Fleas in rented cottage - wwyd??

[piedbeauty]

We have rented a gorgeous cottage in the Yorkshire Dales for Christmas. Cost £1900.

Dd woke the first day with bites on her back and arm - clusters of three. More the next day. Nothing visible in bed.

Changed beds. More bites. Then today we were all scratching, so dd went to have a shower, and found five fleas on her... and we found some live ones. Small ones, not adults. Dd now has about 40 bites.

Owner is sympathetic but says nothing can be done as it's Xmas.

House is very clean. Guest with dog stayed a few weeks ago; no other guests have stayed since.

I'm minded to ask for a partial refund as we've just paid a lot to be bitten! Do you agree? If so, how much is reasonable?

For the unbearable itching Eurax cream from boots / Amazon is amazing
Cost around a fiver - it’s the only thing that stopped me scratching myself to death

I notified the holiday company when I knew it was fleas. The problem has got worse and worse over the week - I guess as more fleas hatched with the heating being on and with lots of people being in the house.

Would they have replied over Christmas anyway?!

This is terrible.
You need at least the full refund, your Christmas has been massively impacted, if not ruined.

Take as many pics / videos as you can of fleas/ bugs as once you're gone you may be told you were wrong/ making it up/ brought them with you.

This is absolutely unacceptable in this day and age. Yes mistakes can happen (a dog can leave fleas) but the responses sounded very 'we don't care'.

I hope your dd is ok and I'd pack clothes in a way you can leave some bags/ cases outside and empty outside into a wash basket and straight to the washing machine on a hot wash. Shoes, coats they could be on ANYTHING!

I have left a factual review in the visitors book too, to warn future visitors.

It's such a shame, as we all love this cottage.

This.
As pp have said, flea eggs can lay dormant in rugs, soft furnishings, carpets. My dog’s 11 and I can’t ever remember having a flea bite because he’s treated each month without fail. Holiday accommodations usually charge a fee for accepting g let’s and that should be used for flea treatment ( spray or bombs)

Home. Clothes in machine, all sorted etc. But what about our toilet bags, bags of kitchen things and food, phones and tech, everything else we took?? How to clean it all?!

Could be both fleas and bed bugs if you're very unlucky.

Bed bugs bite in threes usually in a sort of line. Bed bugs are extremely hard to get rid of and will come home with you on your clothes or suitcase.

I would make the owner aware of the severity of the situation. We caught the Bed bugs from an airbnb which looked lovely but hadn't been thoroughly cleaned.

We have just seen fleas. Don't thinks it's bed bugs!!

I wouldn't worry too much. As PP explained, dog or cat fleas can't reproduce without their preferred host and they seek out warm bodies. Be careful with the clothes you wore home, but otherwise you'd be very unlucky to have brought anything with you. It's a completely different situation to bed bugs, which are a nightmare to get rid of.

If you have any pets then keep up with their flea treatment, of course.

No pets! Thanks.

Thanks for all help. Complaint sent to holiday company. Will keep you updated.

The longer you remain there tye less likely you are to have a case for a full refund, which is what I would want if I rented an infested cottage.

Problem is, @DosCervezas, that we didn't see any fleas until day 5 - I assume because it took time for them all to start hatching out after the heating went on and we arrived. But I contacted the housekeeper after 2 days.

I didn't contact the holiday company when away because they say to contact the owner first and sort things out with them - and I didn't think their office would be open on Xmas Day!!

Shame I'm not psychic really.

What's with the passive aggressive final sentence when people are offering you advice'.
Totally unnecessary.

Perhaps op is feeling slightly irritated by people offering advice without reading what she's already said?
She's actually home now and has already explained that the fleas didn't hatch until they'd been there a few days.

I've rescanned over the thread and all I can see is friendly and respectful comments and advice including mine,and quite a lot of uncertainty around the fleas, and their hatching , which people have tried to support with. I'm sure it's an unpleasant situation.

Sorry, but it was a long thread and I missed the comment about being home now.

If you're suspicious there's fleas in your home ,go to a pet shop , buy some 'fleabombs' and set them off , leave the house while they're active and that should get rid of them 🤞

Because our holiday was over and we were back home. Although dd was bitten from the first night we didn't see the fleas until day 5, so I couldn't report them any earlier. But I did explain this earlier in the post. That's all.

We have sprays for the house. Don't want to use flea bombs as we have fish. But thank you.

If the sprays are Inforex then you still need to protect your fish.

I clingfilmed over the whole tank when I had to spray my house with fish in it. A layer of cling, then a few layers of towels over the top. Filters off to prevent air intake that could be contaminated with Indorex.

You probably know all this but I thought I'd mention.

@DosCervezas - friendly and helpful comments can be a bit irritating when people haven't read a thread properly! For example - several people kept saying they were likely to be bed bugs rather than fleas. Despite the op having already said she'd seen fleas, the bites were where you expect them to be for fleas and they didn't start getting bitten until a few days into the holiday (when the warmth had brought them out of hibernation) rather than straight away.

@Ameadowwalk do Google for images of tick bites as your bite could potentially have carried Lyme disease.

Thank you, @SharksInTheTea! I have only used Indorex outside the house, then waited before bringing things in. Nothing in fish room. Flea spray is all toxic! I guess it has to be...

Hope you manage to get a partial refund. If you've booked through a holiday company you may find you'll only get a refund if the owner agrees as technically the contract is with the owner and the agent is just the facilitator.
We fell foul of this in half term, the owner didn't give two hoots that we'd found mouse poo in the bed (amongst other things) and wouldn't refund us anything. To say I was pissed off was an understatement!

Good-oh! I thought you probably had it sorted