Please tell me fleas are not the only insect that jump

[DipDabDabDip]

My cat is sat on my lap. I noticed something crawling through my dressing gown fluff. It jumped. Is there any possibility it's not a flea? I squished it and no blood came out.

my 2 cats have not been scratching any more than usual and I've just manhandled the black one and can't see any flea dirt.

They go outside but stay in our garden (only been let out for a couple of months) and since we've been letting them out no other cats come round.

Please tell me it's just a stray flea insect.

I'm going to get some more spot on stuff. Not had to deal with fleas since I was a child so I'm a little freaked out and irrationally itchy now!

It's fleas. See the thread just below on flea treatments. You need 'proper' stuff, not off the shelf stuff. So the stuff you buy from vets or pharmacies. Specifically Advantage, Advocate or Stronghold.

Lonecat mentioned another new brand a couple of threads down that I've forgotten the name of, which she (a vet) recommends.

Activyl was the one I mentioned good and cheaper than some of the others.

www.bbc.co.uk/nature/life/Jumping_spider

There are jumping spiders! (not insects though).
I am sure it was probably a flea!

There are other insects that jump (eg froghoppers, click beetles). But chances are that was a flea, I'm afraid.

Think positively. Maybe it's a singleton flea you picked up on your travels yesterday and it's just started exploring and hasn't begun reproducing yet. Get the spot on fast.

I'm really hoping it was a singleton! I have ordered this Advantage hopefully it will do the trick just in case!

And it's been dispatched already so hopefully it will come tomorrow so we can play towel wrestling with them both!

I use Advantage on my cat and it seems to work well.

Could it be a head lice?

Not headlice. It looked decidedly flea like. I'm hoping maybe my mum brought it round from their dog and it had just hopped on over to me and not had chance to lay any creepy crawly eggs. Will tell her to deflea the dog just in case.

Advise her to get herself into a routine of defleaing and worming regularly. They're both an all year problem (although still a bit worse when the weather is hot) so anyone with cats and dogs needs to be defleaing and worming to schedule even though they may not have seen hard evidence.

Good luck with your (hopefully) singleton.

I just used Advantage on my cats and it did fuck all, but we are really infested at the moment. It must be all the damp weather. 10 years we've had our cats and never seen a single flea before now! Hoppy fuckers. Hopefully you won't see any more.

We get our worming stuff online, it only works out about £10 a year per cat.

Have you vacuumed like a Stepford wife, Eau (especially on cracks and edges - for eggs) and used a spray such as Indorex? That may be needed.

Haven't sprayed yet, but we've set off flea bombs in every room and used powder. I've hoovered all around the skirting, under the bed, behind furniture etc. Can I hoover the cats?

We've got the council coming in to spray on Monday.