Flea Infestations in IG5

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 just moved into a home in IG5 that has had pets, then you are at risk from flea bites and fleas.

There are two types of fleas that cause problems 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 flea species 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 significant distances and as high as 16cm.

From feeding on just a single blood meal, a female flea will lay over a hundred eggs (larva) attaching to the fur of your cat or dog.  These 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 your animals bedding or carpets. The larvae build a nest in which they mature and, up to 2 weeks after, the hungry adult fleas will emerge.

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