crap. we have fleas.

redshoegirl · December 2010

Big Sad - we discovered fleas in our house tonight. It's summer here and has been unusually humid lately so the flea population has been going crazy...we do treat our pets but it looks like one of them managed to catch some anyway.

So far Will and Dash don't seem to have any bites, so let's hope they can stay that way for another day or two to give us time to treat the house and our pets.

I know it's stupid and doesn't mean my home is filthy, but I've never had fleas in my house before and now I feel all dirty. Dammit. Crying

expatjen · December 2010

we have that problem here in India with our 2 furbabies - especially when it's hot and humid. I find that using citronella oil (on bed posts, door frames, etc.) or neem oil (for the pets) helps us control the bites.

Hope you get rid of those blood-suckers soon!

inamra · December 2010

We got fleas once after our dogs were somehow exposed to it while being dogsat when we went on vacation. Luckily, they're mostly outside dogs, so we didn't have as big of a problem in the home but like you, I still felt dirty! But we got on Frontline pronto and it worked like a charm. Hope you guys get rid of them soon! I hate fleas!

Married2MrWright · December 2010

Oh, I am so sorry. We used to get fleas during Indian Summers in San Francisco because we lived next to a huge sand dune.

I am not sure how safe it is with your boys, but they do have "flea bombs" where you set off these foggers in your home and leave a 3-4 hours. You come home and wash down the cabinets, doors, etc. and all of your dishes, linens, vacuum etc. It's a process, but if you're desperate, it does work to kill every last one of those suckers!

https://www.killsbugsdead.com/fop_fkpf.asp

I am a fan of finding the least toxic most natural way of handling pests, but if push comes to shove, I will break out the big guns! Good luck mama!

Here's something that looks like it will take care of your fleas without having any harmful ingredients for you or your pets:

https://www.fleashredder.com/

MrsNJSwimmer · December 2010

well that's good the boys don't have any bites - hope the critters go away soon!

redshoegirl · December 2010

I realized last night that I was wrong - it wasn't our pets. We treat them with Frontline and even though we have fleas in the house, none of the animals have them - none are scratching or biting or anything like that. Based on where I've seen the fleas, I think they must have come from armchair we got from a coworker recently (it didn't have visible fleas but it certainly could have been carrying eggs since they can lie dormant for so long). I was planning on reupholstering it, but now we've hauled it outside and are going to take it to the dump.

Lori, thanks for those links! Because we don't seem to have a lot of them at this stage, we've decided to try a carpet spray first and then, if that doesn't work, go for the bombs. We're also washing all the bed linen and any blankets that were lying around, flea shampooing the pets and giving them another dose of Frontline (it's nearly due anyway).

mrspresley · December 2010

i'm glad that pets don't have fleas! you can check them by looking closely for flea "dirt" which is flea poop....they look like small specks of dirt and if you put them on a white paper towel and wet them, they will bleed a dark brownish red b/c it is digested blood. easiest way to know if your pets have fleas w/o seeing the little boogers since they can hide sometimes!

how gross that the chair has fleas...eww. just fyi, vacuuming is sufficient to remove fleas from furniture, at least that is what the experts tell me. i do understand why you'd rather just dump the chair though

for treating the environment.....just know that if there are fleas in your environment that NOTHING and i mean NOTHING will kill the pupae so you can kill the adult fleas, eggs, etc but you have to wait for the pupae to hatch before you can kill them....so it may take 3-4 months to get rid of a true flea infestation. the eggs and pupae not only get in the carpet but they can get in between the cracks in hard wood floors. i am hoping that in your case you don't have an infestation yet ....but if you do just know it may take multiple rounds of treatments....make sure the cats are on frontline too!

redshoegirl · December 2010

mrspresley:
i'm glad that pets don't have fleas! you can check them by looking closely for flea "dirt" which is flea poop....they look like small specks of dirt and if you put them on a white paper towel and wet them, they will bleed a dark brownish red b/c it is digested blood. easiest way to know if your pets have fleas w/o seeing the little boogers since they can hide sometimes!
how gross that the chair has fleas...eww. just fyi, vacuuming is sufficient to remove fleas from furniture, at least that is what the experts tell me. i do understand why you'd rather just dump the chair though
for treating the environment.....just know that if there are fleas in your environment that NOTHING and i mean NOTHING will kill the pupae so you can kill the adult fleas, eggs, etc but you have to wait for the pupae to hatch before you can kill them....so it may take 3-4 months to get rid of a true flea infestation. the eggs and pupae not only get in the carpet but they can get in between the cracks in hard wood floors. i am hoping that in your case you don't have an infestation yet ....but if you do just know it may take multiple rounds of treatments....make sure the cats are on frontline too!

Thanks for the advice! I'd read that about flea infestations and I'm REALLY hoping that it's not that bad yet for us. I've only seen two, but I know there are more since both Ben and I have some bites on our ankles. But we'll probably treat the carpet again in a few weeks to try to cover ourselves.

I thought about trying to salvage the chair, but honestly I'm just kind of squicked out about it now. It was free and needs reupholstering so at least I don't feel like I wasted money - silver lining, eh?

Yup, the cats are on Frontline too - that was actually why I suddenly realized that the animals couldn't have brought in the fleas (the dogs don't really go upstairs in our house but the cats are up here all the time - and the cats clearly don't have fleas biting them).

mrspresley · December 2010

redshoegirl:
Thanks for the advice! I'd read that about flea infestations and I'm REALLY hoping that it's not that bad yet for us. I've only seen two, but I know there are more since both Ben and I have some bites on our ankles. But we'll probably treat the carpet again in a few weeks to try to cover ourselves.

I hope it isn't bad too! just remember that one flea can lays hundreds of eggs hopefully they all died before taking a blood meal on any of your pets (since they are on frontline) so the ones you are seeing are only from the chair that was brought in...

fleas give me the heebie geebies too! try to do things to promote the pupae to hatch so you can kill them...they are stimulated by (1) heat (2) carbon dioxide ie dogs/cats breathing on them and (3) vibrations like a vacuum cleaner or you moving about

btw - what a cute new siggy pic! love the beard LOL

redshoegirl · December 2010

mrspresley:
(2) carbon dioxide ie dogs/cats breathing on them

OMG really? That's so weird!

And thanks! I know Christmas outfits are kind of useless but it's their first Christmas so we decided to go ahead and get some. Stick out tongue

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crap. we have fleas.

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