Flea Problems in CM12

Fleas are visible to the human eye; you will often observe them when they jump to a host. If you own a cat, dog or other house pet, or maybe you have recently moved into a house in CM12 that has had pets, then you could be at risk from flea infestation.

There are two types of fleas that cause problems to 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 1mm and 3mm in length, the cat flea is more of a reddish brown in appearance, while the dog flea is a slightly darker reddish black in colour with long tapering legs, allowing them to jump significant distances and as high as 16cm.

From feeding on just a single blood meal, a female flea is able to lay over 100 eggs (larva) attaching to the fur of your cat or dog.  The eggs are very small (0.5mm in length) and whitish in colour, once the larva hatch small maggots will emerge, these then fall off your pet into their carpets or bedding. The larvae build a nest where they mature and, up to 2 weeks after, the hungry adult fleas will emerge.

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