FLEAS--in the house--how do we get RID of them?

[Ottakee]

My girls adopted barn kittens. Well, the kittens brought fleas with them. Since the girls brought the kittens in the house a lot before I realized this, we now have fleas in the house.

 

Flea baths/spray does not seem to be helping the kittens---who are now banned to the great outdoors. That means I need something that will work on THEM (since the girls will be carrying them around a lot) as well as something to RID my house of fleas.

 

What works the best?

[Kathleen in VA]

Well, I don't know about what works on the kittens - you may have to take them to the vet for that one. But when we had fleas about 15 years ago we called a company that came and spread this white powder all over every square inch of our floor (under the beds and in the closets - everywhere!). It cost $100 and then I found out that all they were using was diatomaceous earth, which can be bought at Lowe's or Home Depot rather inexpensively. The dm gets on the fleas and suffocates them. It worked beautifully.

 

You should wear a mask while using it and no one should be in the house while you apply it. You need to wait an hour or so for it to do it's thing and then you need to vacuum it up with a vacuum cleaner that does not spew stuff. It is quite the job, but it does work. The company that came guaranteed we would not have fleas for at least a year after that.

 

Here is some more info from a website:

 

 

Diatomaceous earth can be used almost anywhere around the home, yard or animal housing. The USDA found diatomaceous earth more effective than malathion in protecting grain storage as a means of natural, poison-free insect control.

 

Borates and DE are effective natural solutions against flea eggs and larvae that emerge from the eggs and feed on debris and organic matter in carpets, soil, or in cracks and baseboards.

 

Flea eggs and larvae make up about 80% of the fleas in your carpet, furniture, etc. Only 2% (maybe less) of the population is made up of adult fleas; the remaining population is in the pupae stage both on and off the host animal, awaiting proper conditions to hatch.

 

While in the pupae (or cocoon) stage, the pupating flea is not harmed by any chemical or pest control product. Seeing fleas hatch after your flea control products application is normal. Once all pupae have hatched, the cycle has been broken and your long term flea prevention products will show their worth.

 

Borates and/or DE can be used for prevention, either before you get a flea problem or immediately after spraying for adult fleas in carpeting.

 

Change pet bedding regularly and vacuum thoroughly. Vacuuming removes up to 30 percent of the larvae and up to 60 percent of flea eggs from a carpet, as well as the larvae’s food supply of dried blood.

 

Fleas can continue to develop inside vacuum cleaner bags and re-infest the house. Place a flea collar or moth ball crystals in the bag if you cannot discard after use.

 

Carpets should be completely dry prior to application. Treat closets and under all furniture (including beds, couches). These non-traffic areas are where flea larvae usually hide to pupate.

 

Employing a broom or carpet rake, gently sweep powder into carpet fibers until it is no longer visible. Remove loose cushions from furniture and apply along seams, folds, and into corners. Do not apply product to exposed fabrics of furniture.

 

If possible, leave dusting treatment for 3-5 weeks for maximum effectiveness, in which time all the fleas in the pupae stage will emerge and die. Flea larvae are killed by contacting the borate powder; borates kill immature fleas by contaminating their food supply. Because adult fleas feed on fresh blood only, boron insecticides do not control this life stage.

 

Borate residual remains even after vacuuming due to the fine particle size. However, the mammals in the house are safe because of its extremely low toxicity. Most applications are good for a year.

[Tammyla]

My m-i-l called an exterminator and took her dog to the vet. Hope you get rid of them.:grouphug:

[StaceyinLA]

Now I don't know how extensively you have them, but you need to treat the kitties first (Frontline makes a spray that you can use on kittens and it works well, or you can just use an OTC treatment that is FOR KITTENS).

 

But for the house, first, vacuum thoroughly and then just remove your vacuum cleaner bag and toss in the trash (seal it in a plastic garbage bag and throw in the outside trash). You'll want to plan to vacuum thoroughly again in 2-3 weeks to get anything that has hatched.

 

Secondly, you can buy these little "lights" for an outlet. They plug right in, lay flat to the outlet and come on when the room gets dark. Put a big bowl of water (or a pot) under the outlet. The fleas will jump at the light and fall in the water and die. This really works - we have done it.

 

The vacuuming works well too and if you are diligent with the vacuuming, you'll be rid of the fleas now, and you won't have any more trouble if you do the second round...

[Tammy]

Vacuuming is your best defense for getting rid of fleas. I would probably vacuum a little more often though.

 

Tammy

[Murphy101]

for little kitten and puppies, Dawn dish soap kills them and then you can use tweezers to take them off. The soap suffocates the fleas, but doesn't have the pesticides. We had to do this many years ago when we got out kitty at 5 weeks and just buried in fleas. I used a bucket full of suds and lathered them up real good, then just held them all lathered for about 5 minutes, then rinsed, plucked and repeated until I couldn't find anymore fleas.

