Flea Problems in CM19

Fleas are normally visible to the human eye; you will often observe them when they jump to a host. Should you own a house pet, or maybe you have recently moved into a property in CM19 that has had pets, then you could be at risk from fleas and flea bites.

There are two types 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 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.

After feeding on just one blood meal, a female flea is able to lay over a 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 then fall off your pet into your animals carpets or bedding. The larvae build a nest in which they mature and, up to a foftnight after, the hungry adult fleas will emerge.

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