Where Do Flea Eggs and Larvae Hide Around the Home?

Eggs Are Designed to Fall

Flea eggs are laid on the animal and are smooth and non-sticky specifically so they drop off. Within hours they are wherever the animal has been — the bed, the chair, the hall carpet, the stairs, the car.

That is why the distribution in a house maps the pet’s habits so exactly. Follow your animal around mentally and you have drawn the map of the infestation.

Larvae Go Away From Light

Flea larvae are negatively phototactic. They actively move away from light, which drives them down into the carpet pile, into the gaps between floorboards, under furniture and along the edges of rooms.

They feed on organic debris in the pile — skin flakes, hair, and the digested blood that adults drop — so a deep pile carpet with dust in it is both shelter and food.

The Specific Places

The pet bed and the metre of carpet around it. The sofa: down the sides, under the cushions, under the base. The chair the animal is not supposed to use. The carpet at the room edges and over the gripper. Between floorboards and under the edge of a rug. The bottom two or three stairs. Under a radiator. And the car, if the animal travels.

Also the bedroom, if the animal sleeps on or beside a bed. People treat the living room and forget the room where the pet actually spends the night.

Why the Pupa Is the One That Matters

The pupa spins a sticky cocoon that collects fibre and dust and becomes effectively part of the carpet. It is armoured, it does not feed, and insecticide has little effect on it. It can stay dormant for months.

That is why treatments appear to fail and why fleas keep appearing afterwards. They are not surviving the treatment; they are hatching after it, into a surface that is still treated — which is exactly what you want.

What This Changes About Cleaning

Vacuum slowly, with a crevice tool along the room edges and the gripper line, under and behind furniture, down the sides of the sofa and on the stairs. Empty the cylinder into a bag and put it in the outside bin. Wash pet bedding on a hot wash.

Then keep vacuuming for a fortnight after treatment. The vibration triggers pupae to hatch into a treated surface, so it is not tidying — it is part of the treatment. Rooms are £180 for the first and £60 for each additional one.