No fleas please: give me your ultimate guide to getting rid of the buggers

[fleapithome]

I'm allergic to the bites, it's been going on weeks.

I've got Indorex, a steam cleaner arriving tomorrow, and some sticky flea traps.

Anything else needed?

Do I vacuum before or after spraying?

How do I find the sodding time to vacuum a five bed house every day on top of work?? Any short cuts?

What did anyone who has had them do to get rid of them?

Help!

Have you got dog or cat on meds from the vet too? Frontline etc are rubbish.

95% of em will be on the carpet etc. repeat your indorex treatment in 2 weeks to catch any new hatchling fleas too.

I'm afraid it took me about two years of incessant hoovering, washing and spraying of indorex to finally break the ticket. Plus I had to experiment with different treatments for the cats as they are varyingly effective. You're not meant to but I did spray mattresses too but left them in the open air for 48 hrs after.

Two years...ugh!!!!!
I'm already at my wits end with the awful bites.

Yes the dog has been treated and due to the severity of the reaction I get is now staying elsewhere for a little while.

Have you used the indorex yet? This sorted our outbreak last summer but took 2 attempts. Best thing is to spray each room, have all windows and doors closed and go out for a few hours to really let it sink in before airing.

The Indorex should do it, I think you treat once and again after a fortnight if memory serves. Keep walking around all your rooms to encourage the fleas out of the carpet. Vacuum regularly and empty the vacuum outside each time. I also washed all soft furnishings, mainly because everything had flea shit on on it 🙄

Bugalugs flea and tick shampoo is great for cats so I would guess for dogs too. We have a white maine coon and we could see the fleas coming out in the shower!

We're in flea central too. Pets@home said there's a real problem this year. Indorex has been sprayed, cats treated and they are still hanging around so going to see vets I think. Im also combing cats each night and releasing fleas into boiling water.

Does the dog travel in the car ?
you need to Indorex it too !

All the above plus - salt.

Buy a bag of the cheapest fine salt from Tesco or where ever and sprinkle it around the edges of rooms, heavy furniture which never moves, and in the cracks of the stair steps. Even the deep creases in sofas ect. That's where the eggs lie in wait.

The salt dries out and kills the eggs and the lavae (which, incidentally can lay dormant for years). It's not poisonous and doesn't need hoovering up. You can just leave it there and even reapply.

I've heard folks recommend that diamacious earth stuff as a sprinkle drier outer for the eggs, but apparently it can be damaging to lungs if sniffed up (cats and dogs sniffing to see what you're doing) as it's very sharp and spiky under the microscope.

What did you treat the dog with? Hopefully one of the prescription grade newer products from the vet - if so bring him back as he will go around and any that jump on him will be killed.

Oooh - also, a good tip - your treated cat/dog is a walking poison trap for the adult fleas. The idea is that the adult fleas bites the animal and die, obvs.

So - do allow treated pets into all rooms for a bit. No point in treating them and then keeping them out of certain rooms.

Hungry cat/dog fleas with no animal around will bite humans.

When my dog had them last, I ended up giving him a buzz cut all over (spaniel) and washed him every 3rd day in flea shampoo in the shower. He was drenched, then two coats of shampoo and drenched again to rinse. I couldn't believe the amount of fleas that washed off him time and time again. And I boil washed all his bedding. Took about 3 weeks in total, the stuff from the vet didn't seem to help at all. You have my sympathy, I was covered in bites and as miserable as the dog!

Get the dog back! You need them to jump on the dog and get killed by the meds, honestly it's the only way. I had fleas that my friend dropped off from her cat, took me ages to get rid as I had no pet to kill the buggers off so they had a field day feasting on us!

What has the dog been treated with? OTC? Prescription?

I bought a new bed too and 60 degree washed another and then sprayed inside them after they dried before giving back to the pet.

I don't have any pets and ended up with them last year. We used those plug in light things with the sticky pad in the base, they caught a lot and then Indorex and hoover, hoover, hoover. We had them downstairs where we only have one room carpeted, the rest of the downstairs is hardwood. We sprayed the sofas with Indorex too. Good luck.

Just to clarify I mean dog beds. Not divans

Last year, no amount of spraying Indorex would work. Far easier to treat the animal I think. Fleas will die if they have no host. See if you can get better flea treatment - and check you are administering it properly. If you are using a treatment on the skin, perhaps it’s not going on effectively? I now get the vet to do it for us every 3 months. Good luck!

My lovely cat infested our house when we had a 3 week old baby. My advice is just pay someone to spray the house for you. £80 well spent Vs the cans and cans of indorex we bought and used!

we got a Seresto collar for the dog and then the fleas get killed. Can shampoo the dog with hibiscrub in between to make sure there are no lingerers. It seems to have worked for us (touch wood!!) The collar also works for ticks if you have any in your area.

We had a flea infestation a few weeks ago. Over the course of a week and a half we emptied each room of clutter, thoroughly hoovered floor and furniture, washed any soft furnishings and then sprayed indorex. It was a pain in the arse as our house is a bit cluttered but so far seems to have done the trick. I thought the indorex was supposed to kill any fleas that hatch for up to 12 months so hoping that as long as we remember to treat the dog regularly we should be good for sometime. We'd been a bit crap treating the dog as it's a faff to get to the vet, so assumed that was how we ended up with the infestation. Wondering whether an annual indorex treatment in the spring might be the way forward....

As pp said, better the fleas bite your dog than you - you need him back, so the fleas breeding cycle is interrupted.

Frequent and thorough vacuuming won't get rid of them quickly, but it will help to keep it under control. Wear white socks and walk around slowly - if you see them on you, there are many more nearby. Focus on those rooms.

It may well be worth having the house treated professionally if it's an established infestation.

Can anyone recommend something if Frontline isn't great?

Two of my three cats have them. I've been treating with frontline and grooming them. They're only allowed in the kitchen and outside at the moment and I'm pretty sure the rest of the house is clear.

I don't think I'll be able to bath the cats. Not and survive, anyway.

Do we need to wash all our clothing? Even that in drawers etc??

Rentokil . Seriously. I spent months hoovering the ffing house twice daily, flea traps and everything to avoid chemicals as we were TTC .
Rentokil has the whole thing sorted in two visits, we just had to stay out of the house for 12 hours or so. Didn't have any animals then, inherited the fleas from the prev owners.

Currently we treat our animals monthly, wash all pet bedding and sofa covers monthly/weekly and touch wood no issues. I'm the early warning system as massively allergic.

I/We also don't allow pets upstairs as fleas are a bitch to get out of carpet.