Flea Problems in Hackney E9

Fleas are usually visible to humans; you’ll most often see them as they jump to a host. Should you own a house pet, or maybe you have just moved into a home in Hackney that has had pets, then you could be at risk from flea bites and fleas.

There are 2 main types of fleas that cause issues with homeowners and tenants, and they are the Dog Flea (known as Ctenocephalides canis –https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dog_flea) and the Cat flea (known as Ctenocephalides felis – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cat_flea).

Both species of flea are between 1-3mm in length, the cat flea is more of a reddish brown in appearance, whilst the dog flea is a slightly darker reddish black in colour with long tapering legs, allowing them to jump huge distances and as high as 16cm.

From feeding on just one blood meal, a female flea will lay over 100 eggs (larva) attaching to the fur of your dog or cat.  The eggs are very small (0.5mm in length) and whitish in colour, once the larva hatch small maggots will emerge, these will then fall off your pet into their carpets or bedding. The larvae build a nest where they mature and, up to two weeks after, the hungry adult fleas will emerge.

Flea droppings can be best described as looking like ground black pepper, and a careful search of the property may indicate the presence of fleas.