sunshine12 asked 6 years ago
Hello,
The other day, I found a flea on my shirt right near my chest area while I was sitting on the couch. We have a dog who was not on flea prevention since we start in April and it’s the end of March. When we brought the dog immediately to the vet, they deemed that there was no sign of fleas or flea dirt on her. We still treated her with Bravecto right away. I have vacuumed the area rug we have in the living room where the flea was and vacuumed and washed the couch upholstery. We also treated the carpet with Vet-Kem spray (siphotrol) that the vet suggested. Is it necessary to take any other steps? We’re grossed out that a single flea was found in our house and our pet has zero signs of fleas. Is this a human flea? Should we do anything else? We’re super paranoid because we always hear “one flea means many” but what are the chances a single flea is found with zero fleas or flea dirt or bites found on our dog or us?
also is it safe to use the vacuum in every room after vacuuming a potential flea-egg infested area? Do we need to worry about transferring flea eggs with the vacuum?
Your help is greatly appreciated as we are super paranoid now!
Adam Retzer Staff answered 6 years ago
sunshine12,
Sorry to hear about finding the flea. Hopefully it was a stray individual that found its way into your home. If not, it sounds like any infestation you may have is mild. If there were an infestation, signs of fleas would be found on the dog. The dog would also be the primary host for human fleas (P. irritans), if that was the species you found.
It sounds like you’ve take all the steps necessary to control and prevent a flea infestation. Continue the pet treatments, which it sounds like you do for the season anyway. The most important ingredient in the Siphotrol is methoprene, which will remain active for 7 months indoors. You may want to vacuum more frequently than normal. Here is an article about that: How often to vacuum.
You may also want to consider placing a flea trap in the room where you found the flea. Traps aren’t great for control, but they are very useful for identifying fleas and assessing populations. They can also be used to identify the species if you catch any fleas.
There shouldn’t be an issue with transferring eggs with the vacuum.
I am not sure what the odds are of finding a flea without any other signs. It’s possible that a person or animal in the household picked up the flea outside and brought it in. And that it didn’t feed or mate yet.
I hope this helps. And I apologize that it took me a while to get to your question.
Warm regards,
Adam
