That night, I fell down a research rabbit hole that changed everything.
Here's what I learned and what nobody at the pet store or even my vet had ever explained to me clearly:
When you see fleas jumping on your pet or your carpet, you are looking at roughly 5% of the infestation.
The other 95% the eggs, the larvae, and especially the pupae are invisible.
They're buried in carpet fibres. In the seams of your sofa. Between floorboards. In the cracks along the skirting board.
And here is the part that made my stomach turn:
Flea pupae are encased in a sticky, fibrous cocoon that is physically impenetrable to every chemical spray, bomb, and topical treatment on the market.
Nothing reaches them. Not the prescription treatment. Not the flea bomb. Not the expensive home spray.
They just sit there waiting.
They can wait for up to six months.
Then, the moment they sense warmth, vibration, carbon dioxide from a person or pet crossing the room they all hatch at once.
That's why the fleas "came back."
They never left.
I had been solving the 5% I could see while the 95% I couldn't see kept replenishing the infestation from the inside.
Every product I'd used was designed for adult fleas. Not one of them could touch what was living inside my carpet.
This wasn't my fault. I had been given an incomplete solution to a problem I didn't fully understand.