Amy Young asked 5 years ago
About seven months ago we realised we had fleas in the home. We had rehomed our cat about eight weeks previous. I sprayed the home with a spray that kills adults and stops the younger stages from emerging. Everything has been fine but in the last three or four weeks I’ve been getting bitten again. I haven’t seen many adult fleas, maybe one or two, but did see a few ones that were almost transparent and easily squashed. Is this just a case of some of the fleas we missed emerging? Should I re spray my home again?
Adam Retzer Staff answered 5 years ago
Amy,
This sounds like you are dealing with the remnants of the final generation. New generations shouldn’t be able to develop with the insect growth regulator sprayed. If the fleas were small and transparent, then they were newly emerged and haven’t fed yet.
It usually takes around 8 weeks for an infestation to end after treatment. Eggs become adults in 17-26 days. However, cocooned adults can elect to stay inside their cocoons and enter a quiescent (sleep-like) state for up to 5 months. Most don’t enter this state, but some do. It’s likely you’re seeing these final fleas emerge. Vacuuming regularly is a good way to force them to emerge. They wake up and emerge when detecting heat and pressure, which are indicative of a host.
Warm regards,
Adam
