The Animal's Route Through a Preston House
Follow the pet for a day and you have mapped the problem. A dog comes back up the drive, is towelled off in the porch or the garage, walks the hall, settles on the rug in front of the television and finishes the night on a landing or in somebody's bedroom. A cat uses the flap on the back door, sleeps on an airing cupboard shelf in winter and a sunny windowsill in summer, and moves between them without being noticed. Nearly all household flea problems here are the cat flea, which lives just as happily on a dog, and every place the animal rests for any length of time can collect eggs. Where fleas hide around the home covers the less obvious ones.
Cats and foxes crossing the back gardens
The back gardens on these streets run into one another, with hedges and fence lines that make a decent road for anything on four legs. A neighbour's cat sunning itself on the warm block paving, or a fox that comes up the drive after dark and lies up in a quiet corner of the garden, can leave fleas behind in places your own animal then chooses to sit. It is also why a household with no pet at all can end up being bitten — a cat coming in through a flap the previous owners fitted, or a fox resting under an old garage, is enough. Can you have fleas without pets? goes into how that happens.
Carpets, Rugs and the Places the Pile Is Deepest
Flea larvae avoid light. They work their way down between the fibres and towards the edges of a room, under the sofa, along the skirting, beneath the bed, exactly where an upright vacuum passes over rather than into. That makes fitted bedroom carpet, a thick rug by the fire and an upholstered chair the animal has claimed the three places worth checking first, and it is why a house with bare boards downstairs and carpet upstairs often has its problem entirely on the first floor. Can fleas live in beds and sofas? takes on the furniture side of it. Bites on the arms, neck and shoulders that appear overnight are a different question and point towards bed bugs instead.
The garage, the utility and the car
The dog bed by the back door, the old towel in the garage, the blanket on the back seat of the car and the basket in the utility room are all resting places, even though none of them is a room anyone would think to mention when booking. Say where they are, because eggs and larvae sit there just as readily as in the living room. How to know if you have fleas in your home describes what to look for — the dark specks of flea dirt in bedding are usually easier to find than the fleas.
Counting the Rooms Before You Ring
Work out which rooms have affected carpet, rugs or upholstered furniture and count those. Halls, landings and stairs are not counted as rooms, even though a stair carpet may well need attention, and a kitchen with a hard floor and a dog bed in the corner is worth mentioning rather than guessing about. If the pet sleeps in one bedroom and spends its days on the sofa, those two rooms are the starting point. Our Brent flea advice sets out the wider picture, and Flea Control Brent covers the rest of the borough.
Getting a Preston House Ready
- Speak to your vet about treating every cat and dog in the house at the same time, including a cat that is mostly outdoors
- Vacuum the affected carpets, rugs, stairs and upholstery slowly, working into the edges and under the beds, then empty the cylinder or bag into the outside bin
- Put pet bedding, blankets and the towel from the porch through a hot wash
- Clear toys, shoes, boxes and washing baskets off the floors so the carpet can actually be reached
- Write down the rooms you are counting, and add the garage, utility or car if the animal sleeps there
Preparing a property for flea treatment has the full list. Tell us when you book how many rooms are involved, what the floors are, and whether there are pets in the house at the moment or only were until recently.
In the weeks afterwards
Keep vacuuming regularly. Fleas still inside their cocoons hatch over a period rather than all at once, and the vibration of somebody walking about encourages them out, which is the point of carrying on. How long that tails off depends on the house and how established the fleas had become. If bites are not easing or you are still finding live fleas on the animal, get back in touch and describe what you are seeing. Why fleas can still bite after treatment explains what is normal in between, and carpet beetle larvae along a carpet edge can irritate skin in a way that is sometimes mistaken for bites.
Keeping Fleas Out of a Family House
Almost all of this is about the animals, indoors and out. Neighbouring Sudbury has the same family houses and gardens, and much the same routine applies there.
- Keep every pet's flea protection up to date on your vet's advice, all year rather than only in summer
- Wash pet bedding often and vacuum the spots the animal favours, rather than only the middle of the room
- Fit a microchip flap if other cats are letting themselves in at the back door
- Once you are certain no animal is underneath, close off the gaps where a fox could lie up against the garage or under a shed
- Ask your vet to check any new or rescued animal before it settles onto the carpets
