Draw the Pet's Map of the House
Before you count anything, work out where the animal actually spends its time. A dog has two or three places it lies down — the rug in front of the sofa, a basket in the kitchen, the carpet beside a radiator — and a cat will add the foot of a bed and the back of an armchair. Those spots, and the couple of feet of floor around each, are where the eggs, larvae and cocoons concentrate, and they decide which rooms need doing. Where fleas hide around the home fills in the less obvious ones, including beds and sofas.
Why the carpet matters more than the pet
Larvae avoid light and work down into the base of the pile, along the edge where carpet meets skirting, and under anything too heavy to be shifted. A vacuum barely reaches them there. The cocoon stage then simply waits, and a warm room with people walking through it is the signal to hatch. That is why biting carries on for a while after the animal itself has been treated, which do pet flea treatments clear the house? explains.
Foxes and other people's cats in the back gardens
Kenton back gardens run into one another and, on some streets, into the open ground near Woodcock Park. Foxes lie up beneath sheds and decking, and cats from several houses use the same warm corners. Any of them can leave eggs and larvae in a shed, a porch or under a hedge, and your own pet collects them on the way past.
Bitten in a House With No Pet
It happens far more often than people expect. A cat that visits, a dog that came to stay, a second-hand armchair or rug, or the animal that lived here before you can all leave a carpet well stocked; can you have fleas without pets? runs through the routes. Where a house has stood empty between tenancies and fleas hatch in the first week of a new let, that is a landlord's question, covered on Pest Control Kenton and in the guide for landlords.
Getting a Kenton House Ready
- Ask your vet to treat every cat and dog in the household at the same time, including a cat that lives mostly outdoors
- Vacuum slowly along the carpet edges, under the beds and around the pet's own spots, then empty the machine into the outside bin
- Wash the pet's bedding, blankets and any throws it lies on at a hot temperature
- Clear toys, shoes and storage boxes off the floors so the whole carpet can be reached
- Work the room count out before you ring, leaving the hall, the landing and the stairs out of it
The full list is in preparing a property for flea treatment, and our Brent flea advice sets out how an infestation builds up.
What normally happens afterwards
Carry on vacuuming daily for a while yet. Cocoons open over a period rather than all together, and the vibration of the machine is what prompts them. If you are still being bitten, ring us and describe it — why fleas can still bite after treatment and how long flea treatment takes to work explain what is going on.
Is It Fleas, or Something Else?
Flea bites cluster round the ankles and lower legs, because that is as high as a flea can jump from the floor, and you may find specks of dark grit in the pet's bed that turn rust-coloured on a damp tissue. How to know if you have fleas in your home goes through the checks. Bites appearing overnight on the arms, neck and shoulders belong to a different conversation about bed bugs, and itchy skin alongside small bristly larvae at a carpet edge points to carpet beetles. If a bite becomes infected, speak to a pharmacist or GP.
Keeping Fleas Out of a Kenton Family Home
Almost all of it comes back to the animals and the floors. Flea Control Brent covers the rest of the borough, and the family houses of neighbouring Kingsbury have much the same carpets and gardens behind them.
- Keep every animal's flea protection going the whole year round on your vet's advice, rather than only over the summer
- Run the vacuum over the pet's own spots weekly and put its bedding through a hot wash at the same time
- Once you are sure nothing is living under it, block the gap beneath the shed where a fox could lie up
- Fit a microchip cat flap if cats from the other gardens have been letting themselves in
- Ask the vet about a new or rescue animal's flea cover before it has the run of the bedrooms
