Ok, I have a mild form of OCD. I recently found a few fleas on my dogs I can only surmise came from a dirty, outdoor dog from the neighborhood. My dogs are indoor dogs. I’ve been washing everything (4-6 loads EVERYDAY for a week now). I vaccuum. I use spray. I frontline my dogs. Anyway, I just found this bug which looks like a goddamn flea. I mean, I don’t think it is…it has mini wings that may be hard to see in the photos. But look at those fucking hind legs!!!
Is this some variation of a flea??? If not, what is this??? Ughhh…I’ve lost so much sleep this past week over the sight of these few fleas. Every little sensation I get makes me think a flea is crawling on me. I’ve been vaccuming over and over…all day long after work…I’m going crazy…UGHHH!!!
Thanks for the replies. I would be interested to know what this is. Those hind legs are wicked.
On a side note: if you are one to have a mild form of OCD, NEVER EVER let fleas get into your home. No longer will you be mildly OCD, you will be OPPRESSIVELY OCD!
I mean, that second one I posted has some girth to it. It’s an oddly shaped bug. The fleas I have seen all have large posteriors, but this bug I found has a large chest.
If they were human, it would make sense: The big assed bug is the female and the barrel chested one is the male counterpart. I’m no entomologist, but I’m pretty sure that the big ass, big chest theory has no sex identification credibility when it comes to the insect kingdom.
Calm down. Even if it was a flea, dog fleas rarely bite humans. (Cat fleas are a different matter.) There are many species of flea, and each has their own preferred animal.
Anyway, fleas don’t have wings, and that clearly does.
Thanks for all the input. I’m relieved it doesn’t appear to be some variation of a flea. It’s still interesting. I’d like to identify it for my own personal knowledge. It does have the shape of a phorid fly, but doesn’t quite look right.
Yeah, take a chill pill or 3. Fleas really aren’t such a terrible scourge, if you’re at least reasonably hygenic (and you’re obviously far more than reasonably hygenic). As mentioned, dog fleas won’t infest people; you have more to worry about guests than pups. (Uh oh, there goes the dinner party plans.)
I’m not OCD, though I can be a bit OC about some things. However, not long ago I thought we had bedbugs (despite the anti-bedbug covers my wife routinely puts on all beds). I took the bed completely apart, washed everything, cleared the entire area, etc …
… only to find not much later a little red bug crawling on me when I was doing yard work – a chigger. Nasty lil buggers! But they don’t infest indoors, and all my worry and effort regarding bedbugs was wasted.
This is a cautionary tale, which of course won’t have much impact on your behavior.
Indoor dogs? You mean they shit inside too? If not then they will probably pick up a flea or two from outside. That’s where they live. As long as you are doing the frontline and keeping your dogs clean they won’t be able to lay eggs. A flea or two is not a big deal.
