Flea Infestations in Ilford

Fleas are usually normally visible to a regular human; you’ll most often observe them when they jump to or from a host. Should you own a cat, dog or other house pet, or maybe you have recently moved into a home in Ilford that has had pets, then you could be at risk from flea infestation.

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

Both species of flea are between 1mm and 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 can lay over one hundred eggs (larva) attaching to the fur of your pet.  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 in which they mature and, up to two weeks after, the adult fleas will emerge.

Flea droppings are best described as looking like ground black pepper, and a careful search of the property may indicate an infestation of fleas.