Fleas in the carpet

[Ritascornershop]

Yuk. All of a sudden there’s fleas everywhere. We have two cats who spend most of their time outdoors in the summer (formerly somewhat feral). We’ve now treated them with flea medicine.

Do I need to jump straight to dousing the carpet and sofa with insecticide or do any home remedies actually work. Baking soda? Salt? We got diametacious earth for the ants in the garden so could use that?

Personally I'd kill them with that strong stuff you get from the vets.

Hoover, spray, hoover and spray.
Every day for weeks

For tonight lots of shallow bowls of hot Fairy water. Fleas love a hot bath!

We do have a Dyson so I thought a lot of vacuuming is part of the tactic. Fleas give me the heebie-jeebies.

Indorex is your friend.

I just paid the council to come out and treat.

Indorex spray everywhere (particularly soft furnishings and around the edge of carpets) and a flea collar inside your vacuum to kill the buggers you've vacuumed up.

I wonder if any natural methods work before using pesticides? Has anyone used baking soda? How long would I leave it on for?

I’m not in the U.K. so no Indorex, but we’ll have similar (& local government here for sure have no interest in providing that service! I used to live in England and yet I’m constantly surprised at the things the council can be used for).

I use indorex also but never treat the cats themselves as the fleas spend most of their lifecycle off the cat and in soft furnishings or in grass so I treat the house on a regular basis

I have 8 cats plus fosters so it works out cheaper and much more effectively to do it this way.

Ah, interesting @HeartGirls I was hoping to avoid pesticides in the house, but maybe I have to resort to it. Then lots and lots of vacuuming.

Lemon water spray - slice a lemon, bring to the boil in a pint of water, cool and steep overnight. Spray everything twice a day. Hoover twice a day but not straight after the spraying. You have to act immediately - they can get out of hand very quickly and the larvae last for weeks.

Vacuuming a lot (in addition to chemical treatment) also helps because they will lay eggs in the carpet. We had someone come and professionally deal with it when we had fleas, he said to particularly focus on vacuuming along the edges of the carpet to the wall.

I used very expensive flea bombs from the vet. I have an indoor cat who caught fleas from my niece . I couldn't cope with the idea of a flea filled house so I used every pesticide available, never seen one again.

If you are hoovering you need to empty it each time otherwise they will continue to live inside the hoover and escape out again

Sorry should have made clear the council didn't treat for free it was £150

Our local government just doesn’t do stuff like that, even for a fee. They do rubbish collection, swimming pools, tennis courts,
Libraries, water, and not a lot else.

We have a canister vacuum so it’s easy to empty. And only 3 small area rugs, otherwise wood floors, so that’s good. I’ve only noticed them near those carpets. Thanks all!!

Would flea bombs (and bed bug smoke bombs) trigger off the fire alarm thingy? The thing you out on the ceiling - cannot think of name.