Deep Clean Carpets to Reduce Flea Infestations

Spring is in just around the corner and now is an ideal time to deep clean carpets and give upholstery a freshen up. Not only little pet paws help accumulate a trail of prints that build up over time, discolouring carpet, they can also be prone to carrying in other ‘additions’ to your household. Some cats are prone to an annual gathering of unwanted tenants who irritate and can try to feast on your ankles when you are sleeping. To understand how to control fleas in the home and how they can lay dormant in in your carpet for months, we need to take a look at their life cycle.

Flea Life Cycle

Fleas have four stages to their life cycle. Egg, Larvae, Pupae and adult depending on the environment the life cycle can last between a couple of weeks to months.

Flea Eggs

So female fleas can lay 40 to 50 eggs per day on your cat or dog. It is this stage where things start to get a bit messy with the life cycle because they can just drop off your pet an onto your carpet. Flea eggs are about the size of a grain of sugar and are white in colour. Depending on how cosy the environment eggs hatch into larvae within 1 to 10 days.

Larvae

Flea Larvae feed on flea faeces.

Pupae

Within 5 to 11 days, larvae form a cocoon and pupate. Adult fleas emerge from the pupae and begin feeding as soon as a host found. This can be pets brushing past each other.

Biting Adult Fleas

The devil emerges from your carpet as the most recognisable aspect of the the flea life cycle as biting adults. We have had customers who have gone away on holiday having put their cats and dogs in boarding kennels and not suspecting that they have a problem in their house. On return from their holiday within minutes they have been repeatedly bitten by hungry adult fleas. Adult fleas need blood meal to reproduce and to continue the flea cycle. During feeding fleas can transmit disease causing organisms. Which is not a great thing to live with.

What to do about fleas in the house?

The answer to effectively deal with fleas in your household is to disrupt the flea life cycle in more than one area. Many people will look after the health of their cats or dogs and soon as they see a flea infestation or notice adult biting fleas on their pets, jumping on their beds or on upholstery, only then do they treat the pet with a flea pet treatment. This will have a short term effect because if you see biting adult fleas, then there are Pupae, Larvae and Eggs in your house.
Give your carpets a deep clean, if your pets are housebound or they do go out ensure you give them some flea protection as recommended by your vet and then keep on top of vacuum cleaning your carpets. This should help prevent flea infestation.