How to control fleas.....when you don't have a pet

[Bootsie]

I react terribly to fleas.  I do not know if I get fleas when I am at other people's homes or if I get them from walking outside where animals have been.  Others in my family do not have the same reaction, but my ankles look awful!  Yesterday I did find one flea in the house.  We have lived here for two years (without pets), so it isn't just fleas from a previous owner.  This has happened to me in other cities and houses also, so it isn't location specific.  

Do I need to treat my house with something?  My yard?

[City Mouse]

Do you have neighbors with pets? Fleas could have spread to your yard. 

[ktgrok]

You are 100 percent certain it is fleas? They don't hitch rides on humans as a general rule, and stay on the animal they are feeding on. 

[Bootsie]

I am sure it is fleas.  The first time i had this happen was 30 years ago; I went to the doctor with some mysterious bites/rash and he said "you have fleas; check your pets" (which I did not have).  I don't know if it is mostly that I get bites when I am somewhere else around other people's pets.  I have a sister who is also extremely sensitive to fleas.  We can both be around someone's pet and all of a sudden be eaten up by fleas; the owner will say "Oh, they don't bother me."  

I saw a flea on my ankle yesterday, about an hour after I had been outside to water some plants and walked across a short patch of grass.  

[BeachGal]

Chiggers often bite exposed ankles outside. Are you sure it’s not that?

Otherwise, food grade diatomaceous earth might work. I’m not 100% sure though, so research first.

[PinkyandtheBrains.]

It’s possible to treat your lawn and house for fleas.  In yards, they tend to like shady areas.

[Ellie]

2 hours ago, Ktgrok said:

You are 100 percent certain it is fleas? They don't hitch rides on humans as a general rule, and stay on the animal they are feeding on. 

They will hitch a ride on any warm-blooded object, animal or human. Because they can live in the grass forever, and hitch a ride on your socks when you walk through the grass, and come on up to the second floor apartment where there are only hoomans, no pets, and happily multiply and all of them will bite your ankles. Ask me how I know this. o_0

[Ellie]

Bomb the house, spray the yard. Do it again in 10 days.

[LucyStoner]

3 hours ago, Ktgrok said:

You are 100 percent certain it is fleas? They don't hitch rides on humans as a general rule, and stay on the animal they are feeding on. 

 

Random fact: some fleas will hop off their animal hosts and hitch rides on some people.  

I am ridiculously allergic to fleas.  Think fat, thick, pus-filled blisters (yucky as all get out, I know).  We have a 1/2 blind, entirely indoor cat. Fleas once made it over here on our human cat sitter.  And during flea season when my nieces lived with us, they would usually come home with fleas because their pets at their non-custodial parent's place weren't being treated for fleas.

Fleas don't bite most humans, just us lucky chosen few, so many people think they never leave their animal hosts.  If only.  

Fleas are selective little buggers and only ever bite me and one of my sons.  My husband and the other son are exempt.  

I am very good friends with my vacuum and various counter measures.  

[Bootsie]

37 minutes ago, Ellie said:

Bomb the house, spray the yard. Do it again in 10 days.

Do you do this periodically, or only once you realize you have a problem?  

[Bootsie]

10 minutes ago, LucyStoner said:

 

Random fact: some fleas will hop off their animal hosts and hitch rides on some people.  

I am ridiculously allergic to fleas.  Think fat, thick, pus-filled blisters (yucky as all get out, I know).  We have a 1/2 blind, entirely indoor cat. Fleas once made it over here on our human cat sitter.  And during flea season when my nieces lived with us, they would usually come home with fleas because their pets at their non-custodial parent's place weren't being treated for fleas.

Fleas don't bite most humans, just us lucky chosen few, so many people think they never leave their animal hosts.  If only.  

Fleas are selective little buggers and only ever bite me and one of my sons.  My husband and the other son are exempt.  

I am very good friends with my vacuum and various counter measures.  

Do you have any ideas of how to protect yourself when you might come into contact with other people's pets? 

