Help Me!! Flea Invasion

[Chanley]

My anal retentive BIL and SIL are gonna be here this weekend. I have wall to wall carpeting that is flea infested!!!

I tried to go the natural route and use boric acid in my steam cleaner when I cleaned the carpet. That helped some, but my daughter looks like she has chicken pox again from the bites.


So on my counter there are 3 Raid Foggers. That is my last resort. these buggers must be gone by Fri and I need input ASAP. Tomorrow is the only day I can be out of the house to do it, soo please tell me oh wise ones.... instruct me so I can take the chems back.

OR tell me how to prep my house for fogging.

[pear]

bump

[leafylady]

Can you get the boric acid under the carpet in any way? It will not be immediate, but is very effective.
When I lived in San Diego, we had a flea control company come in and do one of those boric acid treatments on the carpeting. It was like a reverse vacuum cleaner, beating the boric acid into the carpeting. I don't think a sprinkle or steam clean would have been enough to penetrate the carpeting. It was well worth the money and lasted much longer than the company recommended, well over a year.

The foggers might work temporarily, but the flea eggs will stick around, hatch and reinfest in about 6 weeks. The boric acid dries out both the fleas and their eggs, preventing a reinfestation. It doesn't keep the fleas off of the animals, but it does keep them out of the carpet.

[milesmom]

Try to find a company called "Flea Busters" near you or look it up on line (don't remember if it's one word or two). I used them, it was nontoxic, worked well. Plus they guarantee their work for a year. Uggh on the Raid foggers, they're so much more potentially damaging than flea bites.

Good Luck

[leafylady]

Flea Busters is what I used too. Maybe it's a So. Cal. company, but there must be the same or others like them in your area.

[Threefold]

This may not help your situation at all- but sprinkling brewers yeast on pet food is supposed to help control fleas on pets. Maybe if you could add some to your daughter's food it would make her less tasty to the fleas? Best of luck, I totally sympathize.

[serenetabbie]

I have no idea how to get rid of fleas once there is an infestation.

But, when we got Samson he was covered in fleas! Before long the cats had them too. I bathed the then little puppy in baby shampoo and rinsed him in rosemary infused water. I got him an herbal flea collar. The cats got the same bath, and then I used .....oh gosh, I forget the name but it is made from marigolds. It won't hurt them if they injest it. We used brewers yeast on the animal's food too until it ran out. I bathed Samson about once every other day until I saw no more fleas. Poor dog. The other thing we got was a flea brush. You brush the animals with it, then swish the brush in hot vinegar water. We have used diatamatious (sp?) earth to control ants....I think it would also work on fleas......
These things may not get rid of your current flea problem now, but they may help them from reoccuring. Good luck!!!!