Are you being bitten by Fleas

 The female flea lays eggs whilst on its host animal, often while the animal is sleeping. The eggs are white, oval shaped and 0.5mm long. They drop into the local area and will hatch within 2 – 10 days depending on the temperature. The larvae tend to seek out dark, humid areas, so burrow deep into carpets, into cracks between floorboards and around the edges of rooms. They feed on any organic matter in house dust – primarily dead skin cells and the droppings (or dirt) from adult fleas. The larvae need a temperature of 10 – 30 C, any colder and they die. Humidity is also important – too dry and they will desiccate. Larvae can develop outside, preferring long vegetation or shaded areas – paving or short sunny lawns will finish them off. In a warm environment with plenty of food, larvae can grow and spin a cocoon to form a pupa within 10 days. The flea can stay in the pupa for anything from 10 – 14 days, waiting for the right temperature, humidity and for the presence of animals or humans to feed on – they sense vibrations from passing hosts! Once emerged, adult fleas need to find an animal to feed on within 12 days. After her first meal a female can start to lay eggs within 36 hours and can lay between 20 – 50 eggs per day for up to a 100 days! Under ideal conditions, one adult female can be responsible for producing 20,000 adult fleas and 160,000 immature larvae and pupae in 60 days!

How Fleas Hurt Our Pets

• The main problem is obviously irritation. This is often variable between animals because some dogs and cats become allergic to the flea saliva, whilst others tolerate lots of fleas quite happily. This latter group will act as a source of infection to allergic animals so the golden rule that ALL ANIMALS IN THE HOUSE SHOULD BE TREATED FOR FLEAS must be followed.
• 72 fleas can consume 1ml of blood per day, so severe infestations on very small animals, especially puppies and kittens, can cause severe anaemia and even death – hard to believe but tit does happen every year.
• Fleas also carry a tapeworm, Dipylidium caninum, which is ingested when a host animal grooms a flea off itself. IF YOUR PET HAS FLEAS, IT WILL HAVE WORMS AS WELL.
• Finally fleas can bite humans – they prefer our fur-covered friends, but if you have a bad infestation in your house they will attack your ankles and calves, or come at you from your sofa, biting your back.

Controlling the problem

Unfortunately, no flea preparation yet invented is 100% effective. This means a huge number of our pets will be carrying at least a few of the critters, and there is also always the potential in the warmer months to catch fleas from the outside where foxes, and hedgehogs, and other peoples’ pets have been. If we can’t rid our animals of fleas 100%, we must use regular control to stop fleas reaching epidemic levels in our houses. So where do we start?

The house

As most of the fleas’ life cycle is spent in your pet’s immediate environment, it is unquestionably as important to treat the house as it is to treat your pet. The main problem is likely to be where your animal sleeps although flea eggs can drop off in any area visited by your pets – with cats this normally involves the whole house.

Vacuuming is a good place to start – the vibration encourages adults to emerge from pupae and the suction will remove eggs, some larvae and some of the dust that the larvae live on. Professional steam cleaning will also kill both larvae and adult fleas, and reduce dust levels further although it is important to dry the carpets as rapidly as possible as any larvae left behind will enjoy the increase in humidity within the carpet.

It is important to treat the house with an insecticide soon after hoovering or steam cleaning, as any eggs or pupae left behind will quickly hatch and re-infest the house.

Insecticidal sprays – these contain Pymethrin or pyrethroids which kill adult fleas. However they are quickly degraded by light so only remain active in the environment for a few days.  It is essential  that an insect growth regulator is used which stops larvae developing into adults. These chemicals can remain active for up to 12 months.

Treating your pet

As no treatment is 100% effective, the regular use of products is essential – ideally all year round, although occasionally you can get away with stopping treatment for the coldest winter months. All animals in the house must be treated even if they are not showing any signs of infestation. Bear in mind that some products on your dog will be washed off by swimming and bathing, and flea allergic cats and dogs which groom excessively can clean a lot of the medication off themselves.

The choice of which product to use can be confusing as there is now such a range on the market.