Rank: New forum user 
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We have had a flea problem in our workplace. We suspect one of our employees was bringing the fleas in to the workplace. We have succesfully treated the infestation, which has co-incided with the employee we suspected being on annual leave for the past 2 weeks. They are due to return next week (the employee that is, not the fleas).
Is there anything from a health & safety perspective we can insist on from our employee, or invoke to prevent/delay their return, if they do not admit to having a flea probelm at home? Has anyone ever had to deal with a situation like this before? Any advice would be much appreciated.
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Rank: Super forum user
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Fleas are mainly a nuisance rather than a serious health issue (bubonic plague excepted). Each species has a favourite host where they can feed and breed on eg cat fleas, dog fleas, human fleas. They can bite and feed on a number of hosts but only breed on their own host species. Removing the specific host will get rid of the problem. If you have flea infestation problem you need to find the source typically this will be a mammal such as a dog, cat or rats. They need to be controlled and either removed or treated. The human flea is quite rare in this country. What makes you think that this individual is a host? Does this person have personal hygiene issues? Are they unpopular with their colleagues because of these issues? If so I would be very careful about accusing them of being the host.
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Rank: Super forum user 
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I have been involved in several flea infestations in offices.
One was traced to a new carpet that had been laid & was contaminated; the fleas started to emerge once it was in a warmer environment.
Another infestation was identified as being caused by cat fleas being brought in on an employee's clothing. The company we brought in trapped several of these for identification purposes.
We decided to put out a bulletin on the subject rather than target any known cat lovers!
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 2 users thanked Zyggy for this useful post.
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Rank: Super forum user 
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Dealt with similar issues. The good news is that most flea treatments will be effective for up to one year so new fleas coming in should be killed off once they come into contact with the treatment. The odd thing about fleas is that the person with the problems probably doesn't get bitten so may not even know that they are carrying them around. Most pets have a few fleas even if treated regularly so they are likely to come back. It might be worth doing a desk drop with a leaflet from a vet which I found very helpful.
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2 users thanked Hsquared14 for this useful post.
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