SPOTTING THE SIGNS OF A HOME FLEA INFESTATION
Fleas are a common problem for pet owners and can also bite humans, causing discomfort and potential allergic reactions. They commonly originate from outdoor areas and can hitch a ride into homes on pets or clothing. Regular grooming and treating pets for fleas, vacuuming frequently, and maintaining a tidy yard can help prevent flea infestations.
Fleas don’t live on humans but will give us a good bite to check us out first. These bites are recognizable as itchy red spots, particularly around the ankles in the case of a home infestation.
Tiny white things on the floor or pet bedding
Flea eggs and larvae are pretty small and so are hard to spot. If there’s a home infestation, we might just see things that look like grains of sand or salt, or little white caterpillars on the floor or other places our pets go, such as their bed or a sofa.
Scratching pets
If pets are scratching, overgrooming or have bits of flea dirt on them (this looks like normal dirt but goes reddish brown when on damp paper) these are signs they have an infestation, and a pet infestation inevitably leads to a home infestation.
What a home infestation really means
To understand how these signs of a home infestation have come about and how to solve the problem. There are two key points:
1. Each female flea on a pet can lay up to 50 eggs a day. These fall off the pet around the home.
2. The fleas we see on our pets are just 5% of the total flea population in an infestation. That’s because 95% are in the pet’s environment (our homes!) as other flea life stages.
HOW TO GET RID OF FLEAS IN THE HOUSE
Treat all pets for fleas
Even if the little pests have only been spotted on one pet, all cats and dogs in the house need to be flea treated (if they haven’t been already) or the problem won’t be fixed.
Regularly vacuum everywhere your pet has been
Seeing adult fleas unfortunately means there will be flea life stages (eggs, larvae and pupae) around the place, waiting to develop into new fleas.
So, it’s time to get busy with that vac wherever your pets go. Hard floors, furnishings, the car, carpets and rugs – they all need doing.
Wash pet bedding
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As flea eggs scatter wherever our pets go, somewhere they lie or sleep is going to be infested with flea life stages.