buying house where animals lived: fleas

[curryeater]

We don't have pets and I am very sensitive to, or delicious to, fleas.
We're renting a temporary place and some beastie is biting me every night. Looks like fleas to me. (please no one mention bed bugs please please please don't even let me think it) (Actually does anyone know, other than catching one, how you can tell what is biting you?)

The house we want to buy has dogs and cats living there now. What can I ask the vendors to do about fleas? I mean I know they will say "our animals don't have fleas" but they all bloody do and they all bloody eat me (especially because once the vendors have taken their animals away they will be desperate to eat anything; people with flea-ridden animals often don't realise it because the fleas are eating the animal of choice). Do I just have to accept it as our problem and try to get the place properly dealt with before we move in? Vendors with pets, what is your position on this?

also, does anyone know anything about how long the little bastards can live with no animals other than humans to eat? I am desperately hoping that the ones biting me now are residual ones left from some previous animals and eventually they will die without the right animals to eat. I am sure I had heard that. but I can't find any information on that now.

Thanks!

All insect repellents wear off is the problem, so might not last all night. But DEET or Mosiguard have been pretty good for me. Just to tide you over until the place gets sprayed.

Hasn't it been a bit cold recently for fleas hatching. And not all animals have fleas but most do need treating to prevent them. And I agree that if there is no animal in the house the fleas die after a short while. And also agree with spray from vet. Don't even bother with the supermarket brands. They don't work.

I have in the last 3 or 4 days developed a crop of bites all over my body (huge itchy things - even on my fingers !). I can't figure out what is causing them - but I am getting a handful more each day. I am fairly certain it isn't bedbugs (not change in sleeping arrangements) or fleas. I am leaning towards the theory that the slightly warmer weather has hatched out some bitey things (lots of mozzies flying about outside).

So not much solution for you - but commiserations - and the hope that it isn't fleas (or bed bugs) and will go away soon.

Buy this to help:
www.jmldirect.com/uk/laundry/uv-ultra-vac/invt/t11u230100000001/

You can use it anywhere, carpet, mattresses, furniture etc.

Woozlebear, interesting, I was afraid that would be the response.
Like specialsubject, very dismissive. I often find this with pet-owners - they don't get bitten, either because they just don't or because they live with the animals that the fleas prefer to bite, and they just flatly refuse to believe that animals leaving fleas can be a huge problem.

Specialsubject, you are wrong, by the way.

OK I have to get the council in, but I hope they can help without actually knowing what it is... preparing for 100 levels of being fobbed off now

I don't have pets, and I have dealt with fleas on a house-sit. One of several, the others didn't have fleas - not all pets have them all the time. I went to the vet, bought flea treatment and a flea bomb. No drama. Small issue. (BTW only the vet flea bomb stuff works, supermarket stuff doesn't)

Bedbugs are very hard to get rid of short of some serious spraying. If you have a wooden bedframe, they could be in there. So you could burn it and the mattress to be sure. If you have a metal bedframe, it's fine.

You asked for advice, you got correct advice. And it was free. The council wont' be.

Curry I have done some reading. Cat, dog, and human fleas are 3 distinct species (there are others too). For cat fleas, for example, to induce serious reactions in a human requires an allergic reaction. (If you are being bitten by animal fleas, then you have an allergy and I'm very sorry for that, but my point is that it's the exception not the norm). This from Wikipedia: "Humans can be bitten, though a long-term population of cat fleas cannot be sustained and infest people. However, if the female flea is allowed to feed for twelve consecutive hours on a human, it can lay viable eggs." It's not a case that I "flatly refuse to believe that animals leaving fleas can be a huge problem", because I'm some deranged animal nut, it's that mostly they're simply not.

And if you start a thread asking pet owning house-vendors what they think and are given a detailed, thought out response, complete with a further paragraph expressing sympathy, don't call the respondee 'dismissive'. It's rude and ungrateful. I also never claimed to not be bitten - I have in 30 years of near continuous cat ownership been bitten a handful of times, round the ankle before effectively dealing with the problem. As I said, a couple of cases.

My concern for you is that you are currently experiencing totally unidentified bites / allergy symptoms, from an unknown source (with no indication of animals being involved) and you seem to be extrapolating from that an assumption that there's a high chance your next house will be infested with animal fleas. It's simply not logical and I think you could alienate your vendors by pursuing that assumption. You asked for advice, you got it.

