Strikeback Home Flea Aerosol

The fleas you can see are the short-lived half of the problem. An adult flea only lives about a week away from a host, but a flea larva can sit in a carpet for several months waiting for one — which is why treating the animal and stopping there so often ends with the same phone call a fortnight later.

This is the other half: an aerosol for the house rather than the pet. The active ingredients are pyrethrins at 0.20% w/w and cypermethrin at 0.12% w/w, and Strikeback describe it as having a fast knock-down effect with longer-lasting residual control after that. It can go onto carpets and soft furnishings, and onto hard surfaces both porous and non-porous. The can is 600ML.

• 600ML aerosol for treating the home
• Pyrethrins 0.20% w/w and cypermethrin 0.12% w/w
• For carpets, soft furnishings and hard surfaces, porous or non-porous
• Fast knock-down with residual action afterwards
• Extremely flammable; the pressurised can may burst if heated

Before you spray anything, read this bit. This is a household insecticide and it goes on the house — never on an animal, and never as a substitute for whatever your vet has you using on the pet itself. Strikeback do not publish a coverage area, a re-treatment interval, or any guidance about households with cats, birds, fish or small animals in them, and those are exactly the questions worth putting to the manufacturer or your vet before you press the button. The can is extremely flammable and can burst if it gets hot, so keep it away from heat and out of reach of children.

Who it's for: anyone dealing with an infestation that has got past the animal and into the floor — rented flats with old carpet, houses after a summer, and people who have already treated the pet twice and are still finding bites.