We don't have any carpet in our house, but once I had trouble with fleas in the carpet of my car. 

[LucyStoner]

Just now, jdahlquist said:

Do you have any ideas of how to protect yourself when you might come into contact with other people's pets? 

We don't have any carpet in our house, but once I had trouble with fleas in the carpet of my car. 

 

I wear bands on my ankles and wrists and use insect repellant when I anticipate it being a problem.  I buy the bands dozens and dozens at a time.  

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B073WNJG98/ref=sspa_dk_detail_1?psc=1&pd_rd_i=B073WNJG98&pd_rd_wg=zhZX1&pd_rd_r=7Z30M578JSEMZWT8JPAB&pd_rd_w=X8PYp

I sprinkle salt on affected carpets and upholstery, let it sit and then vacuum it up.   You can also treat your car with diatomaceous earth.  I prefer salt because it's less of a hassle to vacuum up and I find it works about the same.  

 

[Bootsie]

Thanks!  I didn't realize salt would do the trick.

Do you find basic mosquito repellants help?  I have had trouble at times even when I was using mosquito repellant, but maybe I already had been bit.

[LucyStoner]

6 minutes ago, jdahlquist said:

Thanks!  I didn't realize salt would do the trick.

Do you find basic mosquito repellants help?  I have had trouble at times even when I was using mosquito repellant, but maybe I already had been bit.

 

The bands help a bit.  The sprays also help but I don't want to wear that stuff inside (getting it on my bedding and furniture) so the bands are my default inside.  I look for ones that are good for ticks and fleas.  

I'm sensitive to mosquitos but not nearly to the degree I am to fleas.  

One thing I noticed is that the more I was bitten (lots of chances with my nieces bringing them home every other week all spring!), the less severe the reactions became.  #silverlining

I miss seeing my nieces most every day but I do not miss the fleas.  And I wanted to wring their other parent's neck for not treating their pets.  

I wish there was something like Advantage for humans and I am not even joking.  

[HomeAgain]

A good multivitamin should help.  When I was a kid I was prone to fleabites thanks to living around a farm. I was put on two vitamins, B6 and B12, and they stopped looking at me as a potential host. I've heard B1 works as well but haven't tried it.

[Tanaqui]

Don't bomb the house.

Bug bombs scatter the bugs and cause them to hide in crevices, making them harder to eradicate. Get parasitic nemotodes in your yard, spray DE around your baseboards every night, vacuum every day. Steam vacuum your carpets. Consider also applying an IGR like Gentrol monthly.

(This should go without saying, but I'll say it anyway - all pests survive best in mess. A tidy home will have fewer hiding places.)

[PrincessMommy]

don't bomb the house... it's gets on things the fleas will not be on  -- like kitchen counters

vacuum religiously.  The eggs can live forever but once they're distrubed they start hatching.  So vacuum just about every day - a bother - I know.

I would treat your yard.  There are natural things if you're so inclined.  Cedarcide has a good reputatiion.  

I had good luck using Neem oil on my skin and shampooing Neem shampoo.  You may want to rub some oil on your ankles before you go out.

 

 

[Pawz4me]

IME fleas only go after humans when there's a huge infestation and not enough warn blooded animals around. Just about any wild animal can harbor fleas. There are many types of fleas. The ones that get on dogs and cats are called cat fleas (yeah, even the kind that get on dogs). Opossums and raccoons carry the same type of cat flea, and most sources I've read say that foxes and coyotes probably do, too. Other wildlife can carry other types of fleas. The worst infestation we ever had was not from a pet or wildlife but from bags of topsoil that we'd bought at Lowe's. All that to say -- yes, you almost certainly need to treat your yard. And if you have a crawlspace maybe treat it, too. Any dark or shady space, including under trees and shrubs. I'm not up on the latest and greatest yard treatments. Back when we had our problem caused by the bags of topsoil we used Sevin dust and it was very effective.

