but they're not microscopic. If your home is infested, you may see them in carpets or bedding. Fleas are wingless. They range from light reddish-brown to black in color. Their bodies are tough and can be hard to squish. Fleas move very quickly and can jump as high as 13 inches. You may see them moving around on your pet's skin, but you probably won't see them nestling on top of the fur. They are easiest to see on your pet's belly.
How long do fleas live on beds and furniture?
Fleas need blood to survive. In the presence of a host, a flea can live up to 1 year. Without a host, they can survive for only 1 or 2 weeks.
If your home is warm and humid, they may live longer than they would under dry or cold conditions. That's why spring and summer are flea seasons.
Fleas like to burrow into carpeting and bedding, but they won't live there for long if they don't have a host to feed from. Fleas are more likely to live on your pet's body than on your sheets or blankets.
How can you treat beds and upholstery for fleas?
If you have fleas, daily vacuuming of all soft surfaces, including carpets and upholstered furniture, such as couches and chairs, can help remove them.
You can sprinkle flea powder onto carpets and rugs and vacuum it up later. Sprays are also available for treatment around the house.
Throw out the vacuum bag each time you vacuum. The suction action of vacuuming may kill many fleas in all stages of their lives, but it probably won't kill all of them. Fleas can continue to live and lay eggs in vacuum cleaner bags for 1 to 2 weeks.
Wash your sheets, blankets, and pet's bedding in hot water every few days. If you have curtains, you should launder them often, especially if they touch the floor.
How can you prevent fleas?
The most common way fleas get into homes is on the bodies of pets. Talk with a veterinarian about the best type of flea prevention products for your furry or feathered friend.
Some products kill existing fleas, eggs, larvae, and pupae and prevent future infestations. You can also get dual-prevention products that protect your pet from ticks and fleas. These may be especially beneficial if your pet lives in or often visits grassy or wooded areas.
When using flea prevention products, make sure you stick to a schedule. Some require monthly reapplication.
Even while using these products regularly, check your pet often for fleas. This may be easiest to do during bathing, when you can see their skin clearly.
Flea prevention products
You can choose from among many different types of flea prevention products for your pets. They include:
chewables and pills (prescription and over-the-counter)
flea collars
topical lotions or gels
shampoos
Talk with a veterinarian about what products are right for your pet. Product recommendations may vary depending on the size and age of your pet.
Long-haired animals should also be groomed often, especially during hot weather. This will make them more comfortable and make spotting fleas and flea dirt easier.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
CBS News
17 minutes ago
- CBS News
Maryland Institute College of Art teams up with senior living center for art display
A unique partnership between the Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA) and a senior living center is on display in Baltimore. MICA's community arts program agreed to lead art classes for the residents of the North Oaks Senior Living Community, with their artwork out for all visitors to admire at its Fred Lazarus Center. North Oaks is a multi-level retirement community that offers independent living, assisted living, skilled nursing, and rehabilitation. "When you have an opportunity to express yourself, you never know what's going to come out," said Susan Sidle, a North Oaks Senior Living Community resident. The exhibit will be on display through Sunday, August 3. Lorena Garcia, a MICA graduate student, taught the classes during her 2025 spring semester to more than 30 residents at North Oak. "Our goal was really not to just work one specific medium, such as just painting, but to explore collages, to explore clay, to explore jewelry making," Garcia said. According to research from the National Library of Medicine, creative activities like arts and crafts can promote healthy aging, even prolong someone's life. Research also shows that creating art can help improve small motor skills and boost self-confidence. "In the community arts program, we work with a variety of intergenerational populations throughout Baltimore city, providing art space and educational workshops for them and with them as well," said Unique Robinson, the director of community arts at MICA. "To make something that you're proud of, to discover a different aspect of yourself, I think is something is something at any age you can do," Garcia added. North Oaks Senior Living Community residents Jules and Susan Sidle aren't your typical artists or couple. For the Sidles and their friends, Gloria Greenspun and Nadine Goldman, art is timeless. As a matter of fact, they told WJZ most of them have never painted or had their work on display in an art exhibit before. "I had the best time and smiled and laughed and had a great time and learned something as well," Greenspun said. "I felt better about myself." The four residents who have known each other for decades decided the art class would be an enjoyable activity they could do together. "Everybody has a skill, you just have to use it," said Jules Sidle.
