Flea Infestations in Silvertown E16

Fleas are usually normally visible to a regular human; you’ll most often spot 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 property in Silvertown that has had pets, then you are at risk from flea bites and fleas.

There are 2 main species of fleas that cause problems to 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.

From feeding on just a single blood meal, a female flea will lay over 100 eggs (larva) attaching to the fur of your dog or cat.  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 bedding or carpets. The larvae build a nest where they mature and, up to 2 weeks after, the adult fleas will emerge.

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