Ever had fleas in your house?

This sucks. I recently moved into a new apartment. Since being here, I've discovered that the previous tenant had a cat. Now, I've figured out there are fleas here also. Not a lot of them, but enough. I've gotten a couple of bites, and noticed them a couple of times sitting on something light-colored. OK, what's the best or easiest way to get rid of them? Thanks....

LMU

perhaps flea bombs but dont use to many and be safe turn off pilot lights and dont use to many and read dirctions on can it can be very unsafe.also maybe ya can go to a sself pest control place and ask if they have anything that works

I would avoid flea bombs.

Get a spray with pyrethrin in it. It is sort of a new miracle poison. Generally safe for pets and people, but keep it away from food of course, and extremely effective. I had a flea infestation last year and that did the job for me.

Hi,
First off, you have to get rid of the source. The cat is gone, so I'm assuming the source is gone. But, they feed on blood so you are now a source of food. If you have a pet, put your pet on some kind of flea/tick medicine right away such as Advantix or Frontline as this will kill them very quickly. Next comes the pain in the a$$ part: wash anything the fleas could be on such as bedding, etc. and vacuum EVERYTHING, carpet, furniture, etc. then throw the vacuum bag away right away. If you don't have a pet, most likely they are in the carpet. Also, if you don't have a pet you could look into some kind of spray or something to kill them. I don't think you would have to 'bomb' the place unless the problem is severe. You will know if the problem is severe, you will get bitten often and you will be able to see a lot of them. IMO, vacuuming is the key. Good luck.

ChocolateLab33

I'm with ChocolateLab33, vacuuming is definitely the key. I had a severe flea infestation last year (which was strange, because I have no pets), and flea bombs proved useless. Combining flea spray for the carpet, vacuuming EVERY square foot of carpet in the house and washing EVERY sheet and blanket I own finally solved the problem.

Flashaholic note:

Suspend a bright flashlight above a pan of water. The fleas will jump towards the light, then fall in the water and die. It works well if you want to check the effectiveness of whatever flea treatment your using.

Pyrethrin/Pyrethrum is hardly new, it was a "natural" plant based insecticide, and is actually one of the oldest insecticides out there. But drizzle is right, it's significantly safer than many other insecticides, although in large enough quantities it's still toxic to humans and other animals.

The insecticide properties of Pyrethrum have been known since the 1800's, and the ground up flowers that produce it were sold to those back then who could afford it for insect control. Wholesale production of synthetic Pyrethrin started when the mad scramble to replace DDT with safer, but sometimes less effective, alternatives. (A huge screw-up BTW, pulling DDT from the third world did more damage by killing more people via insect disease, than DDT ever did ecological damage. Education to proper limited use would have sufficed. Rachel Carson and her book, "Silent Spring" could be considered as one of the largest indirect mass-murderers in history...)

Another good "natural" insecticide that is very safe for people and pets is D-Limonene which is a major component in citrus oil. It's actually used as a food scent/flavoring additive, and is also used as a scenting agent in air fresheners, cleaning products, and plastic fruit etc. So people actually eat the stuff! To make you sick, you have to drink enough of it straight to give yourself gastrointestinal distress.

It works OK as an area insecticide or a residual barrier insecticide, but it is absolute death on bugs when used as a wash or a wet spray. It essentially is a very potent degreaser, and it "degreases" insects to death. Most all bugs have natural waxes and oils that help hold their insides in, and their shells together, and the D-Limonene just strips them right off, and they die almost instantly.

We found out D-Limonene when we adopted our dog as a puppy from a wretched flophouse of a home, and he was covered in fleas. He was too young and small to use traditional flea treatments. The local pet supply mega-store recommended a bath with D-Limonene as it was the only safe treatment for animals that small or young. I've helped friends flea bathe their dogs with traditional insecticide soaps, and the fleas jumped, swam, and hid in the dog's armpits and ears for several minutes, and we never seemed to get them all. We dipped our puppy in a bath of warm water and D-Limonene, and all the fleas just floated up to the top, stone dead, almost instantly. And we had a lemon-fresh puppy to boot.

Also, as ChocolateLab33 said, humans are a secondary food source for fleas, they usually only bite out of desperation, they're too evolved as an animal parasite to make it on a (relatively) fur-less human that bathes daily. If you clean aggressively, and remove the vacuum bag etc. They'll probably die out on their own. The only caveat is that they might stick around if there's sufficient mouse or rodent population in the building you were unaware of.

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vtunderground said:
Flashaholic note:

Suspend a bright flashlight above a pan of water. The fleas will jump towards the light, then fall in the water and die. It works well if you want to check the effectiveness of whatever flea treatment your using.

[/ QUOTE ]

When I was a kid, my family had lots of animals around, and we would put a table lamp on the carpet over a styrofoam plate filled with dish detergent and water. They are attracted to the bright light/white plate and the thick soapy water traps them. As stated above, that was more effective for diagnosis than real treatment of the infestation.

Now, to kill them in the carpet, we used a laundry additive called Borax. Its cheap and safe for you and pets. It makes no more of a mess than Carpet Fresh and you use it in the same way. Just sprinkle liberally into the carpet, leave it for a day, and then vacuum out.

I remember they are impossible to crush when you pull them off your ankles, so I kept an empty aspirin bottle half filled with isopropyl alcohol to drop them in.

Sprinkle diatomaceous earth in the carpeting, let it sit for one day, vacume (throwing away the vacume cleaner bag immediately afterward), then spray with a boric acid solution and allow it to dry. Vacume again the next day.
Lather, rinse, repeat.

Diatomaceous earth works because the very tiny particles are sharp, and will cut through fleas' exoskeletons and dessicate them (dry them out) and they'll die.