CBS News
34 minutes ago
- CBS News
A mom says an "everything bagel" caused her to fail a drug test. The hospital reported her to child protective services anyway
A new mother from Alabama is warning pregnant patients after she says eating an "everything bagel" for breakfast before giving birth to her second child upended her family last spring. It all stemmed from the unexpected results of one urine drug test — a routine test given to thousands of maternity patients across the country. It illustrates the findings of a joint investigation between "CBS Sunday Morning" and The Marshall Project that found the percentage of false positive results from urine drug tests to be as high as 50%. "It was almost like an out-of-body experience. I mean, I truly could not believe that it was happening," Katie, of Huntsville, who asked to only be referred to by her first name, told "CBS Sunday Morning." She was shocked to learn she tested positive for opiates. The bagel Katie ate was seasoned with poppy seeds, which come from the same plant cultivated for the production of opiates like morphine and codeine and can trigger a false positive test result for opiates. The fact that poppy seeds can cause a false positive test result is well documented. In fact, the U.S. Department of Defense even issued a warning in 2023 to service members that "consumption of poppy seed products could result in a codeine positive urinalysis result." A 2001 Supreme Court ruling determined that maternity patients cannot be tested for illegal drugs without their informed consent or a valid warrant if the test's sole purpose is to obtain evidence of criminal conduct for law enforcement purposes. But many hospitals routinely test patients, arguing the tests have a medical purpose. Katie agreed to what she believed to be a routine drug screening, simply thinking she had nothing to worry about. "I signed and said, 'Yes, that's fine,'" Katie, who took the drug test before giving birth, explained. "I didn't take any over-the-counter medicine. I didn't take Tylenol." The practice of drug testing pregnant patients before giving birth dates back to the 1980s crack epidemic and has continued in more recent years amid today's opioid epidemic. There were an estimated 54,743 overdose deaths involving opioids in 2024, data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows. According to a review by The Marshall Project, hospitals in at least 27 states across the U.S. are required by law to alert child welfare authorities to a positive drug test or potential exposure — even before a second, more definitive test can be given to the mother to ensure it wasn't a false positive. This often leads to long and stressful investigations that can turn a family's life upside-down. Hours after giving birth at Crestwood Medical Center, Katie feared both of her children could be taken away, when a member of the Alabama Department of Human Resources showed up in her hospital room to discuss her positive drug screen. The state social worker asked Katie to sign a safety plan, a written agreement between a parent and CPS that outlines specific steps to be taken to ensure the safety and protection of a child amid an ongoing investigation. "Safety plans are developed to protect children from safety threats when the parents'/primary caregivers' protective capacities are insufficient. Safety plans are based on identifiable safety threats and coupled with diminished parental/primary caregiver protective capacities which place the child at present or impending danger," the department's administrative code states. Katie said she was told both of her children would be removed from her custody if she didn't sign the safety plan. Overwhelmed by the terrifying thoughts racing in her head, Katie signed the plan. For nearly a month, Katie said she was only allowed monitored time with her children. And although she was breastfeeding her newborn, she still had to leave her home every night when everyone was asleep and only return in the morning when she could be supervised. "I would leave the house and I would, I mean, scream in my car because I was so devastated to leave her," said Katie, apologizing for choking up. "It was torture; it was pain I've never felt before." In a statement to "CBS Sunday Morning," Crestwood Medical Center said its health care workers conduct a urine drug screen on all patients admitted for labor and delivery "to help assess any potential medical needs of the mother and newborn." If a test is positive, the hospital said it immediately orders a confirmatory test, and notifies the Department of Human Resources in compliance with Alabama State Law. "We understand that false positive results can occur and make every effort to keep mother and child together in the hospital until a confirmatory test result is received. In these situations, our physicians, our neonatal care team and DHR work collaboratively on appropriate safety plans considering all of the information available about the mother and newborn at the time," Crestwood said. Katie said the medical center did order a second confirmatory test in her case, but health care workers had already called the Alabama Department of Human Resources, triggering an investigation. Confirmatory drug tests are sent off to a laboratory since they require a more thorough analysis. It can take up to 5 business days after receiving the sample for the lab to process and send results. By the time the second round of drug test results arrived, showing both Katie and her baby were clear of any substances, the state-run agency's child welfare probe was well underway. Katie claims the negative results weren't enough to stop the investigation, but the Department of Human Resources closed the case after a month, when she and her husband hired an attorney. Dr. Kelley Butler, a family medicine doctor in San Diego, California, called situations like Katie's "entirely unfair." "Let's also be clear: one positive urine toxicology does not equal a substance use disorder by the DSM-5 criteria," Butler explained, referring to a diagnostic tool used by mental health professionals to help diagnose certain conditions or disorders. "All it says is this person was exposed to something that made this test positive. Hello! As in the case of this everything bagel, which probably had poppy seeds, which can be a false positive for opiates." A National