Picture of probable flea attached
Hello all,
I don’t have any pets and haven’t for years. I did grow up with a family cat, however don’t recall him ever having fleas so I don’t really know what I’m looking at.
I have just moved into a new rented home with my family while we find something to buy. The owners (who are lovely) live just on the next street. We had been staying in an Airbnb nearby beforehand.
We have relocated from another part of the country so at the weekend we hired a van and transported everything to the new home - furniture, sofas, boxes, clothes bags, mattresses etc. We then had 3 days crossover in the Airbnb to give us time to get it cleaned and the basics unpacked.
On day 1, we just moved all of our things in and went back to the Airbnb after the long drive for the kids.
Day 2, I was cleaning for around 2 hours before I noticed a small black insect on my baby’s arm. I tried to quickly brush it off and it was very hard and quite stuck. It then seemed to sharply jump off when I next touched it, but it looked like it could have just fallen funny. I didn’t think much of it until around 30 minutes later when we were in a different area of the house and I noticed the same. This time I tried to crush it and couldn’t, then it definitely jumped/pinged off like a flea.
I went straight to the owners and they were very apologetic. They made some phone calls and apparently the previous tenant had a cat but was totally unaware of any flea problems and didn’t seem to have any now. The house was sprayed top to bottom with flea spray that day and hovered the next morning, so we stayed in the Airbnb while this was happening. They also consulted with pest removal who said it could have been a jumping beetle seeing as there hadn’t been an animal in the property for 3 weeks, but also that fleas can go dormant until they detect a host. They advised to keep an eye out and if we see another one, to catch it in tape then they will know exactly what it is and how to deal with it.
I didn’t see anything on day 3 and started to think it must have just been a beetle. In the meantime, I had been getting very itchy spots, mostly around my feet and ankles but also on my arms, legs and neck. Nobody else in the house seems to be having the same problem. The carpets were quite grubby so I put it down to a reaction to this and hired a rug doctor. Cleaned the carpets upstairs on day 3.
Day 4 I cleaned the carpets downstairs and continued to clean. Got a lot done and started to unpack some boxes as I hadn’t seen any further indication of any fleas, insects or anything else. At the end of the day I got the baby ready for bed and saw another insect on her arm. This time I was prepared and caught it with tape. I am 99% sure it is a flea but this is just going off online pictures. Picture attached if anyone can help to ID it. I also feel like I’m being bitten. I always react badly to mosquitos abroad so perhaps I react to fleas too. Told landlord and pest control is coming later today to have a look.
If this is an issue of dormant fleas, how do I go about getting rid of them? I’ve been promised professional extermination so I’m certain we will have that, but I am concerned about absolutely everything we own having been sat in boxes on top of carpets with fleas living in them. Should I be concerned about fleas getting in the boxes? One of them has all my childhood soft toys in and had ripped open - do I need to try to wash them all? What about clothes we have been wearing? Clothes in Ikea Dimpa bags? The sofa is a fabric one, so do we need to do anything with that? Will the car be a problem? Car seat? Do we need to do anything with the mattresses? Travel cot? Do I need to keep the baby off the floor? I’ve only carpet cleaned the main room carpets, not any hallways or landings. Do I need to do those too? As you can probably tell, I have no idea!
Thanks in advance for your help.