FLEAS!!!!!

[rbnyc]

My life is miserable right now. We let one of our cats out and back in. Within 6 hours our whole house was infested with thousands of fleas!

We washed everything. We sprayed everything. We bombed. We put all the cats out for all time.

We STILL have fleas.

We are going to wash, spray and bomb AGAIN this weekend.

Has anyone ever successfully dealt with this problem before. How can we still have fleas after washing, spraying and bombing everything?

[Midlodemocrat]

1. I feel your pain, darling.

We have 'sugar ants'. The exterminator is coming at noon, for the third time this summer.

Yesterday, someone told me that they hate vinegar, so I sprayed a ton of that in the kitchen and it seemed to help.

I just hope that the third time is the charm. They are disgusting.

[huskerlaw]

31. They also hate citrus.

I had an infestation a few years ago...sprayed their trail with orange-scented 409...they never came back.

[dropkickpa]

2. Fleas have a very tough life cycle

They are vulnerable as adults and as eggs, but in between they pretty freaking impossible to kill. Treat the cats with a long-term flea med (1 month topical) and keep up on the house, the fleas will die off. Any animal that even has the potential to go outdoors should be on some sort of flea program at all times (collars suck, keeps fleas off the neck and shoulders if you're lucky).

[MissMillie]

3. bomb, vacuum and Advantage

good luck!

[spinbaby]

5. Advantage is enough

Great stuff. As the owners of multiple cats, I don't know how we managed before we had Advantage. You get it from your friendly local vet at about $10 per cat and put it on the back of the neck where they can't reach it. It truly is a miracle cure--the fleas are just gone. They recommend applying it once a month but in our experience, once or twice a season is usually enough. Really, skip the powders and bombs and just get Advantage.

And now, back to your regularly scheduled programing.

[rbnyc]

7. Only the vet has it?

We got something similar from a pet store, but obviously, it doesn't work.

Thanks.

[IndianaJones]

12. you can order Front Line and Advantage from online...

they work. They stop reproduction, killing eggs and larva.

[spinbaby]

21. The stuff from the store doesn't work

Some of it is downright dangerous according to our vet. Of course, he's the one that sells Advantage.

[Critters2]

25. It depends on what the active ingredient is.

Many of the store brands contain exactly the same active ingredients as Frontline or Advantage. These will work just as well. Read the label. It's the active ingredient, not the brand name, that matters. And most of these are still under patent, which means the store brands are buying them from exactly the same manufcturer as the vet brands.

So, yes, your vet is telling you this because he sells Advantage.

I've stopped using chemical agents. My dog had fleas over the weekend. I treated her with essential oils, and used diatomaceous earth on the cats and carpets. No sign of fleas since.

[Zoigal]

36. COSTCO has Advantage

You have to ask for it at the pharmacy counter....

[seemunkee]

4. No-pest strips

We once got rid of a flea invasion by laying a bunch of no-pest strips on all the floors. They used to be made by Shell but I believe these are the same thing
http://www.amazon.com/Spectrum-5580-No-Pest-Strip/dp/B0000BYE5O

[rbnyc]

8. Thanks. (NT)

[GoddessOfGuinness]

23. Check out this review...

Hello, I'm land surveyor and am constantly in the woods with the ticks and chiggers. I have learned that if you break this open, cut in half and run shoelaces through each piece you can place around ankle of boot which will give you a very good tick and chigger repellent for about 2-3 months. I never spray with anything else, just this. Ticks will crawl on me for just a little bit but then will die. Can't hardly smell this after opened so it doesn't smell like the sprays. Completely kills chiggers, which is a very big plus to me, and the only place that the ticks will bite in is around the shoulder and up. Since I don't want to wear one as a collar I can stand one or two bites a week.


Must be some pretty badass stuff!

[IndianaJones]

6. only way to get rid of them is stop the reproductive cycle. nt.

[rbnyc]

9. How do you do that? (nt)

[dropkickpa]

Kill 'em before they can do the nasty

As a precaution, when you go to your vet, tell them EXACTLY what you gave them and the date so that any potential side effects can be avoided.

[philosophie_en_rose]

10. Abstinence education

:)

[SoxFan]

13. ...

:spray:

[Connonym]

15. what BlueDog says

:spray: this is a Duzy if I ever heard one

[Critters2]

26. Chuckle :)

[IndianaJones]

11. gotta get frontline or something like it...

it won't kill the fleas you have now, but it will prevent repro. We fought the problem for years at one house we had. We would come back from vacation, and by the time you walked to the back of the house, they would cover my lower legs. It requires some time and patience.

[Kajsa]

14. I found Frontline PLUS works the best in killing flea eggs.

If the kitties are indoor/outdoor cats like our two,
Frontline PLUS works the best at stopping
new fleas and killing the ones you have now.

We used it for years and have no fleas at all.

It needs to be reapplied every 30 days or sooner
( 22-30 days) if the weather is very warm.

Good luck.

