To want to cry about these fleas

[stopfuckingspraying]

Up until about a year and a half ago I had a cat sho's fleas appeared to be immune to Frontline, took me an age to get her de-flead. Cue the great flea infestation of 2012.

I had the whole flat fumigated by a professional TWICE before things started clearing up.

Unfortunately my cat got knocked over and sadly passed away in May 2012.

Now, I am very very allergic to flea bites and have noticed the last few months I have been getting that all too afmiliar feeling again.

I was sorting out junk in my old cupboard and must have disturbed some dormant fleas because I found one sitting proudly on my arm last night.

I am literally at my wits end, it seems to be never ending. I have bought some Acclaim which I hear is very good, any advice on how to use it?

Also, I have a lovely little hamster who is my baby and I do not want him being affected by the spraying.

Common sense tells me that he should NOT be in the room whilst spraying or for a few days later but what shoudl I do? Is he safe in another room? Is he safe to go back on sprayed carpets a few days later? Any advice would be most welcome.

Thanks guys

Doesn't the hamster have fleas?

He does not.

I have only seen one flea but felt a couple of bites so I don't think I have a big infestation on my hands

I know how you feel OP, our cat had fleas in 2004 and I've been paranoid ever since. The guy who came out to fumigate our house told us that the stuff you can buy in supermarkets to spray on your carpets and furniture is just as good as the stuff they use (wether that's true or not, I don't know but we did as he advised and we haven't seen any since)

He told us to spray all over furniture and carpets, taking extra care to do the edges, crevices and under radiators(as they like the warmth) then leave for a couple of hours, then (and this is the important bit) hoover, hoover and hoover!

I would suggest either doing a room at a time and perhaps putting your hamster in the room you are not doing or perhaps someone would take him in until you have finished?

Eggs can be lying in carpets just waiting to hatch and the only stuff I've ever used that killed them was stuff from the vet.

I have found Indorex very good, costs about £13 for a large tin. That's enough to do my 3 bed house and then I repeat it 4/6 weeks later. And as PP says hoover, hoover hoover!
I have 3 dogs with a dead fox fetish!

We tried everything. The only thing that worked was Indorex spray. It was great, would send the little hamster on holiday while spraying your house though op. We used it, went out for the day, not a flea survived !

I doubt it was a flea as a flea can only device 2 weeks without a host.

insects.tamu.edu/extension/publications/epubs/e-433.cfm

Ive had a major flea infestation before and it took two months to get rid of them. I used the cheap stuff and stuff from supermarkets and it didnt work. You can get a brand called skoosh which does work and is about the same price as acclaim and indorex. It works by containing the fleas and eggs in silicone until rather than poisoning them. On the tin it says it works by mechanical action rather than insecticidal action. So that might be better for your hamster situation? I went a bit mental and bought everything I could find to try and get rid of them. The ones that got rid of them in the end were skoosh acclaim and indorex.

I found the flea candles really effective. www.bobmartin.co.uk/Cats/Product_Info.html?product_id=1046
And our infestation was really, really bad.

Yes but these could be newly hatched ones, I hear they can lay dormant for up to 2 years.

As for not having a host, my ankles beg to differ!

I'm assuming I have to keep cleaning the hoover also

You have probably had flea eggs in the cupboard etc. Wash everything you can (especially anything the cat may have lain on) and hoover everything else and then keep hoovering lots. The eggs can lie dormant for months and then hatch when they sense movement. Without a cat you've broken the cycle, you just have to make sure all the eggs hatch and die. The vibration from the hoover helps so the day after hoovering there are more fleas until there are none left to hatch, iyswim. Cat fleas can't live on people, apparently our blood is thicker but they still die trying. I had the same experience with frontline btw, which the snooty cow at the vets refused to believe but stronghold still works, thank God.

My cat has alway been frontlined fairly sporadically, and i never had a flea problem. Until i moved in with now DH. Who is a bit of a hoarder. A few months ago he started moving his crap about and like you seems to have disturbed some fleas. Its the lack of hoovering in my case - or rather hoovering round the hoard. I told him this and we spent a month spraying with a carpet spray from the vets (tall purple can) and hoovering, plus treating the cat. Flea free for a few months again.

