Indestructible fleas! HOW LONG????

[pusht4time]

Hi all, need some advice from those with greater experience.

Found fleas in the house just over two weeks ago (there's a pic of one of them through my son's microscope - Christmas gift finally got used!) Got aged cat treated and sprayed the whole house with Indorex (3 cans worth!!) Have been vacuuming every day since but am still finding fleas in water traps under sofa and picking live fleas off legs all the time.

Also, despite having been treated and combing him every day I'm still picking between 4 and 10 large, fat fleas off the cat each time.

Can anyone let me know if this is normal (ie, they're all still hatching and will go eventually) or if it sounds like our chemical efforts have failed and we need to go nuclear?

Any advice would be great as we're desperate and at our wits' end - the sofa's even gone on Freecycle today (with a health warning) and will be headed for landfill if no-one is brave enough to take it on and blast it.

Hi, what flea stuff are you using for the animals?
Indorex is the best for the home as it kills fleas, eggs etc......
I work at a vets so fleas are my thing!!!!

Hi Lukat, embarrassed to say I'm not sure what vet used on the cat - I know it was a spot-on treatment. Will be able to check on Monday.

However, the cat's been living outside the house since treatment, he's got shelter and a bed out there and has always been a bit of an outdoors type. Also he's now had enough of me combing him all the time and is keeping his distance as much as possible. So he isn't bringing any new fleas in with him (or picking them up here either). Should we still be finding so many live fleas indoors everyday?

Spray the outdoor bed and shelter too.

I was going to say that we didn't get rid of the fleas until the cat was moved to live in an outhouse, but I see you've moved him outside already.

We used indorex in the house, but I don't know how much good it did. We also used the flea bombs that you light and then leave to smoke the room for several hours and they were fantastic. After using the bombs, we'd find dead fleas of all sizes in the room (lots of hoovering needed!) and we eventually got rid of them after weekly bombing for three or four weeks.

The fleas like heat and vibration (because that's what animals make!), so Hoover the rooms every day for a few days before bombing to get them to hatch. We also turned up the heat to epic proportions, but I don't think you need any help with heat at the moment!

While you're bombing (all rooms), Hoover in between bombing sessions. You can't Hoover too much. But do change the bag/empty the cylinder straight after each Hoover session, because any live ones will hatch inside the Hoover and find a way out! They're persistent buggers

Good luck!

We had a very stubborn flea problem a few months ago, we used flea bombs and a couple of different spot on things because we found one that worked on the cats (advantage) and got the house sprayed by the council. The cat still picks up the occasional flea but the Advantage seems to be keeping them at bay. We hoover like mad as well.

The bloke from the council said he's been really busy this year because of the damp, warm winter- great weather for fleas. :( Hope you manage to get rid of the hoppy little buggers.

I has similar problem a couple of years back with my cat.. I tried all the shop bought treatments including indorex & bombs etc.. Probably spent well over £150 on them but fleas still kept appearing 4 months later..

Luckily a friends husband was a pest control man & came in to treat whole house for me.. It worked 1st time.
We had to stay out for 6 hours, he did it for free so I'm not sure how much it would cost.

We paid about £40 I think. The council was cheaper than a private pest control company.

I wrote my post before I'd had any coffee It should say we tried a couple of spot on things before we found one that worked. Right, I need more caffeine now....

Have you washed everything? We had a terrible case of fleas a few years ago, after a few days of panic and ineffective sprays etc more just kept appearing until I hot washed & tumble dried hot all bedding, curtains, cushions, clothes, everything in the airing cupboard, steam cleaned the carpets and sofa (including down the sides and underneath).

Just hoovering the floors will not get all the eggs.

After The Great Wash I stored as much as possible in vacuum bags with great big handfuls of flea carpet powder stuff.

Anything you really can't wash hot (wool etc) went in the freezer & then vacuum bagged with powder too.

Mattresses I steam cleaned and then sprinkled with carpet stuff before hoovering a few times.

I used frontline combo on the cat and two or three comb-throughs with a topical spray initially.

Binned her basket etc (encased in several bin liners so the fuckers couldn't infest my bin)

Didn't change Hoover bag every time but did start every Hoover session with a handful of flea carpet powder & sometimes some kitchen towel soaked in the topical spray stuff.

Smoke bombed the rooms that didn't have fish tanks in them (as deeply toxic to aquatic organisms)

Good times.

2.5 weeks of hell and we were flea free though.