Indoors · with the dog and cat

Fleas in the house

Victoria’s Better Health Channel points first to the pets: it calls dogs and cats common “reservoirs” for fleas, and says infested animals should be treated every fortnight for several weeks. If the fleas keep coming back, a persistent infestation may need a licensed pest control operator.

General health information, not medical or veterinary advice. The Better Health Channel’s fleas page, listed at the foot of this page, is the place to check.

When
Bites on entering a long-empty house
Host
Dogs, cats and people
Bites
Usually the legs or feet
Office
Better Health Channel

What you are dealing with

Fleas are wingless parasites that feed on the blood of people and of animals such as dogs and cats. The cat flea and the dog flea are both common in Australia. Because they move between many kinds of host, they can carry disease from one to another: they are known to pass on tapeworm larvae and, uncommonly, a disease called murine typhus.

Reading the bite

The bite
A flea cuts through skin with saw-like jaws, usually somewhere easy to reach such as the legs or feet.
Within half an hour
A red, swollen weal comes up. It is intensely itchy.
A day or so later
The lump may turn into a blister or a small wound.
If you scratch
Secondary infections from scratching are common.

Why an empty house bites back

Adult fleas can go for some months without feeding. Vibration, such as footsteps, prompts them to come out of their cocoons, which is why you may be bitten when you walk into a house that has stood empty for a while.

Start with the pet

A pet with fleas may be irritated by the bites and scratch often. Flea droppings look like tiny dark specks. The Better Health Channel describes a simple way to confirm them: dab a few specks onto white tissue that has been dampened slightly, and its page explains what to look for.

The rhythm the page gives

Treat infested animals fortnightly, for several weeks.

Then the house

Your local council can give information and advice on dealing with a flea infestation. When it persists, the next step the Better Health Channel names is a licensed pest control operator, who can work out the type, source and extent of the infestation and then use registered insecticides to control the fleas. On the back of a Victorian operator’s licence card, one of the pesticide authorisations lists fleas among the pests it covers.

Afterwards, good hygiene, such as cleaning the house often, should lower the risk of the fleas returning. On the treatment day, pets need to be out of the way until the pesticide is dry; getting ready for a treatment has the rest of that day in order.

Before the operator comes

The Better Health Channel’s questions for any home treatment apply to a flea treatment too. Ask the operator for the full chemical name of the pesticide they plan to use, because it helps with first aid in an emergency. Raise any concern about pregnancy, young children or allergies before work starts, which gives the operator a chance to talk through the options with you. Then plan to be out of the house while the pesticide is mixed and applied and until it is dry; four to six hours is the general guide, though the operator will name the time for the treatment used.

If you rent

Consumer Affairs Victoria names fleas in its renting guidance: “Pests and infestations might include mice, rats, possums, fleas, ants or termites.” Its advice is that renters who see signs of pests should tell the rental provider immediately.

When the renter may be responsible

If the renter’s actions or behaviour contributed to the problem, the renter may be responsible, and if so should fix it.

When the rental provider may be

If a problem with the property let pests in and the rental provider has not fixed it, the rental provider may be responsible, and if so should fix it.

Where the rental agreement does not say who fixes it, responsibility may depend on who contributed to the problem. If the two sides cannot agree who pays to remove pests, either of them can ask the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (VCAT) to decide. When pests linked to the building structure make a home unsecure or unsafe to live in, they are an urgent repair. In a building with shared areas, owners corporations and pests looks at the common property side.