Fleas!

[twitterer]

I am going round the bend being bitten. I have two cats, I have always used the Bob Martin spot on but I picked up fleas from someone's house now we are infested. In a family of four (DH and 2 x DS) I am the only one being bitten so no-one else sees a problem. I have upgraded and got the two cats frontlined and have sprayed the whole house with flea spray but am still constantly stratching. My house is clean but I feel like a total skank. What else can I do as I am still getting bites?

Has anyone else experience of being the only person in the house getting bit??

[Lizcat]

Everyone is bring bitten only one person is allergic to the flea bites is the answer. Which household spray have you used? The over counter sprays are knock down sprays which kill adult fleas on that day. The ones that you get from the vets such as acclaim and Indorex have a residual action and keep killing fleas for up to 12 months.

[smearedinfood]

I was told by the rentokil lady to wash everything at 60c so it kills the eggs. If you are going to spray, spray near warm places like the radiators and electricals as they like warm places.

[2T2T]

I fgeel your pain! We returned form holiday to find our house absolutely infested wtih fleas to teh point that there was not a spare cm on my leg that did not have a flea on it. It was so distressing. We stayed at my Mum's that night and the next morning I got pest control to come and fumigate our home. £310!!!!!! WIthin a few days there were considerably less but I have had to call them back again as we wre still seeing about 10 - 20 per day. They came on Tues and fumigated again but last night dd had them all over her trousers in her bedroom and me on my feet . They are frigging invincible adn I hate hate hate them. I have found about 10 again today some are quite dozy so I guess the pesticide is doing its job but I don't wnat ANY ad I am getting increasingly frantic about it

[Annpan88]

DH didn't think he was being bitten and thought I was going insane. I've been washing everything and using the sprays but it didn't work. DH is now itchy and has seen fleas so we're going to bite the bullet and have council in for £92m can't really afford it but feel sick and the thought of them and spray isn't working.

Feel your pain!

[pippibluestocking]

Had this problem again two weeks ago having thought we sorted it two months ago - what we didn't do 2 mths ago was wash everything in DD drawers and wardrobe which cat had climbed into. My plan of action would be / was 1) flea fog main rooms - this will kill adult fleas and therefore stop anymore bites, but won't kill off the larvae or eggs 2) put Aevantage on your cat 3) Hoover everywhere, paying attention to dark places where fleas like to hide, eg. Behind wardrobes / Sofas / cracks in floorboards 3) wash absolutely everything you can that your cat may have had contact with on at least 60c, 90c if possible, this will include blankets, cushions, rugs, duvets, pillows, all soft toysand dressing up clothes and all clothes where the cat may have had contact with them (be prepared for some serious washing, I reckon it took at least 20 loads of washing and over a week to process this) 4) Spray everywhere and everything you can't wash with Indorex spray ( much cheaper on line than from the vets, try VetsUK.co.uk. 5) keep cat out of bedroom 6) put flea collar in Hoover bag to kill any fleas sucked up 7) deflea religiously with Advantage, don't use supermarket flea solutions - that was how we got infested after years of using Advantage & being flea-free - they don't wk! Good luck!

[pippibluestocking]

Meant to say that Indorex kills eggs and larvae and therfore breaks the flea cycle if you keep cats flea free with Advantage

[pithtaker]

You, and my DD, are the unfortunate fuckers that fleas like to feast on.

On the plus side , they'll be gone in two weeks.(too cold for them)

Bob Martin stuff is crap, learn;t that the hard way, Front Line works most but not all of the time, best of the bunch though. Lot's of hoovering works too.Like 3 hours a day.

[pippibluestocking]

Think Advantage is better than Frontline, my vet swears by it!

[ProfYaffle]

We've been through exactly the same. Go to the vets, the stuff you get in pet shops and chemists is crap. Front line from the vet is a different formulation to the over the counter stuff. I got Advocate to put on the cat and Indorex to spray the house with and do all the stuff Pippi says. We're now flea free - thank fuck. It's awful, much sympathy.

[glitch]

We had the flea battle this year. Fleas have become immune to Frontline in our house so I've changed to Stronghold and sprayed everywhere with Acclaim.
It has taken a couple of months for them to go totally (ie, no sneaky bites at all now) but they have now gone. YAY

[oopslateagain]

The Bob martin stuff is useless - ok for a couple of fleas but does nothing to stop an infestation. Advantage or Frontline are infinitely better but much more expensive.

DD is allergic to flea bites (and mosquito, gnat etc etc), a Piriton tablet works wonders for a few hours. Plus Anthisan cream = a nice peaceful night without her waking me up at all hours because " I'm ITCHING mum!"

[MedusaIsHavingABadHairDay]

I also recommend getting the cats injected with Programme jabs.
These don't stop fleas getting on the cats but any flea that bites them is instantly sterile and can't breed..so you don't get any infestation. Combined with killing the buggers that are already there it works well.

I find it quite satisfying to think 'ha bite my cat you'll never breed again!!'

[stinkyfluffycat]

You need Stronghold - we tried Frontline and it did nothing, but 2 days after Stronghold no more bites on us/no more fleas on the cats. Also sprayed the entire house with 'RIP, Flea'! but tbh that didn't seem to have any effect when combined with Frontline, only with Stronghold.

[NhameCage]

Advocate/advantage (only from the vet) is the way forward. We are now flea free. Frontline wasn't totally effective and supermarket treatments are worse than useless. The indorex spray is also very good, I bought it at a normal pharmacy (it is only for the house, not for the cat so needs to be used with a treatment for the cat). Other things I've tried did not work.