 

As for in the house, we are just now having ouor first ever bout with fleas. The DE is on the yard, the frontline is on the dog after a flea shampoo, the cat got a flea shampoo and flea collar (we never found fleas on her for some reason, if we do we'll cough up the $ to frontline her too). We sprinkled borax on the carpet before bed and vacuumed liek the dickens the next morning.

 

Here's hoping it works!

[RhondaM.]

My girls adopted barn kittens. Well, the kittens brought fleas with them. Since the girls brought the kittens in the house a lot before I realized this, we now have fleas in the house.

 

Flea baths/spray does not seem to be helping the kittens---who are now banned to the great outdoors. That means I need something that will work on THEM (since the girls will be carrying them around a lot) as well as something to RID my house of fleas.

 

What works the best?

 

If the kitties are old enough for Advantage (you apply it to the back of their neck) I'd put it on them and then...bring them right back inside.

 

Flease would much rather bite kitties than people. So if you bring the treated cats back in the house the flease will jump on them and DIE very, very quickly. Any new ones that hatch will meet with the same fate.

 

Don't let the expense of Advantage scare you off...there is a cheap way to do it.

 

Some vets want you to buy one package per pet...and they want to give you the package for the weight of your pet. Each package may have 4 vials in it. This will last 4 months. Each package will probably cost anywhere between 30.00-40.00. If you have two or more kitties this QUICKLY adds up!!!!!

 

What you do is buy the package for Large Dogs, up to 55 lbs. One package of 4 vials will cost about 60.00. And it will last you FOREVER. Just find out how much of each vial to apply to the kitten. Go to the pharmacy and ask for a syringe (tell them you don't need a needle), then go home and give each kitten what they need out of the vial. One vial of that size ...using it on all kitties will last you months.

 

You just have to find out how much of it exactly to put on each kitten according to its weight.

 

And of course make sure you can still put dog Advantage on cats. You used to be able to, but they may have changed the formula.

 

Unless you have a serious infestation this should clear up your house without any other treatment.

 

Also...tell the vet about the fleas baths and any other treatment you've used...you may need to wait until you can put the advantage on. I'd be careful of flea baths and especially anything you can pick up at the local grocery. Some of the stuff they make for pets are just not safe.

[Alenee]

When dh and I were first married we had a little tiny 1 bedroom apartment. We had a couple of cats and ended up with a bad infestation. So we bombed the place. I know, this isn't the most popular idea but boy howdy those fleas were g.o.n.e. I'd do it again in a heartbeat.

[Murphy101]

I second the cheaper way.

 

Of course, we went the ultimate cheap way - a friend gave us a vial of it so we wouldn't have to wait until payday. However, it was for 45 - 88 pound dogs and we have a wee miniture poodle of maybe 15 pounds tops.

 

So.

 

Dh pulled out the box of needles he had left from his 3 times a day insulin injections (he's on a pump now) and pulled the frontline out of the vial with those. It filled 6 syringes. And we only used ONE on the dog. Broke the needle off and used it just like the original vial thingy to pour onto the shoulder blade space.

 

It says to not use it for other animals. I don't know why (to get you to buy more? hazzard? didn't say.) , but we chose to heed the caution not to use it on the cat. However, if you have several cats, I'd get one package and spread it out amoung them. MUCH cheaper and just as effective I hear tell.

 

Oh and the DE stuff? It also works as a wormer. So the cats walk in it after it's sprinkled in the yard, then lick it off their fur and whatnot, double bonus there and it works on any bugs with exoskeletons. (spiders!) So I'm really hoping this works as well as everyone has told me it does. CAUTION: Where a towel on your face or some other really good mask, because the dust can get on your lungs and cause problems. Touching and even some digestion is not dangerous, but it is very dangerous to inhale it and it's a fine dust, like high quality flour.

 

The old guy at the farm and ranch supply feed store was very helpful, but really he just told me what the ladies here had already said.:)

[KS_]

What I would recommend is a product called Flea Fix. It's not as toxic as bombs and poison, but will last for about 7 months (so if anymore fleas get brought inside, they won't be able to reproduce). It's an insect growth regulator and I've had to use it twice (2 different homes), and it was very effective. The second time, my ds was a baby, and I didn't want to use something really toxic in the house, and I was satisfied after researching it that it was the best option.

 

It's a liquid concentrate that you dilute and use a cheap garden sprayer to lightly spray all over the house (furniture, rugs, floors, etc.) and can be used outside. If you Google it, you'll find a lot of places that carry it. You'll need to vacuum daily for a week or so, until the adults die off, but then any larvae will not be able to mature and that will be the end of their life cycle.

[mom42terrificgirls]

We had a MAJOR infestation last month and did not have the money for an exterminator, so we set off about five or six flea bombs in the house. That didn't seem to work. It wasn't until we spread Sevendust in the yard that they finally died. We have been flea-free for a month. Total cost was under $50.