Fleas driving me nuts

Ashleynicole8048 · June 2013

So I live in San Diego, summer is normally flea seasonwe have one car and two dogs anyways but we took in a cat and she was prego a while ago, had kittens and they're all gone now, but our house is now infested with fleas!!! The momma had advantage but we couldn't give the kittens any. We have wood floors and I've tried two foggers in the spare room that were making the babies room, which also served as the kittens room while they were here, and they didn't work! I am so beyond frustrated!!! Especially since I can't be around that stuff what so ever. Any remedies that you guys know of?! I'm desperate to ridnof these things so we can put everything in her room! Thanks

jenaggie12 · June 2013

Oh man, that sucks. I've had to deal with fleas on my dogs, but never an infestation. I really don't have any remedies, but I hope they are gone soon.

Ashleynicole8048 · June 2013

jenaggie12:
Oh man, that sucks. I've had to deal with fleas on my dogs, but never an infestation. I really don't have any remedies, but I hope they are gone soon.

Yeah me neither! So crazy. When I walk in that room there will be like 5 on eah leg! Miserable. And frustrating since I can't go in there and just spray the crap out of the room all the time haha.

SamanthaPo · June 2013

I've never had an infestation, but I have had fleas in my home. I killed as many as I could by hand and bathed all of the animals and flea treated them all. I also make it a point to spray the entire house with flea spray that I get a Walmart in the pet section. I know there are flea bombs, but I try to be as proactive as possible with fleas...I have two dogs and three cats.
Sorry I have no more advice.

artistlife · June 2013

I have heard that with fleas you have to bomb every 3 days or something. I don't know the exact time frame, but they have a very short life cycle and the bombs don't kill eggs. So you have to keep dwindling each generation. Try googling flea treatment and you might find the exact treatment schedule.

ranaverde · June 2013

You might also need to vacuum and wash the floors a few times - the little buggers like to hide in the cracks and hatch out later. You might look into some of those plug-in flea traps too.

I'm sorry - I know how much a flea infestation can suck!

ETA: And after you've vacuumed, dump the bag or whatever right away, or they'll start hatching in the bag too. (Gross!)

Jmo30 · June 2013

Maybe try an exterminator for the fleas..call them and see what they suggest and what they would charge.

Ashleygarret1 · June 2013

A friend had same problem and she put water in a bowl with dish soap with a lamp next to it turned on and the fleas are attracted to the light and end up in the soapy water and die. Change water everyday and you start to see less and less fleas. Nice home remedy with no chemicals

AlisonandMark · June 2013

I'm a vet tech and have had many clients with this same problem.

You said you used Advantage already. That is a great flea product. My advice would be to make sure you treat all of your animals for 3-4 months straight (one tube once a month per pet). Due to the flea life cycle (adults, eggs and larvae all living in your house) you do need to continue treatment for a while, bad infestations take up to 4 months to fully clear.

Now fleas are most attracted to animals, they'd prefer to bite cats, then dogs and then people, so if you treat your pets, the fleas will be killed with the medication, thus, stopping their life cycle. You just need to wait for the eggs/larvae to slowly hatch over time, then the new adults will hop onto the animals and then be killed by the Advantage before they can lay new eggs.

Another tip is to vacuum often and then get rid of your vacuum bag as soon as you're done (if you have central vac, dump the collection bin as soon as you're done) because fleas can live and hatch in your vacuum too.

I'm not too sure which "bombs" etc you've been using or if they're safe to be around while pregnant. Your best bet again is to make sure your animals are all treated with Advantage (Advantage Multi and Revolution works too) and just keep up the treatment for 3-4 months.

Good luck!!

dnt27 · June 2013

This happened to my family when I was in high school. My mom treated all the animals, cats and dogs, with Advantage and then she uses flea bomb and bombed the house every 2 to 3 days for 10 days. That cleared up most of them, along with the Advantage for 3 months straight, they were all gone by the third month. You're not supposed to be around flea bomb not pregnant, so I would totally steer clear of that. I'm sorry you're going through this and I hope you get some relief soon!

fiddlefern · June 2013

We had fleas in our apartment really bad two years in a row. We bough boric acid powder (you can request it from the pharmacist and they special order it OTC). It's harmless to humans (you may want to check about using it while pregnant though). We sprinkled it all through our house and scrubbed it with brushes into our rugs. It kills the eggs and fleas on contact. It is also safe with pets. It worked almost immediately, although we kept treating the apartment for about a week.

hollowway · June 2013

You're going to have to get all the animals out of the house. Give ALL of them a flea bath and then treat them with fleas with a monthly topical such as Frontline or K9 Advantage. Don't use the cheap one from Walmart. Get it from your vet. Before you bring them back in the house, you will have to shut all the windows and flea bomb. Basically you buy canisters of flea killer from Walmart or other stores and set em off ::thus the flea bomb::. You will have to stay out of the house for like 3 hours and then open windows to air it out again. If you don't do all this, and keep flea preventative on your pets, you will be plagued with fleas. Sounds like a dirty environment for a newborn.

