Flea infestations in the home are a nightmare most owners would rather avoid. Not only do they cause our pets discomfort, but they can also spread throughout their environment and affect the whole family. If your cat has – or recently had – fleas, there’s a chance they have spread into your home. Preventing cat fleas is easier than treating them once they’re around, but here are some tips if you didn’t quite manage to catch them in time.
If your cat has, or has recently had fleas, there’s a chance that flea eggs have fallen from your pet into your home. It’s difficult to know whether this has happened as eggs are microscopic.
- Treat your pet – only use medication approved for use in cats specifically. This will kill live fleas but does not necessarily kill the eggs or larvae. Fleas are easy to prevent with regular treatments, so don’t wait until your cat has fleas to treat them for the problem. With our health plan subscription you get all-round parasite protection personalised to your pet, delivered free straight through your letterbox, so you never miss a dose. Check out our health plans here.
- Vacuum – this removes eggs and larvae from carpets. Vigorously vacuum over carpets and flooring – move all furniture. The warmth and vibration will encourage pupae to hatch so repeat this step multiple days in a row.
- Wash your pets bedding – If you don’t want to replace bedding, run it through a hot wash to kill any eggs, pupae, or larvae that are hiding in the seams.
- Wash soft furnishings – After washing your cat’s bedding, focus on your soft furnishings. Start with areas your pet has been in contact with, then, move onto areas where your cat has had less contact.
- Treat your home – to help treat the infestation, a household flea spray can be used. Every room of the house should be treated in accordance with the manufacturer's instructions.
Many of these steps will need to be repeated to ensure every stage of the lifecycle has been interrupted. It’s a lengthy process but it’s necessary to ensure the fleas don’t reoccur. Ideally, continue to use your chosen flea product as per the manufacturer's instructions. This will prevent fleas hitching a ride into the home.
Cat fleas can be found in clothing and areas like sofa cushions and pillows. One part of clearing up an infestation in your home is running these items through a washing machine at a high temperature. Fleas cannot live inside the washing machine and water over approximately 35 degrees Celsius will kill them.
Although cat fleas can feed on human blood, fleas cannot reproduce or live on humans and therefore they tend not to live on them. Cat fleas can still jump onto your skin and take a bite. If you have a flea infestation in your home or cuddle with your cats, they could jump in your hair, but it is rare, and they would fortunately not last very long.
Fleas don't need to come directly from your cat. Fleas will breed in dark and warm areas of soft furnishings and jump to the warmth of a body when they need food. Due to this, even after your cat has been treated you could still get bitten by fleas living in your home.
Without the treatment of both your home and the animals in the house, fleas could technically live indefinitely in your home. They tend to find crevices in soft furnishings and breed there, so if not treated their population will continue to replenish itself.