Fleas!

[Sabda]

Ack! Fleas are horrid! You have my sympathize. We had an awful flea infestation 2 years ago. We had 4 pets at the time. I had to deal with the carpet problem as well as all 4 pets. If the owners are not using it, I would also second the Frontline Plus suggestion. It was the ONLY thing that got rid of the fleas on our pets. For the house the best thing is just vaccum, vaccum, vaccum and THROW the bag away immediantly! Do NOT leave it in the vaccum. If it’s a bagless vaccum empty it into a plastic bag, like a Target, Wal-Mart bag, and throw it away. It’s best to do that outside. I found a carpet powder that was excellent for killing fleas. It took us 3 weeks to get rid of them but they are GONE. Once they get started it will take a while to get rid of them. Fleas go in cycles. You get rid of the adults then you have to get rid of the new adults that hatch from eggs that were left behind. Hopefully there won’t be to many now that they bombed the house. Keep vaccuming daily though.

 

[Mommyof02green]

Ok… I talked with the realtor (daughter of owners), she pushed towards doing the bomb/fogger thing, so today I spent all day around town with the babies and they set the foggers in the house etc. I was just in the bathroom and found one alive and hopping and three groggy ones… Is it normal to find this after fogging a house?

BTW, mommyof02green, do they sell that spray in regular stores? I really don’t want to use any more chemicals here, but we’ll see what needs to be done. I bought some calamine lotion for the bites today

For the Borax people, is Borax very toxic? I am not really familiar with it.

I tried the water pan thing (forgot to put detergent) and caught about 30 in two pans, but I saw several of them crawl out so I bet I would have caught more if I would have put that in! I just used regular lamps and tin pie pans left over from TG (I knew it was a good idea to keep them just in case hehe).

I haven’t seen any at the stores…but I know that you can go to a vet and get some. Our vet wanted us to buy the stuff there, but we bought it online cause it was a little bit cheaper. (we are talking 2-4 dolloars cheaper…but we also need to buy some other things for the dog… So it was worth shoping online for it)

 

[leaner]

we had a flea infestation last year and we didn’t have pets…turns out something died under the crawl space…oy. Anyway, it took a little over a month, two orkin treatments (the orkin guy walked thru the house and said he’d never seen an infestation this bad without pets) and vaccuuming twice a day for a month (cleaning out the bagless canister thing each time and emptying it outside) – it was AWFUL!! – I was going out of my mind, and thanks to a skin issue from vaccination reaction, my 2yo got welts from every bite – she had 36 on her back at one time…I cried, needless to say, alot those weeks. I was also newly pregnant and exhausted…so chemicals had me freaked even more than normal. What I found worked for us was Skin So Soft – I bought the big vat of it, and put it in small spray bottles – then I sprayed the mattresses, the sheets, the pillows, the crib, you name it. After baths each night, the kids got greased up with it, and we greased our legs. It was awful, and I wouldn’t wish it on anyone, but I was amazed how well the skin so soft worked. The kids actually thought it was fun to capture them and drop them into the soapy water glasses stationed all around the house for that purpose…

PS - it was so bad, we moved into a hotel for three days while they bombed the house

One thing I learned was that the flea spends a whopping 5% of it’s life as what you’re seeing (the adult jumping flea)-- the other 95% is spent in egg and larval stage; the vacuuming actually stimulates them to come out of their larval stage early, exposing them to the treatment in a weakened state, thereby killing more of them easier. Vibrations stimulate the “hatching” process – like feet walking across the floor, or better, the vacuum. Don’t forget to vacuum the furniture too…and wipe down or wash all the toys that got coated with bomb spray…and wash as much as you can in the hottest temp you can…LOL…I washed our clothes every night; wish I’d have known about the vinegar thing…that might have helped too…

 

[lifeisbeautiful]

Gee, thank you guys for so much information. I really appreciate your helping me out!

Leaner, that sounds like a nightmare… so sorry you went through it. Sabda, that must have been hard with 4 pets!

OK, sorry to keep posting all these questions, but I have another one… Since vacuuming brings them out, shouldn’t I stop and then let them treat the house once we are gone (the house is empty) and there are not kids to be bitten? When a house is bombed, how long does it take for the new fleas to come out? I’m sure it varies by house, but do any of you remember how long it lasted? I guess what I am saying is, if they will come out and bite anyways in the next two weeks, I might as well do the vacuuming thing, but if we might be able to be a little over two weeks without them coming out to bite, it may be best to avoid having them come out to play. BTW, I found out this is not the first time they have an infestation in this house

 

[leaner]

Gee, thank you guys for so much information. I really appreciate your helping me out!

Leaner, that sounds like a nightmare… so sorry you went through it. Sabda, that must have been hard with 4 pets!

