How pets bring fleas indoors
A dog or cat that spends time in the garden picks up flea eggs outdoors as a matter of course, and those eggs are carried in and shed across the carpet without anyone noticing at the time. It's only once the household routine changes - a holiday, a house move, new carpet fitted - that the eggs already there get disturbed and hatch in numbers.
Is it really fleas?
A flea bite tends to sit low down, around the ankle, and the insect itself jumps rather than crawls; the dark dirt it leaves behind turns reddish if dabbed on damp paper. Bites higher up, in a row along an arm, point somewhere else - see the Redbridge bed bug guide instead.
Woodford and Gants Hill's family gardens
The larger gardens typical of Woodford's semis and the interwar houses around Gants Hill mean pets here are often outdoors for long stretches, which keeps a steady trickle of flea eggs arriving on the carpet even when nobody's noticed a bite yet.
If you're moving or letting a property
A property standing empty between an old occupant and a new one is the easiest time to deal with fleas, since there's nothing in the way and nobody around to be bitten. A previous pet, or flea dirt found during check-out, is reason enough to act before new tenants arrive - the same pattern holds near Ilford, where the town centre and surrounding streets.
Clearing the carpets
- Pull furniture away from the walls so every edge of the room can be reached
- Vacuum thoroughly and empty the vacuum straight into an outside bin
- Wash pet bedding and any affected throws on the hottest cycle they allow
- Keep using and vacuuming the rooms normally after treatment - the activity draws remaining eggs to hatch
Booking flea treatment in Redbridge
A flea job in Redbridge costs £180 for the first room and £60 for each additional room, and since around Barkingside, where comfortable 1930s semis and terraces along the high street, 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 Redbridge flea treatment page.