Putting flea powder in the vacume bag may negate the need to throw it away after every use. I read the other day that putting a flea collar in the bag (the older method) was no longer recommended as it is supposedly a fire hazard, which is why they now recommend putting flea powder in there. They didn't say whether the vacume will blow up when you use it or catch on fire sometime between uses, but they did say that it was a fire hazard.

Do you know if D-Limonene is safe for cats?

Thanks for hel, everyone!

LMU

Do you know if D-Limonene is safe for cats?

Thanks for help, everyone!

LMU

D-Limonene was safe for a 6 week old, barely weaned puppy, suffering from health issues like fleas and worms, so I think it ought to be fine for a cat. Small amounts should be safe if he licks it off his/her fur. I woldn't hesitate to use it on my cats, especialy as part of a flea dip, where the cat would get a final rinse.

It's just a component found in citrus oil. And it's an FDA food additive (to be eaten!) given their "generally safe" rating. Granted, stuff safe for humans can be poisonous to pets, like chocolate, but I doubt a cat would want to eat D-Limonene on purpose.

Your cat might have a random allery or sensitivity to D-Limonene, but that risk is true for about just anything out there. Just use a product marked for pet use as directed.

If you're ever eating an orange, grapefruit, or a lemon, and see a small bug, an ant, or a flea, sqirt it by pinching a piece of the peel at it from a few inches away. Watch it shrivel up and die. That's the D-Limonene in the spray killing it.

The real problem, is giving your cat a bath, safe for you? /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif Although you could try combing it with a brush or comb wetted with D-Limonene solution. I think bugs & fleas find it irritating even if they don't come in direct contact with it. Unlike synthetic insecticides where the fleas seem to run from the water, and don't know they're being poisoned, they seem to avoid the D-limonene too.

If you're asking about cleaning carpets or uhlpolstry with D-Limonene, that cats will be on or near, it's even finer than fine, since it's okay for direct application as a soap.

Read up on it.. A flea infestation is not easily removed...

Walking around in white socks will attract them also...

Yep, had and succesfully eliminated fleas. Sprinkle Borax in all the carpets. Leave it for a few days, then vaccuum it up.

Borax is cheap, readily available (any grocery store will have it), and it works like a charm.

Ordin

For you folks that use borax, here's some information I ran across that you might want to know:

"Drawbacks: The chemical borax is abrasive, and 20 Mule Team Borax may abrade your carpets. In addition, there are documented cases of long-term low-level exposure to sodium polyborate resulting in conjunctivitus, weight loss, vomiting, mild diarrhea, skin rash, convulsions and anemia and other similar allergic reactions in humans. If you're using borax as flea control, and your pets (or family) are showing loss of appetite, eye or skin problems, anemia or kidney problems, you may want to switch to another flea control method and see if their health improves. Do not apply it to damp carpets as it can take the color out.

Borax is NOT advisable where you have pets which groom themselves, e.g., cats and ferrets. They can ingest enough to harm them if the borax is not settled deeply enough into the carpet (October 1992 of Dog Fancy). Symptoms of acute poisoning include diarrhea, rapid prostration and perhaps convulsions [these occurred when borax was scattered openly for cockroach control]."

The landlord wants to send an exterminator over. I talked to the guy, he uses something called Cynoff, it's active ingredient is cypermethrin. I checked it out on the web, but can't get a good idea of how toxic or safe this stuff may be. Anyone know anything about it?

all the above are good, but another one even though it sounds crazy...is good ol sodium chloride...( salt ). It dehyrates the eggs. yes, drawbacks is that it is a pain to vacuum up but when the eggs die, so will the fleas. Good Luck

[ QUOTE ]
lightmeup said:
For you folks that use borax, here's some information I ran across that you might want to know:

"Drawbacks: The chemical borax is abrasive, and 20 Mule Team Borax may abrade your carpets. In addition, there are documented cases of long-term low-level exposure to sodium polyborate resulting in conjunctivitus, weight loss, vomiting, mild diarrhea, skin rash, convulsions and anemia and other similar allergic reactions in humans. If you're using borax as flea control, and your pets (or family) are showing loss of appetite, eye or skin problems, anemia or kidney problems, you may want to switch to another flea control method and see if their health improves. Do not apply it to damp carpets as it can take the color out.

Borax is NOT advisable where you have pets which groom themselves, e.g., cats and ferrets. They can ingest enough to harm them if the borax is not settled deeply enough into the carpet (October 1992 of Dog Fancy). Symptoms of acute poisoning include diarrhea, rapid prostration and perhaps convulsions [these occurred when borax was scattered openly for cockroach control]."

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wow...It looks like this is another case of "if only we knew then what we know now". I never noticed any symptoms back then from using Borax, but then again cats do vomit alot--and act spastic alot. I DID GET CONJUNCTIVITIS once as a kid. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/ooo.gif I also had diarrhea LAST WEEK. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/hahaha.gif (F#*%ing Guinness). Who knows?

One final spooky truth: 20 Mule Team is the very same brand I remember using in the carpet for fleas.

Maybe y'all should reconsider my recommendation for Borax.

Yeah, in my bedroom years ago. I hate bugs--especially the biters. Here's my solution. I laid down sheets of white computer paper covering the carpet. Then I turned off the lights at night and waited a minute or two. When the fleas hopped around on the paper, I could hear them. I turned the lights on and could see them sitting on the paper. I used pliers from my Leatherman tool to crush them.

I'm sure chemical warfare is much easier, but not as satisfying. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/evilgrin07.gif

Hey, I like that one... buy my question is...since they are attracted to white (especially)...how could they tell the paper was white if the light was off? /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif ...was kidding about that one, but does make me wonder just a bit. I do think the fact that to see them sitting down and not moving after the light comes on though is a bit strange....I knew they were clever, but not that clever.. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif