Unreasonably obsessed by flea problem?

[Fleabee]

Am I losing the plot?

I have 3 kids, 5yrs, 2yrs and 10 months. As you can imagine they need a lot of attention.

I have 2 cats who are regularly front lined but every single year they infest the house with fleas. This year is worse than ever. The 2 year old's legs are in a really dreadful state. The 5 year old is marginally better, and the baby has bites on her back and a big one on her face this morning. Sob. The fleas are in every room.

I am hoovering the entire house daily if I can, and not just a quick hoover. Pulling out all the bloody furniture and going in every nook and cranny. This is killing me, and of course the kids are very bored in the time I am doing it. I am also spraying flea spray when I can but limit this to when house will be empty etc as hate the thought of the chemicals and the kids playing on the floor where the spray is.

I also have mastitis and yesterday spent the day feeling shit and hoovering in tropical temperatures.

And then at bedtime I saw about 5 fleas.

WWYD?

Am I blowing this out of proportion? Should I just calm it down as it doesn't seem to be working anyway. Is it as big a deal as I feel it is?

Or any tips on getting rid of them?

Any advice appreciated.

[melonandpapayaandmango]

Krumbum with us, the cat is now absolutely fine after being frontlined, I have a spray from pets at home which supposedly kills them but although things are better they are far from solved and I have the most horrific itchy bites all over my legs, ankles and feet.

I don't blame our cat, not his fault and it can't have been pleasant for him either but oh dear.

[BettyandDon]

You definitely need to treat the cat and the house. You have to kill dormant eggs before they hatch. It sounds like you are being as vigilant as possible, do I think it's time to call in Rentokil or similar.

We are in a similar position and are on Round 4 of treating in 9 months since the original fleas appeared. I'm going to get quotes in the next day or so.

[TaggieMandevilleBlack]

Frontling is crap. I think the fleas are immune like lice.

Got some stuff called stronghold ftom the vet which seems to be working.

[MelodyPondering]

melon I think you need indorex spray. I got it from amazon for £10 a can. I still feel like I'm in the midst of an infestation but I think its a good spray.

Our house is terrible as we have floorboards with massive gapa which are incredibly difficult to Hoover. I also think I need a new Hoover .

It is supposed to be the very best though.

Ps I hope I am nearing the end now but I'm not counting on it sadly.

[MelodyPondering]

9 months betty? I may cry again!

[griphook]

We had fleas about six weeks ago, my ds2 was 4 weeks old and I found fleas crawling across him. My ds1 would wake up with bites every morning. I was covered would wake up itching from bites

Basically I went to stay at my mums for two days while dh used a spray, but it does say you can use it with tiny babies. The spray was called indorex 1 can is enough for a four bed house. We went threw four cans as by this time I was ready to rip my skin of with the itching.

You need to spray the whole house in one go, try to get someone to take the kids out for the day so you can spray like mad.

I washed all clothes, and anything soft like cushions, the cat was not allowed in any rooms other than the hall way for 5 days.

We Hoovered mattresses and under bed for 7 days as well as carpets.

I became so obsessed that at 3am one morning I lugged the sofa in the garden as I was convinced that it had flea eggs in. ( had to sit on the floor for a few weeks)

Tbh I threw lots of stuff out ad I couldn't be bothered to wash it.

I put front line on the cat and a week later bob Martin. Your not meant too but I was at a loss as to what else to do.

After hoovering washing and spraying it did get much better. But it was hard work! And time consuming.

Sprayed lemon juice on floors after as their not meant to like the smell.

The thing that makes me itch is that for every flea there are 95 eggs you can't see

Also sprayed the car as well. Indorex was from the vet

[griphook]

The Other thing when you hover make sure you empty it. I have a dyson do I emptied then filled with water to make sure any left over drowned

[griphook]

*so

[NoBloodyMore]

We've hopefully just got rid of them, I've only seen 1 but I've got bites all over my feet. We've used indorex from amazon last week and washed everything, and I've had no bites and not seen any since.

In previous years when it's gotten really bad I've had the local council pest control to come out and do it, costs about £50 but didn't see another for 12 months after that. Have a look on your council website.

[TidyDancer]

Do NOT use Rentokill. I can't stress this enough. They overcharge massively because they know that people know their name.

Call your district/local council, they should have a pest control service.

And no, you are not overreacting.

