Follow the animal, not the bites. Where the pet rests is where the eggs fell, and that is your room count — usually more rooms than people expect.
Every room the animal spends time in, and particularly every room it sleeps in. That is where eggs have fallen and larvae are developing, whether or not you have been bitten there.
Bites are a poor guide — you get bitten where you sit still, which is not necessarily where the fleas are breeding.
The instinct is to treat the rooms where you have been bitten. It is a reasonable instinct and it produces the wrong answer.
Adult fleas emerge from the carpet when they detect a host. You get bitten where you sit still long enough for them to find you — the sofa, the bed. That tells you where the fleas hatched near, not where the population is concentrated.
Bites map where you sit. Eggs map where the animal sleeps. Treat the second.
A cat or dog drops eggs continuously wherever it goes, and the heaviest concentration is wherever it rests. So work through the property from the animal's point of view:
Be honest about this rather than optimistic. A dog that is 'not allowed upstairs' frequently is.
Two straightforward tests, neither requiring equipment:
Put on long white socks, pull them up, and walk slowly around the room for a few minutes — especially over the pet's resting spots. Fleas jump toward movement and warmth and show clearly against white. Simple, and surprisingly effective.
Look for tiny black specks in the carpet where the animal rests, or in its bedding. Put some on damp white kitchen paper. If it smears reddish-brown, that is flea dirt — digested blood — and confirms activity in that room.
See our complete service, published room prices and treatment information.
View Flea Control Harrow Weald →Usually yes, if the animal uses them. Larvae need shelter from light and find it in:
A kitchen with tiles and a dog bed in the corner is a room that needs treating. A spare room with laminate that the cat has never entered probably is not.
| Household | Rooms | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| Flat, cat sleeps in one room | 1–2 | £180–£240 |
| House, dog downstairs only | 2–3 | £240–£300 |
| House, dog with run of the ground floor | 3–4 | £300–£360 |
| House, animal sleeps upstairs too | 4–5 | £360–£420 |
Treating the living room and skipping the bedroom the cat sleeps in is the classic mistake. The treated room clears, the untreated one keeps producing adults, and they walk back through the door.
At £60 per additional room, including a borderline room costs less than a second visit. Two rooms is £240; two rooms treated in two separate visits is £360.
If you have no animal, the room logic changes. Look at:
Tell us the layout, which rooms are carpeted, and where the animal spends its time. That is more useful than a room number you have guessed, and we would rather get it right than take a larger booking.
Only where the animal goes. A never-used spare room with hard flooring can reasonably be excluded.
If carpeted and used by the pet, they are worth including — they are a route rather than a resting spot, but eggs still fall there.
If the animal travels in it, treat it as well — but that is a vacuum-and-hot-wash job for you rather than something we treat.
An entirely different problem outside? Wasp nest treatment in Harrow Weald is a £90 fixed cost with our guaranteed service.
Every room the animal spends time in, especially where it sleeps — that is where eggs have fallen and larvae are developing.
No. Bites map where you sit still, not where the population is concentrated.
Walk it slowly in long white socks — fleas jump toward movement and show against white. Or look for flea dirt, which smears reddish-brown on damp white paper.
Usually yes if the pet uses them — larvae shelter in board gaps, at skirting edges and under rugs.
If carpeted and used by the animal, they are worth including.
The untreated room keeps producing adults that walk back into the treated one. At £60 per extra room, including a borderline one costs less than a second visit.
Consider where a previous occupant's animal lived, rooms below a loft if you suspect wildlife, and the room where bites started.
Tell us where the animal goes and what flooring you have. We will work the room count out with you.
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