RavenandJosh · June 2013

Fleas have been driving me crazy too! We have 4 dogs and they are all over the age of 10. We've had then all since they were puppies and never in the 10 years have we had them have we had problems with fleas, until now! In the past 4 months we have bombed our house 3 times, gone through several bottles of very expensive flea shampoo that you can only get from the vet, several packs of Frontline Plus and have also had a professional come treat the house AND yard. Still nothing. My dogs are covered!!! Infested actually. My vet is actually dumbfounded because were we live, everybody is going through the same thing. Nothing is working. My dogs were even on that very expensive Trifexis pill that is suppose to be the best thing out there before they got this infestation. It obviously stopped working. I actually had a breakdown the other day about it and cried for the longest time because I am lost for what to do. I have even tried some of the stupidest home remedies that people swear up and down works, NOT! Don't laugh but I even filled a baby pool up with vinegar and garlic and submerged my dogs in there to supposedly kill the fleas. Um, the only thing it killed was my smell, gag reflex, and my whole houses clean fresh smell. So good luck in your fight with these damn things. Hopefully you will have more luck then I have.

HerbanMom · June 2013

Oh man, we had this happen a few summers back when my vet changed my dogs RX and it didn't work! We've got hardwoods through most of the house and carpet in the bedrooms. You'll need to get EVERYWHERE. Borax mixed with salt is great on carpet and cheap- Mix it together and douse the carpet, sofa, rugs. Leave it for a couple days, vacuum and redo, you'll need to continuously do it because there could be eggs that haven't hatched (which can apparently go dormant?)

I actually just bought some raid bug spray for indoors and outdoors because I've had a small silverfish and spider problem since it's so hot out. It was like $6 for a spray bottle and I used that in the livingroom and office where it seems like we've started to pick up a small flea issue AGAIN and I haven't noticed anything in the last week. (The back of bottle also kills fleas)

You just have to make sure you stay ontop of it for awhile because while most of these killers kill adults it doesn't kill the eggs, so you kill what you can and then just continuously maintain. Also, if you using chemicals, have SO/DH do it if possible or wear a mask. Good luck, fleas are a PITA!

TobieRose · June 2013

Ugh, we had this problem the summer before LO was born. And we don't even have any animals. Literally the fleas were just living off of ME (didn't seem to bother my husband...).

We set out a tray of water on the floor and that got some, but ultimately what worked for us was sprinkling borax on all the carpets and furniture, letting it sit, and then vacuuming it up and throwing away the bag. After that I just kept vacuuming and throwing out the bag, and after about a week they were gone.

Good luck!

Arod1087 · June 2013

There is stuff you put in the rug and leave it there for weeks..more like months.. And you have to keep the dogs and cats on advantage for the whole time..do not miss a month or it will start all over again! Good luck! Fleas are the worst!

tjheld · June 2013

So strange you mention that as I think that we may have fleas also but its only in our bathroom so I don't know if they are fleas or not!? Do fleas jump/hop at all? Nerveless I know what you mean with it driving you crazy as I also am so tried of them and feel like nothing is helping!

livy625 · June 2013

We moved into a house once that was supposedly treated but was infested with fleas. Our flea free pets were covered in a matter of days! It took me 2 months to get rid of them. I washed our dog and cat every couple of days and flea combed them daily. I put the fleas into a cup with alcohol, it kills them instantly. I vacuumed everyday and changed the bag frequently. You can put moth balls in the bag to keep fleas from hatching but I probably wouldn't recommend this being pregnant and the smell is bad. Your yard needs to be treated too because if not they can pick them up out there.

We used the topical flea treatment and there is a pill you can buy that kills all fleas on the pet that works well too. I forget the name, maybe capstar?, but its not too expensive. I used this before I put the flea treatment on. I made my dog lay on a white towel on our patio and there were tons of dead fleas. Hope this helps!

Want a personalized experience?

Fleas driving me nuts

Re: Fleas driving me nuts

Choose Another Board

Search Boards