We are in a heat wave, we have a cat. I treated him before our vacation a few weeks ago and also had our carpets cleaned while on vacation. Its been three weeks since my cat's last flee treatment and the carpet cleaning. Over the last two days our daughters have flee bites. Usually when my cat has flees and we are in a heat wave and we develop a flee problem it is me who gets bit because the cat sleeps at my feet every night. I usually get them on my ankles and legs. My two-year-old has nine bites on her face! The cat loves to sleep in her room and her room is south facing and gets hot. So I used a flee comb on my cat to see if he had flees and I could not find one. I know its common to have your carpets professionally steamed and treated when you get an infestation, so I have to wonder, did the carpet cleaner bring flees in with his contaminated equiptment?
My second question is, who here has dealt with this and can offer me their antidotal advice? Tomorrow I'm going to fumigate the bedrooms (the known rooms that people have been bitten in and where cat likes to sleep), but not the whole house. I will vacuum and wash my brains out as well. Of course my cat is treated, but none the less quarantined in the garage. What else?
Eta: We know flee bite when we see them. Pretty sure we are dealing with flees, though I have not spotted any yet.
we give the cat frontline plus.
due to the fact that I may be pregnant, I am forgoing the fumigator. Using diatomaceous earth on carpet instead. I think the cooler weather will probably do the trick too. So much for my day. Its an all out war on flees. As an upside, I may acctually get rid of the silver fish problem we've had since living here.
My suggestion is to sweep every day. And as someone already mentioned, empty the bag daily. Or do what I did and buy an inexpensive vacuum that doesn't have bags that you can take outside dump into a plastic bag and throw away. I did that every day for 30 days and got rid of the fleas.
ETA: If you are pregnant, have someone else handle the DE. You can "deactivate" it with water, but you still don't want to breathe it much.
You have to treat for fleas every couple of weeks to get the newly hatched fleas. Something that works but is a mess to deal with is diatomaceous earth. You can spread it on the carpets and let it sit. You want food grade. Then you want to use a good vacuum or shop vac to get it up (wear a mask) again later. We did this to all our carpets when we were gone for a week. We also got a better vacuum and vacuumed our carpets a lot - and vacuumed the beds, under the beds, the couches....we washed all the area rugs (like the bathroom rug) or got rid of them, bagged or washed toys, treated the cats with a long-term application (in our case, Frontline Plus)...if you are not treating the cat with a good product, then the poor cat is a vector.
In our case, the poor cats got fleas from us - they never go out, so it had to be that we brought them in.
I grew up bombing the house, but part of the issue with flea bombs is that they coat everything and then you end up having to re-clean the chemicals everywhere. And that they can become superbugs. Not that DE isn't it's own cleaning issue but I'd rather have something that will be negated by water than be worried about the chemicals. You should treat the cat with something like Advantage or Frontline (and get the vet to show you where on the shoulders to apply it) and vacuum, vacuum, vacuum - everything. And wash all the bedding, any clothes that have been out, etc. Get out that crevice tool for your vacuum and get all the nooks and crannies and dump the bag immediately outside. Do this once a week or at the very least, every two weeks for a while.
Fleas are something that exterminators will treat for but as long as you have a pet, they WILL NOT guarantee their work. So we decided to skip the $$ treatment because our fleas weren't that bad yet.
If you actually have bedbugs, that's a different problem.
http://www.orkin.com/other/bed-bugs/
What kind of flea treatments are you using? Some I have found to be ineffective, and sometimes people are using the right product, but not applying it correctly.
For cats we recommend Frontline or Revoltion, applied once a month. You can get them from your vet. It kills adult fleas, but fleas lay eggs, the eggs hatch out, and then those fleas have to be killed too, which is why we recommend re-applying monthly for several months. Other "spot-ons", sprays, collars, etc. either don't work or contain chemicals that could actually cause the cat to have a bad reaction. If you combed through the cat's fur and didn't see actual live fleas, did you get any "flea dirt?" It's dark, black-brown peppery material that fleas leave behind - it's basically flea poop and it's evidence that fleas are still an issue, even if you don't see any. If you are not sure if what you seeing is flea dirt, comb out some of it, put it on a paper towel, wet it with water or rubbing alcohol, and smush it around a bit - flea dirt will produce red-brown stains if you do.
I would also consider calling a professional exterminator for the house.
One thing... when you vacuum, be sure to empty the canister/bag right after. There is something with the vibrations that causes the fleas to hatch quickly after vacuuming, and they can and will hop out of the canister or bag. Empty it and take the trash outside so they don't then hop out of the trash.
Has you daughter played with cats/dogs at a friends house?
We have had terrible problems with fleas. Fumigating did not help at all. We switched the medication we were using, from Frontline to Advantage or Advantix? and that cured it. Fleas build up a resistance to one type of preventive medication.
I hate fleas!!!! My dog has had maybe one flea. What you have to do is get your cat treated and out of the house for a few hours. You need to treat your house also. You have to fumigate your house with a treatment. Empty your vacuum each time you use it. Vacuum a few days after and then again. Fleas jump around and hatch eggs.
Get frontline! We use it on our outdoor/indoor cat and have never had fleas. I worked for a vet for 6 years and it is the best product out there. it will eventually get rid of the fleas in your house as well, although it will take a bit longer. Go to www.petrx.com they have excellent prices compared to your vet's office or Petco. I would also recommend taking your cat in to be dewormed. When an animal carries fleas they also carry tape worms. (due to the animal ingesting a flea when it cleans itself). Good luck!
We have had the best results from Revolution. Our indoors only cats only need 3 months before the fleas are completely gone. Sometimes the third month is just in case, to be safe. Other brands that we have used the fleas just kept coming back. I would try switching to Revolution and see if it helps.
We never had to go through the sanitizing or fumigating of the house after using Revolution.
You may have them in your yard. That's what happened to us and all of our neighbors. We went out and bought Bug B Gone from Home Depot. You spray it your yard. It's gotten much better, but I have to spray the yard again in a few days to make sure I get all of them. This heat really brings them out. We also sprayed our house, which I wasn't too happy about, but I had enough of these suckers biting my ankles.
Good luck!
I think it's great you're going to use diatomaceous earth, just make sure it's food grade - not the kind used in pools. It's a great thing to use for bugs, etc. We use it on our chickens, in the coop and in their food.
Also, borax laundry detergent can be sprinkled all over the carpet, scrubbed in and then vacuumed up, but I think that DM is still the better route. You should be able to find it on Amazon if you can't find it in your neighborhood.
Also, make sure to throw away the vacuum cleaner bag right away and add some DM to the new vacuum cleaner bag.
You can rub the DM right on the cat's fur too. So long as it's food grade, it's safe for them and anyone else in your house. The only thing is that it's very fine dust, so if there is anyone in the house with respiratory issues, make sure they're not there while you're sprinkling it around.
Best of luck!
I don't have any additional ideas on how to get rid of the fleas but I do have an idea on how to find them. Put on a pair of long, white socks ( perhaps your hubby's athlectic socks) and shuffle your way across the carpet. The fleas will jump onto the socks and you will be able to spot them. If you don't see any fleas on the socks then maybe it's bedbugs.
