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.
Flea eggs hatch into larvae within one to 12 days. Larvae. Flea larvae are approximately 3 to 5.2 mm long and are semitransparent white in color. The larval stage lasts from four to 18 days, after which larvae spin silken cocoons and enter the pupal stage. The pupal stage may be complete within three days, or it can last as long as one year.