FLEAS!! ugh

[Snapdragon]

okay- so- we just this week made a temporary move into an anpartment that I have just discovered has FLEAS. Lots of them. Prior to this I have been living in a really nice clean house that I have lived in for 12 years and kept very clean and fresh.

So I still have that clean other home, but we moved for the winter into this apartment we are in right now- because- basically, we wanted to check out this nice town we are in and do a temp. move somewhere for the winter. We really like it here in many ways and the apartment is pretty decnet other than that there is some grime in it, there was lots of mustiness in it (but we are working on that successfully) and now these Fleas.

I am bummed about this.

Because we are staying here for at least 3 months (maybe morE) we moved a lot of our stuff here- including our really nice bed with an expensive mattress and nice bedding, some chairs, couches, rugs, our baby's bed and bedding.

So there wer fleas in our bed! I have flea bitses- lots of them.

so I got out of bed and vacuumed the room and much of the apartment as best as I could.  I gathered up the laundry ont he bedroom floor and washed it at once- but what else cna I do?

We have a baby- but even witout the baby I would not do a flea bomb chemical thing- I dont' want to unfuse my ny=ice things with anything smelly or chemical- so all I know how to do to respond id to vacuum every day and wahs our bedding as much as I can- though I can wahs the sheets, I am reluctant to wash the blankerts asI am worried they will get ruined.

I am bummed! It seems like there is always somehting.

any ideas on how to deal? Are fleas pretty manageable through lots of thorough vacuuming?

I like to keep a very clean house- but we didn't get to thorughly clean this place before we moved out stuff in.

[Chamomile Girl]

Fleas (and their eggs) die in soapy water so a basic washing of stuff should do the trick there.  Lots of vacuuming (and make sure you change the bag right afterward so they are out of the house).  Are the blankets wool?  You can give them a good soaking but they will take forever to dry.  Do you have pets?  If the fleas cannot find a host they cannot easily stick around.

[Snapdragon]

thanks chamomile girl

we don't have pets here- ironically- we have 2 dogs at our other house and no fleas there!

We had a pit stop with all our stuff in this other apartment- and it was this really gross basement room- ugh- that may be where the fleas came from- I don't know

At any rate it is 2 am right now and I shlould have been asleep HOURS ago but I got dh and ds out of bed (ds was up anyway! and they went willingly) and I did like 4 loads of laundry and also vacuumed the rug downstairs, the whole bedroom, and every blanket very thorughly and the matress. pillows, etc- for the last 2+ hours- prompted by coming upstairs and seeing a flea (another one- I had seen this earlier tonight too) sitting on my baby's facxe- yuck! I was like=- screw this, screw sleep, I am getting rid of these things NOW!

I also googled it and they said to put the vacuum bag after use in a plastic bag and then in the freezer to make sure they are all dead! I am pretty determined- we still have some uncleaned rms in this aptmnt so I have all these baskets of clean laundry that I don't know where to put-

this is kind of a weird transition for me- in other ways too-

anyway

I should sleep now

I think there may be none or very few fleas left in there- unless they all had some hiding place I totally missed- hope not

[Snapdragon]

so what are our other options to get rid of the fleas? turns out that this situation is beyond vacuuming and laundry :(

Really sucks as we moved lots of nice stuff in here- all our clothes, some nice upholstered furniture- our nice bed- ugh!

So the fleas are really everywhere and the place feels gross- we like the place otherwise tho-

but I don't know what is hosting the fleas-? I mean we are all covered in flea bites so we are hosting them- but clearly they were here when we moved in- it feels like they are living in the floor- the floor is kind of gross upstairs- old wood floor painted thickly with brown paint and big grooves in the floor

anyway- the apt. is nice besides this- and at this point the fleas are in our stuff- so we have to do something.

so what are our options? Are htere flea bombs of a non taoxic variety that actually work?

We have a baby and I hate to think of infusing all of our stuff with chemicals- yuck!!! But it's like- otherwise we are living in fleas and we will not do that- even if we were to move- I don't know

what are some options?

[Chamomile Girl]

Unfortunately its not a problem that is going to go away right away because the fleas are probably in the process of hatching (and then eating you right after they do).  Here is a good article that tells some info...especially at the bottom of the page.

One thing that you can try is wearing a repellent lotion that smells like peppermint or some such.  Eating lots of garlic will also make you a less desirable snack.  However since it sounds like the fleas had been lurking and starving for awhile you might need to ride it out.

If it makes you feel better I have never experienced a flea infestation in my bed or furnishings.  Carpets, rugs and cracks in the flooring are usually the culprits.  And the fact that you don't have pets is a good thing because I believe fleas are species specific (most fleas are cat fleas, and need a cat around to reproduce I think).

[stardogs]

Without a dog or cat to feed on they will bite, but not survive, so hopefully that'll put your mind at ease a bit.  Vacuuming will kill them (the actual mechanical suctioning with kill them, not just gather them in a bag lol), and I've had good luck with food grade diatomaceous earth outside our house for insects - I've heard good things about it indoors as well.

[Snapdragon]

I am going to try to just vaccum lots and lots etc

The upstairs neighbor does have cats- I realized- but it is a whole seperate apartment. this house is reallly old and the floors are kind of- lots of gaps and places for things to live- I am going to just clean clean clean and avois the chemicals! I may get a little flea powder thouhg and sprinkle it on some of the floors and vacuum.

[Snapdragon]

update- I think we may try to move! We have only been here a few days and it is kind of grimy- I like the location but am not attached to the apt at all

we will see if something cleaner is avaiable!

[Snapdragon]

we moved out! We are out and ds is there right now moving out our stuff! turns out the place was gross and completely infested. I have been doing laundry constantly and we are leaving everything out in the cold in a garage for a few days- lots of cleaning- and moving into a new clean place.

[jtsmom]

So I see you have moved out, but I wanted to say that I've also heard that if there is no pet, the fleas can't live long.  Also, I had a cat once that had fleas for a little bit, and one thing I did was put a shallow bowl of soapy water under a nightlight at night and the fleas would jump towards the light at night and then drown in the soapy water.  I'd wake up in the morning to find lots of dead fleas in the water.  :)  Treating the cat and the soapy water did the trick, I never had a flea problem after that.  No bombing or anything. 

[bluets]

we visited family who had a flea-infested house, because of their 3 flea-infested cats and dog.  the fleas bit dh and ds during the first night (which was what alerted us to the fleas in the first place).  it was after that that i found them in the bed where we were sleeping.  i used a mash-up of essential oils - with 2 cats of our own, i did not want to bring home extra house guests.  i used lavender oil on us - in a water-based spritzer during the day, in a rub-on oil in the evening (especially outside) and in lotion at bedtime.  i sprinkled drops of lavender, tea tree, citronella, peppermint, and cedarwood LIBERALLY throughout the bedroom, in our bags, in the beds, ... really, ALL OVER.  the night before we left, i gave the bags an extra sprinkling and we put them in the car overnight.

we saw most improvement in our bug bites once we started using the lavender oil.  we also ended up NOT bringing fleas home with us.  the drawback to these essential oils (for us, anyway) is that it completely wipes out the possibility of our use of homeopathics.  but i can live without my remedies for a day or two if it means not having to deal with fleas once i return home.

[Earthy Mama]

Our cats snuck outside and brought fleas in to our house. It took about a month of treatment of DE and eucalyptus oil-I was pregnant and we couldn't use chemicals.