How Can You Tell Fleas From Other Small Biting Insects in Huntingdon?

Before assuming fleas, it is worth knowing that a rash can look like bites without being caused by one. Carpet beetle larvae are the main example. They do not bite, but their bristly hairs can irritate skin, and the result is easy to mistake for an insect problem of the flea kind.

Fleas

An adult flea is a couple of millimetres long, dark brown, flattened from side to side and an excellent jumper. Real flea bites are red, itchy spots, usually around the ankles and lower legs, sometimes with a darker centre. You will often find the insect on the pet, in its bedding, or hopping on the carpet.

Carpet Beetle Larvae

The larvae are small, brown and covered in bristly hairs, and they crawl rather than jump. They feed on wool, fur, feathers, dead insects and dust, so they turn up in wool carpets, under skirting boards, in wardrobes and in the dust in loft spaces. Contact with the hairs, or with shed skins, can cause itchy red patches. Where you find them often shows as holes in woollens or bald patches in a rug.

Why Huntingdon Houses Can Mix the Two Up

Huntingdon has Georgian town houses with old floorboards and post-war family homes with fitted carpets. Both give carpet beetle larvae plenty of hiding places in dust along the edges of rooms, and both can also shelter fleas if a pet lives there. A household with a cat and a woollen rug has both possibilities at once.

Checks to Try

1. Look along skirting boards, under furniture and inside wardrobes for larvae and shed skins.
2. Examine woollen items for fine holes or bare patches.
3. Do the white sock walk, and comb any pets over white paper.

Carpet beetle treatment is a separate service at £220 for the first room and £60 for each additional room, and fleas are priced the same way through flea control. Which one you need depends on the identification, and a pest inspection and survey at £120 fixed cost settles that. The flea treatment cost guide covers the flea side in detail. Either way the work is guaranteed for 14 days.

What To Do About Larvae and Cast Skins

If you find carpet beetle larvae in a Huntingdon house, vacuum thoroughly along room edges and under furniture, empty the cleaner outside, and wash or freeze susceptible woollens. This reduces numbers but rarely removes a hidden source, such as a dead insect nest in a roof void, so persistent cases need a proper look. Do not do this vacuuming after a flea treatment, though, since that lifts the product out of the carpet.

For a quick opinion on what you have found in Huntingdon, call 01223 902388 or send a photo by WhatsApp.