[mumto3boysHE]

My DH is a pest controller. We are finding that Frontline is not working as well as it used to. The life cycle of a flea is very short and they are extremely resiliant, so if you treat with stuff that is not strong enough you only kill the live fleas, the eggs just hatch out and you start all over again.

I know I am biased but you really need a professional in. They have stuff that has a residual that hangs around until the eggs hatch out.

We do 1 treatment, with a free follow-up if necessary but I know other companies do 2 treatments a fortnight apart.

Please consider using a local pest control company rather than a national. Their prices are generally cheaper (ours are almost half that of Rentokil) and you help to support your local economy.

Good luck.

[NarkedRaspberry]

Rentokill. Worth every penny.

[MammaTJ]

I came home from holiday to find fleas all over the place. I went to the vets and bought a spray can of flea treatment for the house. It was in a fairly plain white can and it got rid of them all!!! We had to spray it while the kids were in the garden and then go out for two hours. Easy!!
It cost £16.

[NarkedRaspberry]

Or Rentokill type service - obviously you should get a couple of quotes.

[DueinSeptember]

We've had fleas in the past and tried a lot of treatments, but they would not go away.

Then one day we bought indorex from amazon and frontline combo from the vet (treats cat and house) and haven't had a problem since, that was nearly a year ago and we haven't needed to treat the house or the cat since.

[valiumredhead]

I imagine the eggs are in the carpets - they can live up to 2 years apparently

[DueinSeptember]

Look for the eggs and concentrate your spraying on them (as well as the rest of the house). They look like little white grains of sand and you'll find them where your cat likes to sit.

Good luck, I found it awful and upsetting to deal with.

[melonandpapayaandmango]

right it's time for pest control then!

Can you use it with a very small baby? DS is only 10 weeks.

[happybubblebrain]

I really sympathise, it's awful.

When we had fleas we treated the cat and the house and we've never had them back since. I had to spray all the floors with a spray that made the floors so slippy nobody could stand up and we were falling over and banging our heads all the time. It's a little bit funny now I think about.

I hope you sort you fleas out soon, they are horrid little critters.

[2kidsintow]

The indorex I got was in a very plain white can. I got it from Animed online. It was about £8 a can rather than £10+ and I ordered it yesterday and it arrived first thing this morning. Very impressed. Free postage too.

[Pickles77]

Hey, I don't frontline my dog anymore it's a con. He gets flea combed every day and dunk the comb in water every swipe.
My vet also gave me this stuff on perception for my house. It's called 'RIP FLEAS' I laughed too!
But it's brilliant. You do your whole house, it lasts for a year. It's fantastic! It's in a purple aerosol and it smells okay too.
If I worked for RIP FLEAS on commission id be rolling in it!

[DoesItComeInBlack]

We had this last year after we moved into a new house, we had the cat treated, got in rentokill, They had to come back. Then We got flea bombs too. Then we replaced every carpet in the house. Got rid of the bastards eventually, but it was a nightmare me and dd were bitten to death. OH and ds weren't touched. We had sexist fleas. So far this year no problems, just keeping on top of the frontline on the cat.

[arrrghhhhwaiting]

OP
The council will spray house for you. You sometimes need to wait a week til they come but its less than a third of price of rentokill where i live and free revisits if not sorted first time. Worked first time for us though !
A bowl of slightly soapy water, next to a turned on lamp placed on the floor, attracts them. They jump in and die. Was reassuring to see this stop after the council had been.
Do u get frontine from vet, its higher dose at vet than at supermarket. X

[NewDog]

Jungle Formula insect repellant (or anything with 50% DEET) will stop the fleas biting you - but don't get it on your face or in your mouth, as it can make the lips swell. Won't be suitable for the baby but will be ok for you and possibly older children (check the label).

My dog had fleas once and it was awful, even though I managed to get rid of them pretty much immediately. You can also get flea bombs, not sure what they are called but know a friend uses them as the cats kept bringing in fleas. You set them off and leave the house for the day.

[Kippersbigfeet]

I forgot to frontline the cats one year and we ended up with fleas. The cats were fine once frontlined again but we tried Acclaim and Indorex and still we were getting bitten. In the end I bought some smoke bombs online, lit about 6 of them throughout the house and left for the day. Came back and hoovered everywhere and we were flea free. We also didn't see any spiders after that for about 3 years. Have stopped frontlining the cats now as one of them was having a skin reaction and so far we have continued to be flea free.

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