American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN) - The Clinical Nurse Leader; American Association of Colleges of Nursing's White Paper on the Education and the Role of the Clinical Nurse Leader; American Association of Managed Care Nurses; American Board of Managed Care Nursing; AONE Institute for Leadership Research & Education
1 Female fleas cannot lay eggs until after their first blood meal and begin to lay eggs within 36-48 hours after that meal. 2  The female flea can lay 2,000 eggs in her lifetime.  The female flea consumes 15 times her own body weight in blood daily.
When you initiated treatment, it can be assumed that eggs were laid earlier that day. It takes around 2 days for those eggs to hatch, 7 days for the larvae to pupate, and another 7 days until the adult stage is reached. In homes, you can expect the full life cycle to complete in 17 to 26 days. While no new fleas should be able to successfully develop past 26 days, one life stage is a problem.