Acclaim is fine. Any of the sprays containing permethrin + an insect growth regulator (Smethoprene) will work, so that's Acclaim, Indorex, RIP flea, Nuvan Staykill, Johnsons4fleas, and probably others, but not bombs, candles or other sprays.
Fleas can survive for long periods as pupae, and are invulnerable to any sprays in this life stage, so you need to persuade them to hatch, then spray. Warmth, humidity, noise and vibration encourage hatching, so heating on, bowl of water on the radiator, Hoover first, move heavy furniture to spray behind it, possibly inside the wardrobes if you think that's where they are hiding. I'd normally say treat the whole property but if it's been done previously and it's localised to one room you may not need to. Keep Hammie out of the room while you spray and air it for an hour or two afterwards, then he's fine to go back.
(vet)

Indorex from the vets on all your furniture, carpets etc & vac, vac & vac again!

we used that acclaim stuff. along with washing everything,steaming everything and hoovering like mad we've been flea free for quite some time. just make sure you can ventilate well with the acclaim

In addition to the usual rodent surprises, our 2 cats thought it would be helpful to bring fleas into the house.

We did the whole house with the ridiculously expensive stuff from the vet but it was worth every penny as the still not THAT cheap stuff from the supermarket did nothing.

Top tip from our vet - spray your car as well. Makes sense if you think about it - if fleas are on you (bleurgh) then they'll travel with you to the car, and back again after you've got rid of the little blighters from the house.

Itching just thinking about it.

Haven't read the whole thread but my vet told me to put the empty frontline containers in the hoover bag.

Sorry have not read all the thread, I have a cat and a dog and every m

Sorry! Every month I use a yellow can of carpet flea treatment ( take your hamster out for a drive with you in the car:) ) I spray all the floors around the skirting boards everywhere. We go out for an hour and then I Hoover and steam all the carpets. Really painful but like you the thought of fleas makes me feel so sick and they really effect my little girl. So far it seems to be working both cat and dog are flea free. Hope you get it sorted soon x

Baking tins... What is the difference between frontline you can buy at the chemist and the one you but from vets?
Is there a difference in strength? I'm convinced when u brought it from chemist (as was cheaper!) it didn't work..

We had an infestation of fleas in 2012 too, it took us a few months and lots of tins of acclaim to sort it, but we did eventually. As others have said Hoover, then spray and spray under everything and spray the furniture. We cleared ours (well we had not seen any in a few weeks) then went on holiday. While we were away the cats were only given access to the dining room. On our return their was newly hatched and obviously hungry fleas jumping onto our feet in both the lounge and bedroom. I put salt down under the sofas and bed and left it there for a long time as I read that helped too. No idea if it did but we had no fleas at all last year, but we had changed to advocat or something and were very strict on the monthly treatments. This has reminded me I need to treat the cat!

My friend steam cleaned every inch of her carpet and soft furnishings.
Fleas never came back.

This thread is making me itch. Advantage is very good as it treats both dogs and cats. 4x extra large for about £15. A whole one on the dog and a blob each for the cats. No fleas here! This only works with Advantage, do not use other deflea products on both cats and dogs together.

poppiesway Frontline spot on from the chemist only contains fipronil. Frontline combo from the vet or on prescription also contains S-methoprene which controls the environmental lifestages. I'd agree with posters who think that fipronil is losing efficacy though, I've stopped recommending it to clients in the last few years because we've had lots of people with problems despite using it regularly.

hootingchicken still very easy to overdose the cats doing that. Advantage for dogs and cats contains the same ingredient (imidacloprid) but vastly different amounts 40 or 80mg in the small/large cat pipettes, 400 in the large dog one. Many other dog flea products are poisonous to cats, please don't do this at home, folks.

You are not being unreasonable. I am allergic to fleas too and it's horrible.

We had to use flea bombs in the end (I think they're called foggers?). We had to vacate the house (You have to take everyone out, so you'd have to take the hamster out too if you wanted to do this). Then we hovered everything up and cleaned all our fabrics.

When ever I go around some ones house and they have fleas (really easy to tell... I'm very allergic :( ) when I get home I have to take all my clothes off and wash them right away. I'm paranoid about it since we had them and also one of my cats gets really ill with them.