Library of Medicine study confirmed ingesting poppy seeds in food products like pastries, bagels, muffins or cakes can show concentrations of morphine in urine drug tests. While the highest concentrations of total morphine were found between three and eight hours after consumption, they could still show up within a 48-hour window. That's why the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency advises athletes to avoid eating anything containing poppy seeds for at least a few days before competitions, warning that it "can't predict how long morphine or morphine metabolites from poppy seeds will stay in your system." But it's not just poppy seeds that can lead to faulty test results. There's an entire suite of medications, foods and exposures that are safe to take during pregnancy or have been prescribed by a physician that can result in false positives. The National Library of Medicine also reports that over-the-counter cough suppressants like dextromethorphan, and antibiotics to treat bacterial infections like rifampin and quinolone, can also cause false positive opiate test results. Perhaps even more unsettling than accidentally ingesting something that could result in a positive opiate test, a mother can be investigated if she or the baby tests positive for opiates even when the medication was given to her by the hospital during labor. That's exactly what Victoria Villanueva says happened to her. She was 18 years old in 2017 when she gave birth to her first child in an Indiana hospital. Her medical records show that she tested negative for any illicit substances upon entering the hospital and was given morphine during labor to ease pain – but that didn't stop the hospital from reporting her to the Indiana Department of Child Services when her newborn daughter tested positive for opiates. "I was bawling my eyes out, because I was thinking, well, they were going to take my baby away," Villanueva told "CBS Sunday Morning." Villanueva and her husband both passed drug tests, but — like Katie — she was still required to sign a safety plan. She believes that it may have been because she had admitted to once experimenting with drugs two years earlier. Over the next month, a social worker came regularly to check on her and inspect her home. "I was robbed of that experience to like, you know, actually be able to enjoy my child. Honestly, I was just too busy worrying about DCS, and them, possibly, taking my daughter away from me," she said. Lynn Paltrow, founder of Pregnancy Justice, who was part of the legal team that won the 2001 Supreme Court decision that ruled it unconstitutional to use drug test results solely to criminally prosecute pregnant women, says a single test result should never be relied on to report a mother. A positive drug test "can't tell you if I'm addicted [or] I'm dependent and it certainly cannot tell you how I parent. And yet for thousands of women in this country, and families, probably millions, a drug test is used as a parenting test," Paltrow said. Butler suggests hospitals use different forms of screening, like verbal questions, to identify potential substance use issues that could affect the birth or baby. Verbal screening or questionnaires are also recommended by most major medical groups, including the American Medical Association and The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. The National Library of Medicine also acknowledges that toxicology testing of pregnant patients has some limitations and possible negative consequences and said it should always be done with a woman's consent. The reporting of drug use during pregnancy to child welfare agencies "is strongly biased against racial and ethnic minorities, even following concerted efforts to prevent such bias. A positive toxicology test also shows evidence of use, but does not provide any information about the nature or extent of that use; similarly, a negative test does not rule out substance use, which is often sporadic," the National Library of Medicine states. Last fall, New Jersey Attorney General Mathew Platkin filed a civil rights lawsuit against the hospital group Virtua Health, accusing it of singling out pregnant mothers and drug testing them without their informed consent. Jennifer Khelil, executive vice president and chief clinical officer at Virtua Health, told "CBS Sunday Morning" that New Jersey law requires hospitals and health care providers to report positive drug screen results to the state's child protection agency, which then completes its own assessment and works directly with the families on next steps. "The devastating toll of the opioid epidemic requires thorough and equitable processes for identifying and supporting babies with neonatal opioid withdrawal syndrome and related conditions," Khelil said. Virtua Health implemented a universal urine drug testing policy — as an effort to "avoid subjectivity in testing," according to Khelil — for pregnant patients delivering at its hospitals back in 2018. In October 2024, a week after Platkin's suit was filed, the hospital group modified its universal urine testing protocol. A Virtua Health spokesperson told NJ Spotlight News at the time that it now screens pregnant patients admitted at its hospitals based on "patient indications." "I think it's wrong. When you're ruining precious moments of people's lives and uprooting things, you can't just shrug it off and say, well, sorry you fell in the cracks," Katie said. Nearly a year later, Katie is pregnant again — and the same fears are weighing on her. She spoke with her new doctor about refusing a drug screen this time, but says she was told that the hospital would report her to Alabama Department of Human Resources if she declined. "So I feel trapped. This all just happened a year ago. So it's very fresh. And I'm very wounded still from it, and terrified of it happening again," Katie said.
Washington Post
an hour ago
- Washington Post
NIH cuts spotlight a hidden crisis facing patients with experimental brain implants
Carol Seeger finally escaped her debilitating depression with an experimental treatment that placed electrodes in her brain and a pacemaker-like device in her chest. But when its batteries stopped working, insurance wouldn't pay to fix the problem and she sank back into a dangerous darkness. She worried for her life, asking herself: 'Why am I putting myself through this?'