[LucyStoner]

FWIW, my home is generally as neat as a pin, we vacuum daily and and I’ve had blister covered ankles when we could only find 3 bugs between the cat and the vacuum.  Fleas will go after people selectively IME or perhaps some people just don’t react to them.  I dunno but I was going crazy this spring when my nieces kept bringing them home.  How did I know it was them?  We live in a second floor apartment, there were usually no fleas on the cat and I would only get bit the day or two after they came home.  By day three, we’d have gotten them.  ? I treated the cat as well just as a preventative measure (she never goes outside due to the eyesight thing).  

[Pawz4me]

If the human reaction to a flea bite is like that of sensitive dogs, it's the flea saliva that's causing the reaction. For dogs who have a flea bite allergy (flea allergic dermatitis is the most common skin issue in dogs) the thought is that just one bite from one flea can cause misery (severe itching for a dog) for two to three weeks. My guess is the same could be true of humans. I personally don't believe that fleas go after human selectively or that vitamin/nutritional status has anything to do with it. I suspect it's that some humans are much more reactive/allergic to the bites than others and so notice them a lot more.

[Ravin]

I was listening to something on NPR last weekend (I think it was Radio Lab), where this researcher was talking about smell, and apparently some people do smell different and thus attract mosquitoes more readily; the same is probably true of fleas. Maybe at some biochemical level fleas can smell, some humans smell more like the preferred host animal than others?

[Bootsie]

1 hour ago, LucyStoner said:

FWIW, my home is generally as neat as a pin, we vacuum daily and and I’ve had blister covered ankles when we could only find 3 bugs between the cat and the vacuum.  Fleas will go after people selectively IME or perhaps some people just don’t react to them.  I dunno but I was going crazy this spring when my nieces kept bringing them home.  How did I know it was them?  We live in a second floor apartment, there were usually no fleas on the cat and I would only get bit the day or two after they came home.  By day three, we’d have gotten them.  ? I treated the cat as well just as a preventative measure (she never goes outside due to the eyesight thing).  

I have only seen one in the house, so I am really not sure if we have an infestation in the house or if it is just a stray one here and there and I am just so sensitive.

[Bootsie]

24 minutes ago, Ravin said:

I was listening to something on NPR last weekend (I think it was Radio Lab), where this researcher was talking about smell, and apparently some people do smell different and thus attract mosquitoes more readily; the same is probably true of fleas. Maybe at some biochemical level fleas can smell, some humans smell more like the preferred host animal than others?

So I smell like a dog ??? ?

Interestingly, the years that I have had the least problem was when we did have a dog (which I was  vigilant about keeping treated).  Maybe any fleas we did have prefered the dog to me.   

[Tanaqui]

And fleas would prefer to feed off a dog than a human any day of the week. If you have mammal pets and are getting bitten by fleas, the outbreak must be horrific.

[JessReplanted]

They could be in your yard. We don’t have pets either. This year we had a ridiculous explosion of fleas in our yard (north Texas).  We had to call our bug people (because having a bug person is part of life here). They sprayed the yard.  Then we found 4 in the house. They came and sprayed the house (that was a pain). And then they had to come out and do the yard one more time. It was crazy! The only thing I can think is that we must have managed to kill off some red ant colonies in our yard, which is a flea predator. 

All this to say, yes, I would call someone. Fleas are the worst!!

 

[LucyStoner]

2 hours ago, jdahlquist said:

I have only seen one in the house, so I am really not sure if we have an infestation in the house or if it is just a stray one here and there and I am just so sensitive.

 

I absolutely do not think you have to have an infestation, horrific or otherwise to get flea bites if you are very allergic.  There were 7 people here all spring and only 2 of us ever got bitten or reacted.  As soon as my nieces moved out, the problem was stopped.  For the record, that is not WHY they moved out (I don't exile human children over my allergies) but it was instantaneous. We will keep treating the cat though because they do visit and that helps kill any more fleas that might hitchhike in here. The other thing that helped was my nieces changing their clothes after my brother picked them up from his STBXH but before they settled in at home.  

