Bathing the cat and putting flea drops on the dog feels like the obvious fix — until the itching starts again a week later. Here’s what most pet owners in Coquitlam and Langley don’t realize: at any given moment, only a small fraction of a flea infestation is actually riding around on your pet. The rest — eggs, larvae, and cocoons — are already scattered through carpets, pet bedding, and upholstered furniture, dropped off every time your pet naps or walks across the room. A single female flea can lay dozens of eggs a day, so treating only the animal leaves the home’s population completely untouched.

This is also why homes without any pets at all sometimes end up with a flea problem — raccoons, squirrels, or other wildlife nesting in an attic or crawl space in a Maple Ridge or Pitt Meadows property can bring fleas in on their own, with no cat or dog involved.