How an empty home fills with fleas
Eggs laid in carpet fibre by a previous pet develop into pupae that can sit dormant inside a tough cocoon for weeks if the property stands empty. Movement and body heat trigger hatching, so a house or flat left vacant between tenancies can start producing bites within days of new occupants moving in.
Is it really fleas?
Flea bites often cluster around the ankle and lower leg, and the insect jumps rather than crawls; carpet flea dirt turns reddish when dabbed on damp paper, just as near Petts Wood, where a wooded suburb of 1930s houses laid out around the railway station and shopping. A row of bites positioned higher up the body points toward bed bugs rather than another cause, as anyone near Orpington will recognise, where one of the borough's larger outer suburbs.
If you've just moved into a Bromley rental
Track when the bites started and which rooms are worst, and take photos of any flea dirt you come across, just as near Hayes, where a village-like suburb in the south of the borough. Put your landlord or agent on notice in writing straight away, whether you're in a flat near the town centre or a house further out in Orpington.
If you manage a rental property
The window between one tenancy ending and the next is the easiest time to treat fleas, nothing needs moving and no one is there to be bitten, true near Chislehurst too, where housing set against woodland and commons. Whether it's a pet kept by the previous tenant or flea dirt found at check-out, either is worth dealing with before new tenants arrive, as anyone near Bromley will recognise, where the borough's town centre.
Clearing the carpets
- Pull furniture away from walls so every edge of the room can be reached
- Vacuum thoroughly and empty it straight into an outside bin
- Wash any pet bedding on the hottest cycle it allows
- Keep using and vacuuming the rooms after treatment rather than closing them off
Booking flea treatment in Bromley
A flea job in Bromley costs £180 for the first room and £60 for each additional room, and since around Chislehurst, where housing set against woodland and commons, telling us how many rooms are carpeted and whether pets are part of the household when you book flea treatment helps, with the full detail on the Bromley flea treatment page.
