Fleas!

tommy21

Hi, I have discovered in last week our house is contaminated with fleas, undobhtedly brought in by either the cat or dog. Both have been treated with drops and collars. The house is another story being 3 storeys! I have used two and half bottles of expensive insecticide spray in large areas, and hoovered and washed bedding and some clothes. Yet I am still being bitten by the little buggers - can they live on humans, should I be treating myself as wel? Im heading off working abroad in about 3weeks and dont want to bring them with me (the fleas that is, animals are staying at home). Any advice on what I can do its really annoying but surely this must be an age old problem?
Thanks,
T.

hairyfairy00

You can get loads of helpful info from the net i Yahooed it for you and got this,

Natural methods - You can try many natural, chemical-free methods of killing fleas. These include soil designed to make tiny cuts and thus dehydrating the fleas to death, vacuuming them (it won't kill them, but you can put part of a flea collar into the bag and get rid of them), or washing clothing and bedding in hot water. All of these can help, but it is very difficult to wholly eradicate a flea infestation with them.

I know it sounds strange but try chopping up garlic and mixing it with yoghurt and feed it to your cat/dog, fleas can't stand the smell, my sister does this with her dog and she finds it works. It's not really the fleas that are hard to get rid of it's their eggs, they get caught up in carpets and other materials.

EGAR

tommy21 wrote:

Yet I am still being bitten by the little buggers - can they live on humans, should I be treating myself as wel? T.

Fleas don't actually live on their victims as such, they hop on for a feast and then usually disappear in bedding etc. A bath will get rid of them on your body if you happened to have some on you but you are more likely to bring them with you in your bags etc. But if you treated the house and the animal bedding then you should be alright. Please don't forget to repeat the treatment and stay away from cheap products. I had some very bad experiences with cheap flea spray/powder.

Sarah

gypsygirl

Garlic really does work, for years I tried all the new products on the market and eventually went back to the "Old Wifes Tale" on my Mothers advice. Now with my dogs & cat I give them garlic (they don't notice granules in their food) twice a week and in spring/summer they also wear flea collars, no more problems. Steam your carpets/beds/sofa and your pets bedding three times over the next two weeks, (to kill the hatchlings) get flea collars and give 'em the garlic, that should do the trick. keep up with the garlic year round.

Sigma Force

Since you have treated the animals with the flea drops (which work great) take the flea collars off them, flea collars don't work well and only deter fleas from around the head and neck area plus them on top of the flea drops is too many chemicals. What you can do though is stick one of the flea collars into your hoover, hoovering regularly will get rid of the fleas and eggs, the flea collar in the hoover bag (or cylinder depending on whichever type of hoover you have) will kill off any fleas hoovered up.

Flea drops not only kill the fleas but deter them so there is no need to use any other flea treatments like flea shampoos on the animals as well.
Advantage is a good brand to stick to I find the supermarket one brings them out in a rash.

Just keep up the cleaning regime and hoovering and they will go away don't use flea drops on the animals more than once a month.

DOGSRUS

I Got A Spray From Boardwalk Pets Called Acclam 2000 Done The Job
No More Flea Since

galah

Do NOT feed garlic to cats! It's toxic for them! Same goes for onions! (not sure about dogs...)

My cats had fleas last year - it took me 3 weeks to get rid of them - constant hoovering, I bought a steam cleaner as well and steamed all the carpets/bedding/furniture.

To check how bad the problem is, put a desk lamp up, and a bowl of water with a drop soap, and leave overnight - the fleas are attracted to the light/warmth of the lamp, and will drown in the water...(just mnake sure your pet does not drink it...)

Also, Frontline does work well I found.

To prevent further attacks, feed you pet "Programme" (not sure if it's available here in Ireland) - it prevents the actual develoment of eggs to fleas/inhibits the fleas reproductive system)


Make sure you wash ALL the bedding as hot as possible! I also used some flea powder (in the hoover bag..) and on the carpets (before I steamed cleaned it).


Abroad, you can also get "flea bombs" - spray cans to smoke out rooms. Onl to be recommended if the problem is really bad!


That's all my advice for now...Good luck!

eiretamicha

galah wrote:

Do NOT feed garlic to cats! It's toxic for them! Same goes for onions! (not sure about dogs...)

I agree. Garlic can be toxic to cats. Onions can be toxic to both dogs and cats.

Here in Central Florida, fleas breed year round. I have one outdoor/indoor cat, one indoor kitten, and an indoor (outdoor to pee) dog. We have no fleas in our house or on our animals. We treat our yard (garden) with Diatomaceous Earth (not sure where you can get it over there, but if you can't find it in stores, order online), feed our animals a healthy raw (semi-raw for the dog) foods diet [see below], and supply our dog with generous amounts of garlic. We hoover every day and wash the animals' bedding once a week.

Have you ever heard of the raw food diet for kitties (click here for doggie raw food)? Optimal health is essential in keeping parasites at bay.

Some helpful links:
http://www.care2.com/channels/solutions/pets/828
http://www.care2.com/channels/solutions/pets/234
http://www.motherearthnews.com/top_articles/1985_May_June/Natural_Flea_Control

Good luck!:)

luckat

Also, put mothballs inside your hoover bag.

Don't keep the hoover anywhere it can fume at humans with these things in them - they're not good for you. But they'll also kill the fleas and their eggs.

Put Advantage on the cat and dog - on the actual skin - part the hair and make sure the drops are on the skin. Do it with the dog before taking him for a walk, so he can't roll and get rid of it. And don't let him swim for four days or so after it.

Fleas lay their eggs where they'll be safe - around the *edges* of rooms and halls and stairs - so make sure you hoover there.

If they've really settled into your carpets, you're in trouble if you have nice wall-to-wall carpets and central heating.

But you're saying they're in the bedding? You might just get rid of the duvets and pillows and buy new, while washing the sheets and duvet covers.

When you're washing the floors, put in some citronella oil - highly distasteful to all insects. You might also eat lots of garlic yourself, and put a couple of drops of citronella oil in the bath.