If your dog is allowed inside, sooner or later you are going to have to deal with a flea problem in your home. Fleas seem to be everywhere. And they seem to find dogs an irresistibly attractive host. The trouble is that flea populations can get firmly established in the environment where a dog lives. If left, they can multiply very quickly, especially in warm summer months, into an infestation. Then you may find the problem moves beyond your pet, and you and your family start scratching and complaining. Fleas can be more than a minor irritation to people. After all, they were a crucial step in the spread of dreadful bubonic plagues that wiped out millions of people in past centuries. Today they can still cause health problems, now most commonly dermatological conditions, especially in sensitive people. Even more seriously, they can pass on tapeworms, which is a bigger risk if there are young children in your home.

Your worst experience of a flea infestation can come when you return to your closed up house after a holiday away. Your presence creates warmth, vibrations and pressure on the floor as you walk around, carbon dioxide in the air as you breathe out, and other indications to flea pupae that there is a potential meal present, and they hatch out. Suddenly fleas seem to be everywhere. The important point you need to understand as a dog owner is that fleas get established in the environment where your pet lives, not just on the dog. While fleas lay their eggs on the dog shortly after feeding, each flea laying perhaps 20 or more a day, these eggs soon fall off into the dog’s living environment. That may be its bedding, where it often lies by your favorite chair, where it plays or rests outside, in the carpet where it often comes and goes, and so forth. The eggs hatch into larvae, which feed on organic material, especially the little dark flea faeces that fall from your pet in the same places, and pet hair. Flea larvae are averse to light, and are usually found under the edges of rugs, in bedding or carpet, in cracks or under things like cushions. Outdoors, they especially like to frequent dirt, sand or gravel. The larvae turn into pupae, in a tiny silken cocoon. This cocoon is initially sticky. It often collects debris, which makes it hard to spot, and may attach to fibres in carpet or bedding which makes it difficult to remove. The pupae will eventually hatch into an adult flea. However it can wait in suspension for up to about eight months at this point in its lifecycle, through winter or until it is stimulated to hatch by the presence of a host. This is why an empty house or dog kennel can suddenly develop a flea infestation on your return. They have been accumulating and lying in wait as pupae. Newly hatched adult fleas normally die within about 2 weeks if they cannot feed, but after that they can survive in the environment for as long as a year without another meal. These hungry adults may also lie in wait for your return. At any one time, only 5 to 10% of the flea population may be in adult form, with the other 90 to 95% in the pipeline, so to speak, as eggs, larvae or pupae. Attacking the adult fleas on your dog is only addressing 5 to 10% of the problem.

In your house, your vacuum cleaner is your first line of defence against fleas. It will collect most adult fleas, eggs and larvae from your floor, but it is not so effective against pupae that may have stuck to fibres. Regular thorough vacuum cleaning of the areas where your pet frequents, including under things like rugs and cushions, will stimulate the pupae to hatch and eventually collect these fleas as well. You should also regularly change or wash your pet’s bedding. Combine those steps with one of the many flea treatments now available for your pet, and you can expect to quickly gain the advantage and take control of a flea infestation problem. But to eliminate the flea population fully you will have to also consider using an insecticide treatment, inside your house and in your yard, or in the environment wherever your pet lives. There are many safe and effective products to choose from, and experienced commercial applicators are active in most cities. Finally, after all that effort, you should keep your dog from straying and put it on a suitable flea treatment regime, especially over the summer months, to reduce the risk of another flea infestation in your home.