I am hoping someone can help - I have never had fleas in my home but recently I have seen a few. I am thinking a friend that was recently visting that told me she had a flea problem may have brought some with her. What do I do? I have small children so I would like to stay away of harsh chemicals if at all possible. Thanks
Are you sure they are fleas? Do you have any animals because I thought that fleas couldn't live unless they were on animals? I know they hop off but mainly you see them on animals. Not sure what you can do , maybe google it and that may give some advice?
If you have pets, take them for a flea dip at the vet and let them stay a day or so. You can bomb your house (with the flea spray fog stuff), but need to clean surfaces really well. I might send the kids out for the afternoon and get soem flea powder for your carpet. While it sits on the carpet, wash your sheets an dlaundrey in hot water. Vaccume and try leaving the house for awhile. They literally want blood, so if you aren't there they won't be happy. They are hard to kill so nip them quickly.
When fleas first show the lay eggs. They usually lay them in dark places, near edges, out of the way areas. Bombs and sprays are useless against eggs. Then the eggs hatch and you have a new flea problem.
Our vet told us to buy a flea collar and to place it inside the vaccum cleaner. Vaccum EVERY inch of your carpet, rugs, sofa, etc everyday for a week.
It worked for us.
Megan
Go to this website http://www.stopthefleas.com/natural-flea-remedies.html if you are looking for some harmless ways to get rid of fleas. I found this when we had ours. There is a plant you can buy that fleas do not like. I did not get it but you may be interested in the plant. This website helped us out a lot. Good Luck as they are a pain to get rid of!!!
Have you tried the flea bombs? You can use them but you would need to repeat it again after 2 weeks of doing the first bomb. We had trouble with fleas one time and we done that. You do need to leave the house for 2 hours after you set the bombs off. They worked for us. We have 2 kids but they are 11 and 7. Hope this helps and let me know how things turn out for you.
Paula Wheedleton
Here is what worked for us when we had a horrible flea problem. Get a box of 20-Mule-Team Borax. Sprinkle it liberally over all your carpets, then use a brook to work it down into the fibers. Leave it there - don't vacuum it. Now here's the catch -- in a day or two the fleas are going to come out en masse, so if you can, clear out or stay in non-carpeted rooms (if you're going somewhere for Christmas that's an ideal time). But once they're gone, they're gone. Once they're gone, you can go back to your usual vacuuming.
If you have pets, you can retreat occasionally if you want to, but we've never had to do it more than once.
Good luck!
If you don't have animals, the fleas won't last...you just have to wait till the eggs hatch and die. Easy and no big deal. Just vacuum the floors/furniture, etc and it will help get rid of any dead fleas, etc.
If you do have animals, make sure they are treated for fleas (they have a pill you can get at the vet that will kill all the fleas on them immediately). Hopefully the adults fleas haven't laid eggs yet, but if they have, then keep treating the animals with the flea medication monthly and the fleas will not be able to latch on to them and lay eggs, so they will eventually die off. There are also other flea bombs, etc that can take care of things, but if you have animals, you still have to treat them as well or the eggs will keep hatching. The flea life cycle can last up to 3 months, I think (it's been a while since I had this problem)....but then it should be over. http://vetmedicine.about.com/od/parasites/f/FAQ_fleacycle.htm
Good luck!!
Hey Victoria,
Sorry to hear about your flea problem! As a Registered Veterinary Technician with 16 years in the field, here's my advice:
There are two products I recommend - first, if you have pets, Frontline Plus for your flea preventative and control (has an insect growth regulator to prevent new fleas from hatching). ALL of your pets must be treated, even those the don't go outside. The second product is CapStar. This is a quick kill product that the pet takes orally and will kill ALL fleas DEAD in 30 minutes. It's actually quite cool (and a little creepy at the same time) and wow, does it work. There is another derivative of the product called Comfortis that lasts for a full 30 days. Another step in the process is the advice you received from another mom; vacuum! Cut up a cheap flea collar -- by the way flea collars don't really work on the whole pet, just on the neck and are impregnated with pesticides. Vacuum it up and then vacuum everything in your house. Pay attention to out of the way areas that your pet may be able to get to. Empty the canister or toss the bag outside immediately after. You may need to repeat this process in a few days.
The most important thing to remember in this whole frustrating process is the life cycle of the flea. The live fleas you are seeing have already laid eggs in your environment. Those have to hatch and then will form a pupae. That pupae can last for months. Once those emerge, the cycle begins again. So remember, you may see a remergence of fleas in about a month or two. If you stick with the progam, you will be able to defeat the dreaded flea.
Keep in mind, over the counter products not sold from a veterinarian are not guaranteed, don't really work and some are actually harmful to your pet. Contact your vet for other suggestions.
All the best!
Susan
Branches from a black walnut tree.
Here's a good article I found.
http://www.howtogetridofstuff.com/pest-control/how-to-get-rid-of-fleas/
We had fleas once too!! It can quickly explode into a full blown infestation if you don't get rid of them early on. Just follow these steps to the tee. The main thing is clean clean clean, vacuum, wash, steam clean and throw out used vacuum bags. I think we may have ended up doing an insecticide to finally rid of them, it had gotten so bad. Don't let that happen to you though...roll up your sleeves now!