Fleas????

When we were at the in-laws house yesterday, I noticed a few small bug thingies crawling on me.  I'm pretty sure they were fleas.  They have 2 dogs with fairly long hair that aren't brushed regularly and never groomed.  They also let their grass grow for ages...sometimes until it's well over a foot tall.  And...they don't really vacuum or clean regularly.  So...it's not a stretch.  I actually felt ill yesterday...so I didn't even touch the dogs and shoed them away from me.

Anyway, today I put on a pink shirt and walk up for the school run...and I notice there were several (as in 10 or more) fleas on my shirt and bare arm.  After I got home I changed clothes and sat down and noticed another one on my arm.

I haven't been around any animals or walking through any grass since being at the in-laws yesterday.  So where are the fleas coming from?  Did they migrate from the in-laws house?  And if so, is this going to be a major issue?  Is there anything I can do to try to prevent it from becoming a major issue?  We were out this morning and I didn't notice any but I was also wearing black (so wouldn't have been able to see them).  I haven't actually seen any in the house (I'm a bit of a clean freak).  Was it just coincidental that I saw them again today and they could have come from somewhere else?  I don't know that much about them.  Could they have just jumped on me from a tree or something?

I'm not sure how the fleas would have migrated, but if they have moved/are moving in to your house, you can get a spray that will prevent them from reproducing (I think it may also kill the adults, but I'm not sure).

I had to do this a few years ago when my cats kept bringing in fleas (even with spot-on treatments). It took about 2-3 weeks for all of them to die, but I had no problems after that.

Also, if you have a decent vacuum, a bit of hoovering will often help. Were they fleas and not some sort of random little bug? We have some flea-like bugs around here that seem to live in the bushes/overgrown areas but don't actually bite (not that that stops me from squishing them on sight!).
Also, poor dogs, it can be quite painful to be ungroomed!

I'm pretty sure they are fleas...but not positive.  I've never really dealt with fleas before.  I haven't been bitten but I've also been in flea-infested houses before where other people were eaten alive...and not been bitten.  I haven't seen any on me in the house or seen any in the house.  I also didn't notice any earlier in the day.  I'm probably just a bit paranoid about it because I'm a clean freak and we have a baby on the way...so definitely don't want it to be an issue in the house.

The place where we wait for the kids is right under this big tree so I was wondering if they could have jumped from there.  I mentioned I was being attacked by bugs but no one else seemed to be...maybe they were just attracted to my light-coloured shirt?

They are unlikely to have leapt out of trees. Hopefully, it's just that they liked your shirt!

How big were the bugs?
I only ask because once a year over a day or two there are some black fly things that seem to swarm about and a mother at the school claims it happens over the same day once a year (which I find a bit far fetched and cant seem to find anything when I googled to support this, but still doesnt mean sheis wrong). As I did the school run both times today I had loads of them on me, and so did the other parents.

They're really tiny.  And I don't think they can fly.

Fleas are attracted to light colors (or at least that is why my dad has always said), when we always suspected that we had them in the house, we put on white socks and walk around waiting for them to jump on us, it never took long. Then the bombs went off and the cat and dog got washed, seemed we were always battling them in the summer (back in the US)

Do you live in a village that is near crop fields? When these fields are harvested (which is about now) millions of little bugs end up in your house, inside your photos frames, in your hair, etc.

We don't get those in London.

Were you actually bitten by these bugs? If they were fleas you would probably have a load of bites around your ankles.
And fleas hop more than crawl.
I wouldn't be surprised if you had picked them up from the inlaws dogs -- but somehow these don't really sound like fleas.

Maybe thunderflies?

Well I wore white socks for awhile and they're not in the house (which is great news).  They didn't bite me and they also didn't jump like fleas do (at least I think I remember them being jumpy).  I just google thunder flies and that is kinda what they looked like but I never saw one flying.  I haven't seen any since right after I got home.

I just can't really figure out where they would be coming from.  We live on the same road as the school and there are no trees, bushes, tall grass, etc. on the way (it's the main road in and out of town so just a lot of pavement).  There are some trees in the school yard though.

I never seen them flying either.   

Only crawling over me in a disgusting manner. They are so tiny they can crawl into fire smoke detectors and set them off.

Cambridge has been struck with a plague of flying ants today.  GROSS!

Ah, see you should up north, doesn't seem to be any bugs as it is cold and won't stop raining.

Did you have a bag that you put down on the floor or a sofa or something while you were at your in-laws?  They could have an infestation of something and they could have crawled onto your bag, and then later crawled onto your arm while you were carrying the bag around?