Can Fleas Live in Sofas and Upholstered Furniture?

Why a Sofa Is Ideal

It is where the animal sleeps, so it is where eggs are shed in quantity. It has deep fabric and stuffing that eggs and larvae fall into, dozens of seams and folds that give shelter, and it is dark underneath and inside.

It also accumulates exactly what larvae eat: skin flakes, pet hair, crumbs and the digested blood that adult fleas drop. Between the shelter and the food supply, upholstery frequently holds more of a population than the carpet does.

Where in the Sofa

Down the sides between the arm and the seat cushion. Under the cushions, on the deck. Along the seams and piping. Under the base, on the fabric lining and in the frame corners. In the gap between the back cushions and the frame. And in the pleats of a skirt or valance.

The underside is the one most often missed and the one worth checking first, because it is dark, undisturbed and where larvae migrate to.

How to Check It

Take the cushions out and turn them over. Run a hand along the seams and look at what comes up. Comb the deck with a fine comb over white paper. Then do the damp tissue test: dark specks that spread a reddish-brown halo on wet tissue are flea dirt, and that is conclusive.

Tip the sofa forward and look at the underside and the frame corners with a torch. If there is a population, this is usually where the evidence is heaviest.

What Treatment Does

Upholstery is treated along with the room — seams, deck, underside and the frame, not just sprayed over the top. Which is why we ask that furniture is not moved out of the room before the visit: it needs treating where it is, along with the carpet around and beneath it.

Cushion covers that can take a hot wash should be washed. Pet bedding and throws on the sofa go on the hottest wash the fabric allows. Rooms are £180 for the first and £60 for each additional one, and the sofa is part of the room rather than a separate charge.

Second-Hand Furniture

A used sofa or armchair is one of the commonest ways fleas arrive in a property with no animal in it. Pupae survive dormant in the upholstery for months and hatch once it is in a warm occupied room.

Check the underside, the seams and the deck before it comes into the house, and do the tissue test on anything that has come from a home with pets. It takes five minutes and it is a great deal cheaper than treating two rooms afterwards.