Flea Control

Fleas: the Short Version

The thing that makes fleas frustrating is that the ones you can see are the smallest part of the problem. By the time anyone notices a flea, the carpet already holds eggs, larvae and cocoons, and they will keep hatching for weeks whatever you do to the adults.

So a flea job has two halves that have to happen together: the pet, treated by a vet, and the property, treated by us. Do one without the other and the problem comes straight back, which is why most people have already tried something before they ring.

We treat fleas in houses, flats, homes with cats and dogs, and in business premises — offices, shops, kennels, catteries, grooming salons and veterinary practices. Same-day and emergency appointments are available, including evenings and weekends, and there is no call-out fee.

If the property is empty and this is a changeover or an end-of-tenancy obligation, that is a different job with a different method, and it has its own section: end of tenancy flea fumigation.

Ring 01908 465226.

Signs

How To Tell It Is Fleas

Four signs. The third is the one that settles it.

• The pet scratching more than usual. Normally the first thing anyone notices, often weeks before a person gets bitten. Some animals chew at the base of the tail or the back of the thighs rather than scratch.
• Bites around the ankles and lower legs. Fleas jump from the floor, so that is where they land. Small, red, intensely itchy, often two or three close together.
• Flea dirt. Dark specks like coarse ground pepper in the pet's coat, on its bedding, or on a pale carpet. It is adult flea faeces, which is mostly dried blood. Put some on damp white kitchen paper and it smears rust-red. Soil does not. That is the test.
• Adults in the carpet pile. Around 1.5 to 3mm, dark reddish-brown, flattened side to side rather than top to bottom, and they jump, not fly. White socks and a slow walk across the carpet will often pick a few up where you can see them.

The commonest flea in a British home is the cat flea, and it is the commonest one on dogs too, so what the pet is does not change much about the treatment.

Photographs on this page are for illustration purposes only.

The real problem

Why the Carpet Matters More Than the Pet

This is the single fact that explains everything else on this page.

An adult flea feeds on the animal and lays its eggs there, but the eggs are smooth and they do not stick. They roll off wherever the animal goes — its bed, your bed, the sofa, the hall carpet, the stairs, the car. The eggs hatch into larvae, which are not interested in the pet at all. They avoid light, work their way down into the base of the carpet pile, under furniture and along the edge of the skirting, feeding on the flea dirt the adults have dropped.

Then they spin a cocoon. And the cocoon is the reason flea jobs go wrong.

Add it up and the great majority of a household flea population at any moment is not on the animal. It is eggs, larvae and cocoons in the fabric of the room. Treating the pet deals with the visible minority. It is necessary, and on its own it will not end it.

Photographs on this page are for illustration purposes only.

The cocoon

The Stage Nothing Reaches

A flea cocoon is sticky, and it picks up carpet fibres and dust until it is effectively camouflaged and woven into the pile. That casing is also what protects the insect inside it: residual insecticide does not reliably get through to a flea in its cocoon, whatever the product.

Inside, a fully formed adult can wait. Not days — weeks, and in a cool quiet room considerably longer. What brings it out is the signal that something warm-blooded has arrived: vibration through the floor, warmth, and the carbon dioxide of something breathing nearby.

Two practical consequences follow, and both of them catch people out.

The first is that seeing fleas a few days after a treatment is normal. They are newly emerged adults coming out of cocoons that the treatment could not reach, and walking straight onto a treated surface. That is the treatment working, not failing.

The second is that vacuuming is genuinely useful rather than just tidying. It physically lifts eggs and larvae out of the pile, and the vibration and warmth bring adults out of their cocoons early, where the treatment can get at them. That is why we ask you to keep vacuuming after the visit instead of leaving the room alone.

The visit

What We Actually Do

We start by working out where the animal spends its time, because that is where the eggs have fallen. Its bed, the sofa it is allowed on, the spot by the radiator, the bottom of the stairs, the room it sleeps in, the car if it travels.

Then the treatment goes down across the floor coverings and the soft furnishings in those areas, worked into the carpet edge, under and behind furniture and along the skirting, because that is where the larvae are, not out in the middle of the room. Where there is hard flooring the edges, the gaps between boards and the rugs are what matter.