[Bootsie]

2 hours ago, JessReplanted said:

They could be in your yard. We don’t have pets either. This year we had a ridiculous explosion of fleas in our yard (north Texas).  We had to call our bug people (because having a bug person is part of life here). They sprayed the yard.  Then we found 4 in the house. They came and sprayed the house (that was a pain). And then they had to come out and do the yard one more time. It was crazy! The only thing I can think is that we must have managed to kill off some red ant colonies in our yard, which is a flea predator. 

All this to say, yes, I would call someone. Fleas are the worst!!

 

How do you know that you have them in your yard?  I haven't seen any while I am outside.  

We are in north Texas, also, but I have had this same issue in other places in the past.

[Tanaqui]

If they are in your house, and you have a yard but don't have pets, then you can rest assured that they are also in your yard.

[Roadrunner]

Couple of years ago they infested out Home and ate my flesh. Thenomly thing that worked was bombing the house twice. And we have no pets.

[Ellie]

1 hour ago, Roadrunner said:

Couple of years ago they infested out Home and ate my flesh. Thenomly thing that worked was bombing the house twice. And we have no pets.

Yup. Bombing worked for us, as well, although this was elebenty gazillion years ago, and maybe there are better treatments today; we took cushions off sofas and chairs, covered food surfaces, and washed bedding and everything afterwards. Since we had dogs at the time, we also flea-dipped them, as well as spraying the yard.

[Wheres Toto]

On 7/23/2018 at 7:59 AM, Tanaqui said:

Don't bomb the house.

Bug bombs scatter the bugs and cause them to hide in crevices, making them harder to eradicate. Get parasitic nemotodes in your yard, spray DE around your baseboards every night, vacuum every day. Steam vacuum your carpets. Consider also applying an IGR like Gentrol monthly.

(This should go without saying, but I'll say it anyway - all pests survive best in mess. A tidy home will have fewer hiding places.)

 

Sorry for the off-topic but what would you do for flies if you don't want to bomb?  We live in the woods and once or twice a year we get bombarded with flies.   We usually try to bomb in early Spring and late Fall, when all the bugs tend to be at their worst, but we have a snake and a dog so bombing means being able to bring them somewhere else for an extended period of time.  The longer we go without bombing, the worse it seems to get when the bugs do show up.

We have an old, not tight house so there are all kinds of cracks and crevices everywhere.  The bombs get into those cracks better than anything else we've tried.

[Tanaqui]

I'm an enormous fan of Gentrol, which I credit as THE most important factor in getting rid of our entrenched cockroach problem... well, other than getting the mess under control. (I don't want to talk about it.) And when we have flies - which happens because certain people who shall go unnamed have destroyed many of our window screens and they're not a top priority for replacement - I usually find that flypaper, though gross, works well enough. That, and I start putting the dog's food away within ten minutes if they haven't eaten it all up. One little incident with the wet food was more than enough for me, blech.

But the real solution for you is similar to the real solution for me. You've got to go through your house and caulk up all your cracks and crevices. I've got to put up new windowscreens. Probably we could both benefit from making sure there's no standing water near our house or drippy pipes inside, no clutter, nothing for flies to eat or drink. Garbage and compost goes out immediately and is tightly lidded, dishes are washed immediately, and so on.

The downside is that this is hard work and an enormous hassle. The plus side is that it'll work much better in the long run, plus you won't lose heat/cooling throughout the year.

[Wheres Toto]

5 hours ago, Tanaqui said:

I'm an enormous fan of Gentrol, which I credit as THE most important factor in getting rid of our entrenched cockroach problem... well, other than getting the mess under control. (I don't want to talk about it.) And when we have flies - which happens because certain people who shall go unnamed have destroyed many of our window screens and they're not a top priority for replacement - I usually find that flypaper, though gross, works well enough. That, and I start putting the dog's food away within ten minutes if they haven't eaten it all up. One little incident with the wet food was more than enough for me, blech.

