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Housekeeping

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Original poster

Fleas found: please can someone give me a step by step plan of action?

74 replies

batteredlanger · 14/06/2015 08:08

Hello! DH is freaking out, I'm hanging in there! But I've been googling flea infestations and I'm not quite sure where to start, what order to do things in, what I can do NOW, what has to happen next iyswim. We have one very outdoorsy cat who comes in to sleep during the day. He has been recently treated but I probably left it too long between treatments.
I'm a bit daunted by what I have read about getting rid of fleas as we have 3 kids aged 5,3 and 1 do can't leave salt sll over the carpets for ages etc. we have loads of stuff crammed into a top small house..I don't have a tumble drier so am I going to have to take Everything for s service wash? It will literally cost over s hundred pounds I'm sure and we are already struggling with the bills! And do we need to throw all the mattresses away? I'm just s but stressed as its hard to keep on top of day to day chores with two small kids at home all day. So the epic cleaning snd hoovering we'lol need to do for the fleas is daunting. Can anyone tell me where to start and what order to proceed?

OP posts:

NonDom · 19/06/2015 08:48

I agree about Frontline being ineffective now. Our problems were solved when moving to Advocate.

confusedofengland · 19/06/2015 09:31

OK, thanks for that pretty much unanimous advice to switch to Advocate. A quick google suggests that you can only get it with a prescription, so we will book DCat into a vet & get that sorted. Does anybody know if having used Frontline on him so recently means we need to wait to use Advocate, or can the two be used close together?

Getting desperate here as even after the bug bombs downstairs have seen quite a few of the little blighters in the lounge (they were tiny, smaller than ones I've seen before), DS1 reckons he saw them come from under the sofa, so I'll have to pull that out to hoover, which could be fun as it's a corner sofa & so is big to move

Original poster

batteredlanger · 19/06/2015 09:46

Hi confused you are not alone! We are still seeing fleas despite having hoovered the place to death etc. I'm hoping the advocate(?) is going to be the magic bullet!

OP posts:

confusedofengland · 19/06/2015 10:22

battered it's horrible, isn't it? I keep thinking I'm itchy, even if I'm not Not relishing the thought of vacuuming every crevice of the house later, but it's got to be done & at least it's not to hot here today (Essex)

confusedofengland · 19/06/2015 10:37

too hot, clearly - the fleas are getting into my brain, now

confusedofengland · 19/06/2015 16:17

Well, have hoovered the house to high heaven - and still seen more of the blighters! Hopefully it has helped a bit, though, will do same every day for at least a week. Spent at least 1.5 hours hoovering today, so is at least calories burned

Original poster

batteredlanger · 19/06/2015 16:27

That's true! Have a and some to keep your energy levels up!

OP posts:

bostonbaby · 19/06/2015 18:19

Get rid of the cat, get rid of the fleas. Job done

confusedofengland · 19/06/2015 18:25

boston I don't think our cat has many years left in him...

catzpyjamas · 19/06/2015 18:51

confused, you need to leave a few weeks between Frontline and Advocate but your vet will keep you right. It's really worth getting a spray for the house too as it reaches the parts cats don't reach
We had this a few months ago and have been flea free ever since treating the house once and the cat every month.

catzpyjamas · 19/06/2015 18:53

Oh and getting rid of the cat doesn't rid you of the fleas once they have made themselves at home.

peckforton · 20/06/2015 23:04

We have six cats and a dog who all go out and in and we don't have a problem keeping on top of them. Use flea stuff from the vets. Get rid of carpets and have hard floors with rugs you can wash. Vacuum a lot as it is the vibration that makes the fleas wake up and jump.
If you know there is a cat in the area that they mix with and you know it may be the source of fleas, catch it and deflea it. we had a problem with a cat that was locked out of it's own home and I found it in mine a number of times so I caught it and wormed and flead it now we rarely get fleas.
Its like nits at school there is always one that is the carrier

catzpyjamas · 20/06/2015 23:24

Please don't ever treat someone else's pet for fleas or worms. You have no idea whether their owner has already treated them or if they are on medication which may react or they could be sensitive to the treatment you put on.

angeleyesmax · 21/06/2015 06:52

We are also infested. Don't know where to start with toys everywhere! Do we have to treat EVERYTHING? Hard card/plastic too? Also do I need to bug bomb he wardrobes with clothes inside?!? Covered in bites now.. How on earth to get it done with nutter toddler urgh!!!?

Original poster

batteredlanger · 24/06/2015 20:35

Yes angel it would be so much easier to treat the problem without the kids in the house. We decided not to spray the baby's room and just vacuum well. AnywAy we thought we were on top of it but have just seen one or two fleas and they seem to be originating from her room . She's been waking a lot at night....I bet she's being bitten
Full attack mode again tomorrow. Sigh . I thought we'd done enough.