I agree Woozle. However, my friend at work moved in to a new house and started getting bitten - and that was a flea infestation from the previous owner's cats - that was an owner that didn't care about her cats and certainly wasn't bothered about the impact upon the new owner. My friend got a company in to spray to ensure that all the eggs got zapped. The bites Curry is talking about don't sound like flea bites to me.

Fleas are actually really easy to get rid of IMO - we went on holiday in autumn a couple of years ago and I was behind on our 'spot on' programme. We have four cats and when we got back our downstairs was infested, it was disgusting. I treated the cats then vacuumed up a new flea collar into a fresh vacuum bag, did the whole house, Indorexed (paying particular attention to crevices), vacuumed again 2 days later, rinse, repeat for 10 days. It's a bit of a faff because I hate vacuuming, but it's not hard.

Contact your local council for a one stop solution. They can fumigate everything; I'd get all your furniture and EVERYTHING into your new house then get them in. They also often do free revisits.

Yes people like me & Curry have mild allergies to insect bites (+ mere pinches & stings in my case). We already knew that. I've been telling health professionals about it for 14 yrs. So what? Tell us something we didn't know.

Mild can still be horrible, and if Curry is currently living with ~25 actively itching bites she's a heck of a lot tougher than me. I don't blame her for feeling fairly hysterical about any more.

Flea pupa can survive up to a year without a host.

would steam cleaning help at all? Will the temperature kill off the pupae? I would maybe do a 'flea bomb' that is a nasty strong chemical that you let off in a room and this can kill the fleas.
Our next house has a cat, am allergic, am planning to steam clean and rip out carpets as soon as we can.

Good luck Augusta, I hope you can sort this out.

Some of you people are so pathetic. It doesn't cost you anything to make a reasonable acknowledgement that some stranger on the internet has a point. Fleas, bedbugs, whatever they are: they are real, they exist, they are biting me, they are infesting my house that I am paying money to live in and making me utterly miserable. This is a recognised problem that is objectively recognised in law as making premises uninhabitable. My landlord is in breach of contract, and has a legal responsibility to eradicate the infestation and, arguably, compensate me. This is all objective fact. However, there is also the emotional component that the thought of my bed heaving with pests left there by other people's animals is making me feel ill and miserable and anxious and completely distracted. What the ACTUAL FUCK do hatchet-faced old bags like you get out of making out that other people's problems a. don't exist, b. don't matter, or c. are of their own making? What on earth is the fucking point? How can you seriously suggest that a house infested with biting bugs, which may take all sorts of chemicals and personal battles to eradicate, is just not really a problem?
your attitude would be laughable except that I am struggling with this so much that nothing is very funny right now

I mean I get why the lettings agent are trying to make out that it either doesn't exist or is my fault. I totally get that because their responsibilities cost them money. but what do YOU have to lose? For fuck's sake.

I empathise with you OP. People don't understand or minimise the issue, which of course they can do because they aren't living with it!

I bought and moved into a house where the previous owners had cats many years ago. It was gross. I had a couple of friends over to help me move and stayed the weekend. We all got badly and extensively bitten - I react to insect bites and some got infected and I ended up on anti-biotics. I spent weeks using various different flea sprays and bombs and I couldn't walk around my own house without a pair of long socks over my trousers to prevent getting bitten.

I even spent a fortune having rentokill in to bomb the house but that only lasted about 2 days

I ended up ripping up all of the carpets in the house. As I couldn't afford to replace them I sanded the floors and varnished them. Very messy, time consuming and serious hard work and I wouldn't do this with children in the house as the volume of dust is enormous and gets everywhere.

I implemented a "No cats" policy for my next two house purchases and wouldn't even view a house if the owner has cats. Estate agents probably thought I was bonkers but tough - I was never going to go through that again.

And I really hate cats now too, which is probably unfair.

OMFG Waspie, that is terrifying.
I am going to get the house we are buying fumigated before we move in. Maybe I need to start thinking about budgeting for having carpets taken out before we even get there.

I have spent over £200 already on trying to deal with these pests (the house doesn't have a washing machine - external lanudry costs) so although I finally have a grudging agreement from the lettings agent that they should send over a pest person, I think I need to take legal advice on recouping some costs because if this goes into replacing beds, etc, we just can't afford it.

