Question

flea   Hi Jack, hope you can help me figure out what I'm dealing with here and how to go about fixing it.

I recently (5 days ago) moved into a room in a shared house just outside of Portland Oregon, around the Tigard area. Now I have reason to believe that there have been flea problems in the house before as I found a bottle of carpet treatment for fleas in the laundry room and an old box of kitty litter outside (cats carry fleas at some point, cannot be helped as we all know), there is absolutely a problem with flies here, and other than that the occasional spider (including one with the abdomen the size of a marble!).

But since earlier today I've noticed tiny little bugs (description later on, cannot provide photos as I do not have any way of uploading any) crawling on my legs and once on my arm, and whenever I go to flick them off or squash them they jump off just like a flea and blend right into the carpet, and if I do spot one preemptively they hop into obscurity in one spring.

Now I have had bites from fleas and chiggers I think as early as a month ago, but have since then had no more bites since then (I was in Philadelphia when those happened). I noticed very small red dots on my ankles, feet, and legs today. Smaller than a chigger or flea bite, no swelling, no itching,like I said much smaller, and super red.

I'm feeling very positive that these marks are related to the bugs as I've noticed them both for the first time today.

Further description of bug:

If I remember right fleas are pure black, so tiny you have to be looking at them on a white or otherwise bright surface or have to look very close to notice them, and from a general glance they are almost round looking.

These bugs are a little easier to spot due to them being bigger, and I want to say they are kind of longer than a flea, are smallest at the head and get much larger towards the rear end, at a side profile view it's like a rain drop.

It has many legs, very long ones at the back, and no antennae as far as I can tell without a microscope. Also can't see any tail appendages. And to add to the shape, the outer shell is rather narrow and it does not look very gutsy if that makes sense.

It's color is black with a hint of brown. It's shiny under a lamp as well.

Honestly it looks exactly like a flea except it isn't gutsy, and the only thing giving me hope it isn't a flea is that I do not have flea like bites.

I've heard springtails often get mistaken for fleas for the similar jumping, but after looking at some photos they look way too small and have very obvious antennae.

Oh, found a pic that can give you an idea of the size, it's of a flea mind you, which has me worried. My fingers are smaller than that guy's and the bug is the same size looking on my finger as that one, so it' smaller.

Honestly I'm now thinking it's a flea, but I'm hoping I've provided enough information in this long rant to give you a good idea of what it might be, hopefully the "it" is something other than a flea.

Thank you very much in advance for any assistance you can offer.

Sincerely,

Trent

P.S. It has been very dry here for a while, I know the weather and condition of the soil has an effect on bugs and causing certain ones to come indoors etc.

Answer
Trent,

Hard to say for sure without a picture of the actual bug but the description does sound like a flea. See http://www.livingwithbugs.com/fleas.html for more pictures. Springtails are much smaller and seldom found above ground level (see http://www.livingwithbugs.com/springtails.html for a picture). These are the only things that jump like you describe. If you find more try to catch one so that it can be examined more closely. You might contact your county Extension office (www.extension.org) and have them take a look.

Jack DeAngelis