OP posts:

confusedofengland · 29/06/2015 15:56

Well, we are still infested. We have done hoovering 5-10 times per day, bug bomb, treated the cat, cat has not been home in over a week (sleeps in a shed at my parents' house, apparently), put DEET repellent on the DC before bed. And still they come. Today, when I picked 4-year old DS2 up from preschool they pulled me aside to ask if he had chicken pox, as he has lots of little bites mainly on his back . It felt quite accusatory, there were 2 of them talking at me for a good 5 minutes plus, I was so so embarrassed & upset We literally do not have any money to buy any more stuff, so I don't know what to do DH gets paid tomorrow but every penny of that has to go on mortgage & council tax. He gets paid again next Tuesday & we should be able to spare some of that, but things are very tight, he is now not working again (contractor) It makes me feel dirty & neglectful

unlucky83 · 29/06/2015 17:14

confused
If you have treated the cat get them back in the house if you can ...basically the fleas have no host to live on. They are getting a blood feed from you guys and jumping off. Still can't find a host so taking another feed from you guys to keep them alive. Iirc they can't breed but can survive for several months like that - and make sure you have something to kill them in the vacuum bag/are changing it every day.
If the cat is there it is acting like a flea trap - let it wander around picking them up - and then if the cat is treated once on it they will be killed and/or get flea combing...once they are on the cat they try and stay there but will be breeding - be laying eggs - to continue the problem (except regular vacuuming will be picking up the eggs/flea dirt/larvae so you will be breaking the cycle).
Its only 10 days - iirc flea life cycle is minimum of 10 days in ideal conditions - lots of the ones you are seeing would have been in pupae -resistant to pesticides - and they are sticky and tend to attach themselves to something so are not being collected by the vacuum -but are now hatching as they get disturbed. Really believe this is the worse - the storm before the calm!
Have a look at
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cat_flea and www.petmd.com/dog/parasites/evr_multi_understanding_the_flea_life_cycle
It might not seem like it but you will be winning -honestly!
Good luck

homeaway · 30/06/2015 17:11

Can you borrow a steam cleaner to steam the floors ? Can you steam clean the carpets to kill them ? I would empty dc room wash everything that you can and put it outside to dry in the hot weather. Work you way around the house like that if you can. You need to empty the hoover bag as well. I hope it gets better for you.

unlucky83 · 30/06/2015 17:32

home I steamed my carpets but it actually seemed to make them worse! I saw more fleas afterwards -but maybe they had just been encouraged to 'hatch' from pupae? I guess because they like humidity and steaming increases it...
but having said that washing my carpets (which I do about every 6 months these days) did seem to help -which will also increase humidity but I guess the steaming made it a bit warmer too?

SoupDragon · 30/06/2015 17:42

I agree - if the cat has been treated, get them back in the home so they can act as a Hoover and collect up fleas as they hatch. The fleas will then die.

Our problem was horrendous but with the indorex, treating the cat and dog and them being back in the house we were on top of it within a week. It was a horrible week, but it was the end of it!

homeaway · 01/07/2015 18:39

From what i have read the steam is meant to kill them. If you do it again make sure that you keep the steam on long enough in one place? Can you steam all the floors in the house ? Do you hire a carpet cleaning machine as i suppose that would suck them up ? Just keep at it as you will need to catch them in their various cycles.

unlucky83 · 01/07/2015 19:57

home I think it was the bits I had missed - although I did move the furniture and do upholstery etc.

I tried to keep the steam on each area for a count to 20...it took forever! I was gutted that they seemed to multiple afterwards...(although I know they didn't really -just felt like it )

homeaway · 01/07/2015 22:18

Has the steam cleaner got different nozzles you can use ? That would help go along skirting etc. This is the life cycle info i found.www.orkin.com/other/fleas/fleas-life-cycle/

unlucky83 · 01/07/2015 23:33

We aren't infested at the moment - we had a terrible problem several years ago and it took a while to get it under control ...steaming was something I did then ...and carpet washing (I have a good carpet cleaner) ...
No-one in the family actually reacts to bites and I wasn't checking the cat cos frontline was fantastic -so it was really really bad and I know we had them outside too - I don't know how long the cat had them for - suspect several months plus a further 3 months (? applications anyway) as the vet insisted fleas weren't resistant to frontline. I didn't spray the house cos I had a baby but did steam and hoover etc.
(This was when the vet's assistant told me the fleas I was finding on the frontline treated by the vet cat would be dying - I would never catch a healthy flea with a flea comb ...so comb cat find 3-4 fleas everyday, leave for 4 days comb cat and find 12 fleas...no reason for that and they were all dying! ). And they wouldn't offer me anything else - or they did eventually - but I'd lost confidence in them so moved onto bought flea collars and then daily combing.
We had a problem for years - but like I said I opened a storage box after 6month-1year and found about 15 fleas jumping around in there. They were everywhere.
Anyway -touch wood - height of flea season and I have found one flea 3 weeks ago and no sign of flea dirt during her weekly flea comb -and I am not using pesticides at all. Just hoover whole house and flea comb cat once a week.
Actually for everyone infested - the other thing I have done is make it easier to hoover everywhere. So eg I used to have toddler train track always out in DCs bedroom on the carpet and only move it once every 5 weeks or so to hoover under it - so I put it on a board on castors and stored it under their bed. It got a hoover dust weekly and that bit of carpet was easily hoovered. And I completely covered the small sofa bed in our bedroom with a fine cotton throw - so weekly I take the throw off and give it a good shake onto the carpet before I hoover. (I do run over under the throw but don't need to get into the cracks and crevices as the throw should have stopped any eggs etc falling down between cushions etc). I shake duvets etc onto the floor too before hoovering.

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