But the real solution for you is similar to the real solution for me. You've got to go through your house and caulk up all your cracks and crevices. I've got to put up new windowscreens. Probably we could both benefit from making sure there's no standing water near our house or drippy pipes inside, no clutter, nothing for flies to eat or drink. Garbage and compost goes out immediately and is tightly lidded, dishes are washed immediately, and so on.

The downside is that this is hard work and an enormous hassle. The plus side is that it'll work much better in the long run, plus you won't lose heat/cooling throughout the year.

 

Ugh.  It is literally impossible for us to seal up the house without tearing it down and rebuilding from the ground up.   It's a 1940's summer bungalow, nothing is square, there's a million cracks and crevices not counting the really obvious ones like the fireplace and vents.    We live on a river/wetlands so the water thing is a bit of a problem too.

We've used flypaper in the past and I hated it.  It left a residue on a window that won't come off no matter what we do. 

I think we'll stick with bombing once or twice a year if we can pull it off.  

[ktgrok]

On 7/23/2018 at 2:29 PM, jdahlquist said:

So I smell like a dog ??? ?

Interestingly, the years that I have had the least problem was when we did have a dog (which I was  vigilant about keeping treated).  Maybe any fleas we did have prefered the dog to me.   

They actually like cats the best, and in fact there used to be services that would take homeless cats to infested apartments (treated with Advantage or whatever) and have them live there for a bit. The fleas would jump on the cats and then die. 

[ktgrok]

23 hours ago, Tanaqui said:

If they are in your house, and you have a yard but don't have pets, then you can rest assured that they are also in your yard.

Yes, this makes more sense than say, picking them up at the grocery store or something. Do you have stray cats in your area, or opossums or raccoons?

[JessReplanted]

On 7/23/2018 at 6:47 PM, jdahlquist said:

How do you know that you have them in your yard?  I haven't seen any while I am outside.  

We are in north Texas, also, but I have had this same issue in other places in the past.

My husband would walk outside and see them jump on his feet. This was happening even just in the driveway! It was totally bizarre. Other people in our neighborhood reported the same thing. 

[Tanaqui]

Ugh, I feel ya. If bombing is more or less working then you're stuck with it.

(But try vegetable oil on that bit of flypaper residue!)

[Bootsie]

29 minutes ago, Ktgrok said:

Yes, this makes more sense than say, picking them up at the grocery store or something. Do you have stray cats in your area, or opossums or raccoons?

We did have some stray cats, but I haven't seen them in a while.  But another possibility is there is major construction at work and we are working out of trailer offices.  Some coworkers have started feeding stray cats right at the door of the building.  I have also had some coworkers bringing their dogs into the office trailers; we have this horrible carpet that I hate to think of what is lurking in it.  

We have had some raccoons in the neighborhood recently; they haven't been spotted in our yard, but three were seen going down the chimney at a neighbors house last week!

[SheenaNorman]

Huh, I had the same scratchy thing recently. I can say that bombing really worked great in my house, just don't forget to take care about pets and plants/ As for the yard area I recommend checking this article where is a section about some folk methods of getting rid of fleas. Personally, I have tested lavender and tree oil decoctions, as well as wormwood one. SImply wash everything with diluted water and voila. Also, you may spread pinewood sawdust around your house. 

[kbutton]

On 7/23/2018 at 2:02 PM, Ravin said:

I was listening to something on NPR last weekend (I think it was Radio Lab), where this researcher was talking about smell, and apparently some people do smell different and thus attract mosquitoes more readily; the same is probably true of fleas. Maybe at some biochemical level fleas can smell, some humans smell more like the preferred host animal than others?

My son is walking mosquito repellent for the rest of us. They swarm him and chew him to pieces even when the rest of us are available.

I am sensitive to flea bites, and when I was little and some family was out of town, we'd go feed the dog. When we'd come in, the fleas would jump on me, but everyone else was fine. I was very, very young (toddler or very young preschooler), and I remember those flea bites better than I remember chicken pox when I was much older, lol! They were awful.

I am in the bomb the house camp--at least twice. Be sure to treat the yard.