Of course a bunch of whining landlords / pet owners will be on soon going "land lords are people too, why should they have to pay for to maintain their own properties" and "cats don't have fleas, or they shouldn't have fleas, well mine don't, or so I believe, and you must be making it up"

with that comment about landlords and pet owners you have lost all the small amount of sympathy I had for you.

good luck. May this be the worst thing that happens to you.

specialsubject, why do you keep saying that as if it is some sort of terribly clever veiled threat? I too hope this is the worst thing that will happen to me. Obviously it won't be, I mean the future no doubt holds bereavement, illness and accident, but wtf has that got to do with anything? I mean if I end up sobbing by a hospital bed in the near future I am not exactly going to be thinking "this is horrible, but I LOVED it when my house had fleas! It took this to make me realise what fun it was."

The previous owners of my house were apparently "shocked" that their precious cats were flea ridden. Of course they didn't know - while there are animals to bite fleas don't tend to go for humans. Cats are much tastier.

Good luck with your house purchase and having a fumigation before moving in is a great idea, even if it's just precautionary. I don't know much about letting agents but if you have receipts for the money you've spent and photos of your bites surely they should consider your claim?

Waspie, good point, maybe I should get the bites photographed (with my lovely wobbly thighs as a bonus background) I have also seen a dr who has seen them but not my GP so maybe I should do that too. (the dr did confirm that they are obviously bites but was at a walk in centre so I don't think I can ask her to provide a note or anything)

yy waspie, about pet owners' feeble minds being blown about the possibility of fleas. I asked the lettings agent if the previous inhabitants (landlord) had animals, as the pest control person will definitely ask. Had to chase this info and was eventually told "they did have a dog but fleas were not a problem". To them. The fleas were not a problem to them.

It's really sad because there are far more responsible pet owners than irresponsible ones but if you encounter one of the irresponsible ones it tends to put you off for life. I also feel sorry for the animals because they are probably having a horrid time dealing with itching and bites and the owner isn't treating them.

We had dogs growing up but they weren't allowed in the house beyond the tiled floor of the kitchen. Stopped the eau de doggie and any fleas or ticks (we had chickens so ticks could be a problem) getting into the house proper. If we get a dog I'll apply the same rule.

I'm sure a photo of a woman's thighs would make the letting agent's year!

I am an old cat lady in the making, but I do understand your flea - fear.

You should make a flea trap: fill a shallow dish with water and a couple of squirts of washing up liquid, and put it next to your bed (or wherever the most bitey things are) with a desk lamp over the dish, shining directly onto the water. The heat light will attract the fleas, they jump into the dish and can't get out of the soapy water.

Firstly this will kill some of the buggers, and secondly it should tell you what you're dealing with - if you don't catch anything I'd guess it's bed bugs.

If my instructions are incomprehensible just google 'make a flea trap' or similar and instuctions with pictures will come up.

I moved into a rental house once that had fleas. We tried to treat it ourselves but the only thing that killed them off was council treatment.

OP, do you get up in the night to use the loo? I found we had to brush our lower legs after any walking on the carpet, or the fleas would end up in bed with us.

Why is your LL not doing anything if your house has an infestation?

For your sanity, it looks like you need to separate your current predicament from the house you are buying. There is no guarantee that your new place will have anything bitey in it, and once it's empty it will be much easier to inspect and treat if needs be.

Look at your local council website.

A neighbours cat brought fleas into my house last year. I bought some indorex and didn't let the cat back in. It cleared the problem but my council would have treated the house for about the same cost as the indorex and it would have been effective much sooner!

Thanks, stinky - good idea, I will make a flea trap tonight and hope to catch something to show to pest-guy tomorrow.

Zola, the house is let through an agent. the agent has no approved minimum spend, ie can't do anything without explicit approval from the ll, and for reasons I cannot fathom but can can guess at* needed a LOT of chivvying to make that call.

Orange, I have bought some indorex and I think it did help a little (being bitten in 3s and 4s instead of 7s and 8s). Again, expense!

• ask specialsubject why it is not a problem? ask specialsubject why she would rather make weird dark hints about me manufacturing problems where none exist, than sympathise? Some sort of weird gut reaction against taking things like this seriously - why it exists I don't know, but I recognise it here - and I did ask the question why it exists on these pages so I would be interested. I suspect there are elements from some or all of the following categories of stupidity:

A general sense that tenants are low-life so any problems are probably their fault
a laziness, reluctance to do one's job, especially where it involves telling people things they don't want to hear (the landlord, whom they work for)
A refusal to believe in something outside one's own direct experience - some people are not affected by insect bites and don't really believe in them