OK, sorry to keep posting all these questions, but I have another one… Since vacuuming brings them out, shouldn’t I stop and then let them treat the house once we are gone (the house is empty) and there are not kids to be bitten? When a house is bombed, how long does it take for the new fleas to come out? I’m sure it varies by house, but do any of you remember how long it lasted? I guess what I am saying is, if they will come out and bite anyways in the next two weeks, I might as well do the vacuuming thing, but if we might be able to be a little over two weeks without them coming out to bite, it may be best to avoid having them come out to play. BTW, I found out this is not the first time they have an infestation in this house

Nope, from everything I’ve read and was told, vaccum and vaccum and then vaccum again…they take several weeks to come out of their egg/larval stage? I guess you could google it, but the vacuum brings them out sooner, and isn’t sooner good?? LOL. You won’t go two weeks without them biting, I promise you that. that fits logically, but it’s just not the way it worked for us. I just kept the thing running all the time…lol. The kids got so used to hearing it go they paid me no attention whatsoever (“Jaws” as we called it, was a source of great fun for the kids before fleas…)

 

[lifeisbeautiful]

Nope, from everything I’ve read and was told, vaccum and vaccum and then vaccum again…they take several weeks to come out of their egg/larval stage? I guess you could google it, but the vacuum brings them out sooner, and isn’t sooner good?? LOL. You won’t go two weeks without them biting, I promise you that. that fits logically, but it’s just not the way it worked for us. I just kept the thing running all the time…lol. The kids got so used to hearing it go they paid me no attention whatsoever (“Jaws” as we called it, was a source of great fun for the kids before fleas…)

I think you’re right I’ve found about 10 live fleas so far (without vacuuming). I have to wait for naptime to do it here. My babies are afraid of the vacuum

 

[OutinChgoburbs]

Borax is NOT toxic to humans or pets. It is toxic to fleas and cockroaches.

And yes- Put some in your vac!!! About a quarter cup in the bag, or 1/8 cup in the canister for a bagless!!!

(I could use sled dogs today, BTW.)

 

[ack]

Wait…are we talking about Borax (Sodium Borate) here or Boric Acid? These are two different chemcials.

Boric Acid is the usual treatment for cockroaches…never heard of using Borax for this.

Borax is NOT toxic to humans or pets. It is toxic to fleas and cockroaches.

And yes- Put some in your vac!!! About a quarter cup in the bag, or 1/8 cup in the canister for a bagless!!!

(I could use sled dogs today, BTW.)

 

[OutinChgoburbs]

Wait…are we talking about Borax (Sodium Borate) here or Boric Acid? These are two different chemcials.

Boric Acid is the usual treatment for cockroaches…never heard of using Borax for this.

I mixed the two up.

Borax, the washing powder additive, does the fleas. I take it the sodium borate smothers them. Baking soda doesn’t work for it. Humans and pets shouldn’t eat it, but it won’t kill them (mostly because it tastes so bad , no dog or cat in his right mind would munch on more than a lick. Some got in my mouth once- ugh!).

But you are right- It’s boric acid mixed with condensed milk into a paste; or just put out in a nice line of powder, kill cockroaches by essentially blowing their intestines up. Cockroaches can’t belch.

 

[lifeisbeautiful]

I posted this earlier but now we are leaving this week so I wanted to ask for advice/experience in moving (with many items) from one flea infested house to one non-infested house.

When we moved a couple of months ago we didn’t know how long we would be gone so I brought a decent amount of items (two babies growing). Now I am worried about bringing the infestation home with us in our stuff. Any ideas of how to avoid bringing the unwanted guests home with me? (As a side note, the other day when I went to buy a few things at the store I saw a speck on my daughter’s cheek, and lo and behold, to my horror, it was a flea, so I know they like to travel with us).

BTW, we still have fleas all over, but it is a lot better than before. Your ideas are working (believe me, I’ve been using from pans of water, to vacuuming every day, to borax, we fogged, etc etc), but like many of you mentioned, it takes time. I don’t think it helps that the carpet is a knotted/ intricate pattern that seems to be hard to clean deep with a vacuum. We are so happy to be leaving this week.

I had spoken with the realtor (owners daughter) after the bombing since we ended up finding at least 30 live ones the day after (vacuuming etc). We had told her we were considering leaving the house early (before our last month here started) moving to a hotel and sending some of our stuff back in the mail or something and requesting a refund for the unused month (we prepaid our time here). She told us that this did not merit is getting a refund for our last month, that when she was here before we moved in she did not see any fleas, and neither did her cleaning lady when she bombed, that we must just be a very sensitive family! Oh well, if sensitive means being upset because the babies are getting bitten or annoyed to find one on me/them every few minutes, then yeah, I guess we are sensitive. We don’t have pets, and they do and were here the month before we moved in and had had a flea infestation before that (imho it was never totally taken care of, as she told me that what they did back then was bomb the house once). They plan to rent it out to someone else soon. I feel terrible for whoever the new tenants will be. Before I leave I will try to convince the owners that there are still many fleas, but I’m not sure they will listen/care.

 

[OutinChgoburbs]

My suggestion would be to move your stuff using POD or another DIY storage unit, where they bring the unit to your house outside. Rent the unit for at least two days. You can load up your stuff and “bomb” it, one day after the next.