On average, a flea can live for two to three months in the carpet. But without intervention, they can stay in the carpet without end if they have a host. If a blood meal isn't consumed the flea may only survive for a few days. Flea eggs live for two to three days before hatching.
In cooler temperatures, flea eggs will take days to hatch. Many flea eggs can lay dormant for weeks to months.
Flea Infestation in Carpet
As pets move around indoors, the eggs fall into floor cracks and carpeting. After hatching, larvae embed deep within carpet fibers and pet bedding and become difficult to remove. Flea larvae can lurk in the carpet for months feeding off the dried blood and feces of the adults on the host.
Remember: Adult fleas can live up to two weeks without attaching themselves to a host. So, although females can't reproduce during that time, they still have up to two weeks to find a host and reproduce. And since they reproduce rapidly, one pregnant female adult flea can lead to many fleas in a short time.
House: Vacuuming the carpet can help to remove the eggs that drop there from the fleas on the pet. Vacuuming will remove a few larvae and the debris that the larvae eat. Vacuuming will cause the adult fleas to come out of their cocoons while the carpet treatment is fresh and effective.
Should I vacuum every day to keep my home flea-free? Although you would think it necessary to vacuum every day to keep the fleas at bay, the experts recommend that vacuuming every second day is sufficient, when you first start getting rid of the infestation.
You might be asking yourself will fleas eventually go away? While some could last 2 – 3 weeks, they could also live for up to 12 months on the host it finds, so it is unlikely they will go away on their own. Fleas can also reproduce very quickly by laying eggs in carpet, bedding, or garden prolonging the infestation.
Put on knee-high (or at least calf-high) white socks and walk around your home for an afternoon, keeping close to carpeting and putting your feet up on furniture. Then, check the socks for fleas. If they've taken up residence in your home, odds are that a few will be visible on your socks.
Can Fleas Live in a House with No Pets? While people with pets are consistently worrying about fleas, people without pets should be on the lookout for these pests as well. Fleas are not just a pet-people problem. Even without animals living in your home, fleas can live in your carpet and other fabrics for a while.
As mentioned earlier, vacuuming stimulates insecticide-resistant flea pupae/cocoons to hatch, bringing emerging adults into contact with the treatment sooner. If adult fleas continue to be seen beyond 4 weeks, retreatment of the premises and/or pets may be necessary.
Vacuum Your Carpet
Vacuuming sucks away fleas, along with eggs, larvae, and pupae. It also removes flea blood and feces, which can serve as a food source. Vacuum the carpet several times, and don't forget to use the attachments to get into corners and crevices along the baseboards.
Flea Eggs Hiding in Carpet
Fleas lay their eggs in the carpet because it provides a relatively safe space for them. To check for eggs, put on gloves and run your fingers through the carpet. Eggs tend to very small and white. Because they are so small, you may need a magnifying glass.
Although fleas lay their eggs in your pet's fur, they don't stay there — the eggs don't stick well to your pup's fur or skin, so they drop off easily.
If you can see them, flea eggs on a dog will often appear as tiny white specks, small white flecks, or tiny grains of salt. They're usually clustered together.
Flea eggs hatch into worm-like larvae that move away from light and downwards. This means that they are usually found deep in the carpet pile. They tend to accumulate in areas where the pet rests, but have been observed to crawl as far as 20 feet while in this stage of the life cycle.
It doesn't take much fleas before it becomes a serious infestation problem. In just a couple of months, fleas can lay about 500 eggs. Between one and twelve days, many of these hatchlings are hidden. They are tiny larvae that fide in tiny floor cracks, carpets and furniture.
In most cases, it takes three to four months to completely get rid of a flea infestation since it takes fleas this long to go through their life stages, according to the American Kennel Club.
Depending on the level of infestation, it can take anywhere from a few hours to an entire day to clean your home. And you'll need to keep up this routine for at least two weeks or up to a month—and possibly keep using insecticides for a year to prevent fleas' return.
However, fleas can only live up to one to two weeks without a host on your bedding or mattress. While fleas sometimes bite humans to eat, pets and wild animals are typically the favored hosts for fleas. So, it's important to keep your pet away from your bed if they are suffering from a flea infestation.
Most successful flea treatment programs require at least 2-3 treatments at 14-day intervals using both an insecticide for the adult fleas and an Insect Growth Regulator (IGR) to prevent immature stages of fleas from developing into breeding adults.
Getting rid of fleas is a difficult process due to the long lifecycle of a flea. Moderate to severe infestations will take months to control and require a four-step process for complete elimination: Sanitation. Thoroughly clean areas where fleas frequently breed.
When the temperature and humidity are right flea eggs will be constantly hatching out. New adult fleas will also constantly emerge from the pupae stage when the conditions are right. The new adult fleas will only hatch when a host animal is close by, as they need a blood meal to survive.
Flea Eggs Aren't Black
They're a semi-transparent white to off-white color.
Flea larvae can remain dormant in your home for months, so new fleas may continue to emerge — even after treatment. These fleas will quickly die after hatching if you've treated your home and kept up with regular flea preventive for your pet, but it can take a while for all the existing fleas to hatch and be killed.