Flea Problems in Manor House

Fleas are usually quite visible to humans; you will often observe them when they jump from or to a host. Should you own a house pet, or maybe you’ve just moved into a house in Manor House that has had pets, then you could be at risk from flea infestation.

There are 2 main 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) and 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, while 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 is able to lay over one hundred eggs (larva) attaching to the fur of your pet.  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 two 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.