Flea Infestations in IG9

Fleas are normally visible to a regular human; you’ll most often see them as they jump to or from a host. If you own a dog, cat or other house pet, or maybe you’ve recently moved into a house in IG9 that has had pets, then you are at risk from fleas and flea bites.

There are two species 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 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 huge distances and as high as 16cm.

After feeding on just one blood meal, a female flea will lay over one 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 their bedding or carpets. The larvae build a nest where they mature and, up to 2 weeks 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 an infestation of fleas.