You will need to stay out of the treated areas while it settles — usually a few hours. The technician gives you the actual time on the day, because it depends on what was treated, on the products used and on how well the rooms ventilate.

Fish tanks get covered and their pumps turned off. Pets go out for the duration and come back to dry surfaces. The live page puts it plainly and so will we: the treatments are safe for pets and children when they are applied by a trained professional, which is exactly the part that makes the difference.

The pet

The Half of the Job That Is Not Ours

We treat the property. The animal is your vet's job, and we say so every time, because getting this wrong is what makes people repeat the whole exercise.

Ring your vet and ask what they recommend for your animal, and tell them you are having the house treated so the two line up. What goes on the animal is a conversation for a vet, not for a pest controller and not for a shop shelf: some products sold for dogs are dangerous to cats, and that alone is reason enough to ask somebody qualified.

If the animal is not treated, the eggs keep arriving in the carpet after we have gone and you are paying us to fight a supply line. If the house is not treated, the animal gets reinfested from the floor within days. Both, close together, is the version that works.

Photographs on this page are for illustration purposes only.

Afterwards

What the Next Few Weeks Look Like

Expect to see some fleas after the treatment. It is the normal course of a flea job, not a sign that something went wrong, and it is worth knowing in advance so it does not panic you.

What you should see is the numbers falling week on week as the cocoons empty out. The live page puts the full effect at a few days as the treatment works through the life cycle; in a cool house with a heavy infestation it can run longer, because the cocoons come out in their own time rather than ours.

What helps in the meantime:

• Keep vacuuming, daily if you can, especially carpet edges, under furniture and wherever the pet lies. Empty the cylinder into an outside bin each time.
• Hot-wash pet bedding and anything the animal sleeps on, at the highest temperature the fabric takes, and tumble dry it.
• Do not shampoo or steam-clean the carpets for the period we tell you. It lifts the treatment straight back out.
• Keep the pet's own treatment going on whatever schedule your vet has set.

If the numbers are not falling after a few weeks, ring us. That usually means a room or an area that was not part of the treatment — a car, a conservatory, a shed the cat sleeps in, a neighbour's garden the animal uses — and finding it is the job, rather than treating the same carpet again.

Business

Fleas in a Business Premises

Fleas turn up in commercial property more often than people expect, and it is rarely anything to do with standards.

Kennels, catteries, grooming salons and veterinary practices have animals through them all day. Shops and offices get them from a staff member's home or from a customer's dog. Warehouses and outbuildings get them from cats living in the roof space or under the floor, and from foxes.

For a business we work around opening hours, including evenings and weekends, and provide a written account of what was found and what was done. Where the source is an animal living in the building rather than a visiting pet, we will say so. Treating the carpet repeatedly while a cat is still raising kittens under the floor is money spent on the wrong problem.

Photographs on this page are for illustration purposes only.

Rentals

Rented Property and Changeovers

Where a tenant is living in the property with a pet, the job is the one described above and we will treat it as such.

Where the property is empty between tenants — a changeover, a void, or a tenancy agreement that requires a flea treatment because the outgoing tenant had an animal — the job is different, and so is the method.

That work, and the written confirmation landlords and agents ask for, has its own section: end of tenancy flea fumigation. It is called fumigation because that is what everybody calls it; in practice it is a targeted treatment of the affected areas rather than a sealed-space fumigation, and that page explains the difference.

Photographs on this page are for illustration purposes only.

Why us

Why Milton Keynes Pest Controllers

• Local, covering fifteen towns across three counties
• Same-day and emergency appointments, including evenings and weekends
• No call-out fee
• Treatment aimed at the carpet and the cycle, not just the adults
• Fully trained and insured technicians
• Straight advice about what your vet needs to do, and what we cannot
• Written account of what was found and done, for businesses and landlords
• A separate section for empty-property and end-of-tenancy work

Ring 01908 465226 and tell us what you have seen.

Reading

Fleas: the Questions We Get Asked

Ten things people ring and ask us about fleas, answered properly properly, not in a sentence.