:hi:

[Connonym]

16. little mother effers!

housemate's dog got them, I immediately got my dogs on Frontline. Housemate bathed the dog repeatedly, bought it a flea collar and guess what!? Month or so later all the dogs and the cats were infested but mine very, very minorly compared to the others. She keeps bathing her dogs and my vet told me that bathing would just make the Frontline less successful. She has a different vet with different advice...sigh...chalk this one up to another reason we're in the process of finding a new place to live.

[Maine-ah]

19. the thing with bathing and frontline

is that you bathe the animal 3 days b/f you use the FL. That's because the FL needs the oils from the fur to sick to the animal. Then you don't bathe the beast after that.

[Orsino]

17. Took me three bombings once.

In my teaching years, I inherited an apartment from a fellow teacher away on summer vacation, and a couple of days after moving in, my wife and I were covered up in fleas, obviously a present from their dog. IIRC, it took three bombings to get rid of them.

I dealt much more efficiently with a more recent outbreak in my current home. One bombing, plus beating borax into every square inch of carpeting, did the trick. The borax kills the eggs, and doesn't hurt the pets.

[Fredda Weinberg]

34. I've been through the cycle several times

But pyrethrin and permethrin, however the beasties despised it, helped. It made the best fog treatments and I even flea proofed an entire yard w/industrial strength.

[Maine-ah]

18. if "within hours" your house was infested

you most likely had a nest of eggs somewhere in the house that hatched and was going on b/f the cat went out. This happened years ago at my parents house and they found a huge nest under the dining room table.

I am currently having the same problem. I will not bomb though, I have a baby in the house. I am currently using vinegar/salt/water in a spray bottle and spray everything. I have also been using dry salt on the carpets. Along with frontline on the animals. It seems to be working.

ALSO....if you have mice they carry fleas on them as well, which is how they may have gotten into your house in the first place. But they can travel in on people as well.

[Taverner]

20. Advantage or Frontline work pretty well

But then again, they still bring fleas in...

[GoddessOfGuinness]

22. Make sure you spray inside your vacuum bag...

Otherwise you vacuum eggs up and they hatch inside the machine...back to square one.

[Critters2]

27. Sprinkling diatomaceous earth or borax on the carpet

and then vacuuming it up will prevent this. The DE will kill any fleas in the bag, and its easier than spraying inside the machine (I assume. I've never tried spraying inside the bag).

[EFerrari]

24. Baking soda (main ingredient in those perfumed carpet powders)

breaks down their skeletons. Go get 'em!

[BreweryYardRat]

33. Wait a second. HOW?

Baking soda's calcium carbonate. Unless flea exoskeletons are mildly acidic, I have trouble believing it would dissolve them.

[EFerrari]

35. I have no idea. But that's the claim my rescue group makes

and, it's worked for me. :shrug:

[BreweryYardRat]

38. Huh.

Maybe it clogs the holes in the exoskeleton they breathe through.

[In_The_Wind]

28. My Golden Retriever brought in fleas last summer.

I dusted the entire house with flea power, waited a few days, vacuumed everything up and started over again.

This year we used a once-a-month treatment. So far no fleas. :)

[FloridaJudy]

29. "Precor"

It's an "insect growth regulator", aka birth-control for fleas, so it's relatively safe for warm-blooded beings. You can get it at pest control companies. It won't kill adult fleas, but will prevent further infestation. Once the generation of adult fleas that are presently driving you bonkers dies, you should be set.

I also have my dog on the "Sentinel" oral flea med, since she's allergic to topicals. The combo seems to do the trick, but then she's mostly an indoor dog aside from Power Poop Walks.

[Critters2]

32. My dog got fleas while on Sentinel

I called the vet, and she said the fleas have to bite the dog for the Sentinel to work, because the poison is carried in the blood stream. Yep, the dog has to be bitten for Sentinel to work. You also have to use a topical to kill the fleas already there. My reaction to that was

:wtf:

So, that was the end of Sentinel for us. I'm now using this http://www.sergeantsnatural.com/index.html

I can honestly say that it has killed the fleas that were on her. The itching has stopped completely, and I don't see any more. I'll know in a month whether it keeps 'em off.

I've sprinkled my cats with diatomaceous earth, because I don't feel good about using essential oils on them.

[Greyskye]

30. had this prob about 15 years ago: FLEA BUSTERS!

I used this stuff to fantastic effect. I highly recommend it! http://www.fleabuster.com/

We did the in-home service, where they come in and treat all of your carpets and such. If you google them, you'll find lots of people, including vets, recommending this company. At the time, they weren't selling the powder individually as they are now.

To find the one near you, call 800-666-3532

[idgiehkt]

37. yes

sometimes it takes several tries. put that flea killing medication on them two. They are just hatching and breeding in different cycles. You can also put those pans of water out at night with a light shining on them for the fleas to jump in...anything to get rid of them anyway you can.

[Skittles]

39. to test how bad it is

put some soapy water on a plate and train a high-powered light on it; leave overnight