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Let's Start With The Adult Stage
of the Flea's Life Cycle
Fleas in dogs are the most common external parasites of our canine companions, and have been causing problems throughout the centuries-long battle between fleas and humans. 
Fleas often live outside and hop on the nearest passing dog.
That's how the flea gets a free ride into your house, along with a free meal -- the first of many!
They can even jump from one dog to another.
So if one Golden Retriever in your household has fleas, it's a safe bet that his buddy is playing host to the pests, too.
To keep the flea's life cycle going, adult fleas who have had their first blood meal must eat every 24 hours.
For that reason, most adult fleas will remain on their food source, which is your dog or another warm-blooded animal.
Once on the host, the female flea takes two or three blood meals a day and gets busy right away laying eggs.
Second Stage of the Flea's Life Cycle -- Eggs
As part of the flea's life cycle, the female flea can lay about 30 to 50 eggs in a day, generally in batches of 3 to 15.That means she can produce 400 to 1,000 eggs in her lifetime.
She can live for several months to two years, depending on the species.
The flea eggs are white and roundish, and look like large grains of salt.
The female flea actually sucks much more blood than she needs for herself.
That's so that right along with the eggs, she can deposit a large amount of flea feces.
The feces is often called "flea dirt," which serves as food for her babies.
(I hope you aren't trying to eat dinner right now.)
These eggs aren't sticky, and they usually fall off your dog and end up in Fido's bedding and in your carpet, furniture, floorboards, grass and soil.
The Wiggly Third Stage of the
Flea's Life Cycle--Larvae
The time it takes for the flea's eggs to hatch, to start the next stage of the flea's life cycle, will vary anywhere from two days to a few weeks, depending on the temperature and humidity.The eggs eventually hatch into larvae.
The larvae, which look like small maggots, are about a quarter inch long, and semi-transparent white.
During this stage of the flea's life cycle, the flea larvae happily take up residence in your home's carpeting, floor cracks and crevices.
They can also be found along baseboards, and in furniture or beds.
They feast on the flea feces left by their mother (rich in dried blood, as you'll recall).
They also eat pet dander and other organic matter found in the carpet and bedding.
Depending on the amount of food present and the environmental conditions, the larval stage lasts about 5 to 18 days (longer in some cases), then the larva spins a cocoon and becomes a pupa, the next stage in the life cycle of fleas.
Winding Down the Flea's Life Cycle--The Pupae Stage
During this stage of the flea's life cycle, the pupa's cocoon is sticky and often becomes covered with pet hair, carpet fiber and dust. It will remain hidden deep in carpet or crevices until it's mature. The pupa becomes a fully-grown adult while inside the cocoon.The adult flea can emerge from the cocoon as early as 3 to 5 days, or it can stay in the cocoon for a year or more, waiting for the right time to emerge.
When is the right time? (Never, say pet lovers everywhere!)
As part of the hardy flea's life cycle, the pupae can lie dormant for months, and then hatch when the climate is ideal.
Your warm home provides a perfect year-round environment for fleas.
But these insects have survived for thousands of years in a wide range of less friendly environments.
At the end of the flea's life cycle, the adult flea emerges from its cocoon full-sized and ready to go. When the flea senses vibrations, carbon dioxide, or warmth (which tell it an animal host is near), it pops out, looks around and immediately takes a leap.
Although fleas greatly prefer the flavor of dogs and cats, they'll settle for your ankle.
The length of a flea's life cycle can vary greatly, based on how long each stage lasts. The whole cycle can take anywhere from two weeks to two years, depending on the temperature, humidity, food, and species.
Which Stages of the Flea's Life Cycle Are On My Dog?
You can regularly check your Golden Retriever for fleas by parting his coat to expose his skin.Look for bits of brown "flea dirt."
When you wipe them with a wet paper towel, they dissolve into a red liquid (because it's digested blood).
If you see small, fast-moving brown shapes, chances are they're fleas.
You should also check your Golden's bedding for the presence of flea dirt or adult fleas (the easiest stage to identify out of the life cycle of fleas).
It's also easy to find out if you have fleas in the home. Just put on a pair of white socks and walk around on your carpet and wood floors for a couple of hours. If you end up with black specks on your socks, it's a good bet you have fleas.
Double-check by scraping the specks onto white paper and wet the paper with water. If the specks turn red or reddish brown, they're flea feces filled with blood. Yep, you've got fleas in the house!
The Flea's Life Cycle Extends To All Types of Fleas
Worldwide, there are over 2000 species of fleas, living out the flea's life cycle on some kind of mammal. Ironically, "cat fleas" are the most common type of flea infesting dogs in North America and many parts of Europe.Dog fleas are the next most common, and feed on humans, cats, and other animals, as well as dogs.
Hedgehog fleas are occasionally found in Great Britain, and human fleas are rare on both continents.
Sticktight fleas, or Tropical hen fleas, don't jump around on their hosts like most of the fleas we see. Instead, they burrow into the skin, lay eggs, and live out the whole life cycle of fleas in one place (creating skin ulcers in the process). The flea's life cycle doesn't take them far from home in this case. Fortunately, sticktight fleas are more commonly found on birds than dogs.
What Do Fleas Look Like?
Your main concern is probably identifying the adult stage of the flea's life cycle, so we’ll talk about that.All fleas are wingless, so their main mode of travel is jumping.
Fleas have six legs, and their hind legs are very long and powerful, making them one of the most proficient jumpers in the world, able to jump 200 times their own length.
Fleas are usually black or brownish-black and less than 1/8 of an inch (3mm) long. Viewed closely, the flea body is hard and shiny, and as tough as it looks. (If you've ever tried to kill one just by squeezing it, you know what I mean!)
Problems At Every Stage of the Flea's Life Cycle
Although one flea can't consume enough blood to bother a dog, a large number of fleas on puppies can cause anemia.
Adult fleas are more than just a nuisance to people and their pets. They can also cause medical problems like flea allergy dermatitis and tapeworms.
You need to apply whatever flea solutions or home remedies would be most helpful for your particular situation. Of course, flea prevention is still the best way to go.
A flea needs a blood meal to live and reproduce through the flea's life cycle. That means flea bites always puncture the skin.
It's actually the flea saliva, rather than the bite itself, that causes extreme itching in dogs and people who happen to be sensitive to the saliva.
Somehow, it doesn't seem to matter what actually caused the itching. Any time you get fleas on humans--or dogs--it just gets doggone itchy!
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