How Should You Prepare Your Home for Professional Flea Treatment?

A Few Days Before: The Animal

Get the pet treated by a vet, or with a vet-recommended product, so the animal and the property are dealt with at roughly the same time. Doing one without the other means reinfestation from whichever half was missed.

Do not bathe the animal on the day of the property treatment if it has just had a spot-on applied — check the product instructions, since some require the coat to stay dry for a period.

The Day Before: Wash and Clear

Wash all pet bedding on the hottest wash the fabric allows, and dry it hot. Wash any throws, blankets or cushion covers the animal uses. Do the same with human bedding in any room where people are being bitten.

Then clear the floors. Lift toys, shoes, boxes and clutter off the carpet so the whole floor area can be reached, and move light furniture away from the walls if you can. Anything under a bed should come out.

The Day Before: Vacuum Properly

Slowly, with the crevice tool along the skirting, the carpet edges and the gripper line, under and behind furniture, down the sides and under the cushions of the sofa, and on the stairs. Include the car if the animal travels in it.

Then empty the cylinder or remove the bag, seal it, and put it in the outside bin immediately. Leaving a full cylinder indoors after a flea vacuum is self-defeating.

What Not to Do

Do not shampoo or steam clean the carpets just before treatment. A wet carpet stops the treatment binding properly and is the most common preparation mistake we see.

Do not use supermarket flea sprays or foggers beforehand. They scatter the population, leave residues that interfere, and do nothing to the pupae. And do not move the furniture out of the room entirely — treatment needs to reach under and behind it, not into an empty shell.

On the Day and Afterwards

People and pets out during treatment and for the period you are told afterwards, usually a few hours until surfaces are dry. Fish tanks covered and air pumps switched off; reptiles and small caged animals removed or covered.

Then, for at least a fortnight, do not wash or shampoo the treated floors, and vacuum regularly. Vacuuming after treatment is not tidying — the vibration triggers dormant pupae to hatch into a treated surface, which is how the last of them are dealt with. Rooms are £180 for the first and £60 for each additional one.