Fleas!!! Any ideas on how to get rid of them w/o bombing?

[gypsyhips26]

Here the situation:

My SIL has a 3 yr old & a 6 month old, 2 dogs, wall-to-wall carpeting and a transient cat that was moonlighting at their house and has since been returned to its owner. They suspect the fleas are from the cat (the dogs have had fleas before but nothing like this...)

Anyway, the dogs are taking frontline & some other medicine that will kill the fleas or render them sterile, but my poor SIL and the baby are being bitten non-stop. They vet told them to keep vacuuming (with a flea collar in the back to kill any misc fleas) and to try steaming the carpets and keep vacuuming.

She's thinking about bombing the house (obviously leaving for a few days with the kids) but we were trying to think of an alternative that wouldn't be so toxic, as she's worried about the chemicals and the kids.

Any thoughts????

TIA!!!

(Sorry this was sooo long!)

[cristeen]

What my vet recommended, as silly as it sounds was to salt the carpets and upholstery. Literally just to salt it all liberally, with handfuls of salt, so there's a fairly even coating everywhere. Then to leave it there for about a day and vacuum it up. Apparently it dries out the eggs so they can't hatch.

[gypsyhips26]

:

ooo, that sounds like it might work.

Thanks!

[bluets]

dust borax into the bedding area and any scratching posts. if that's too strong, go with essential oils.

i'd use a blend of lavender, citronella, lemon, peppermint, and cedarwood - mix with distilled/bottled/RO water in a spray bottle and spritz everything. for a 4oz body spray mister bottle, i'd do 5-10 drops of each (though go easier on the lemon and citronella). you can even spray the animals with this stuff. you want the room(s) to be stinky

for yourselves, as preventative, you can use just lavender oil/water in a mister for daytime; for night-time, use lavender oil in a base oil (i use jojoba oil - 1 tsp oil, 5 drops EO).

for insect bites, use lavender oil straight up (i.e., "neat") on the bites.

[allnaturalmom]

I can vouch for the salt... Buy it in BULK... it works!

Get everything off of the floor, move furniture if you can.

You will find those little suckers belly-up on top of the salt.

I used borax on the wood floors, vacuumed, and then scrubbed them by hand with vinegar and water.

Also, if you're using a bag vacuum, change the bag a lot. At the time, I was using a bag vacuum and changed it each time I used it... I would vacuum the whole downstairs each time, even if I only saw them in one spot. Very expensive. Park the vacuum outside and change the bag out there too when you're done... just in case.

gl
hth

[gypsyhips26]

Thank you for all the suggestions....I'm emailing them to my SIL now. I'll let you all know how it goes!

Thanks again!

[avendesora]

Vacuum every day. Immediately put the vac bag in the trash outside, every day. When you can, put down borax on the carpet and hard floors and leave it overnight, or over a weekend if you happen to be going away. It takes persistence but it will work!

Aven

[Llyra]

Steam clean the carpets and mattresses and upholstery. Wash bedding and any clothing or towels or anything else that might have fleas in it in hot water or as hot as the fabric can stand. Then keep vacuuming, and put the vacuum bag outside immediately, like the PP said. We went through this recently, and it worked with persistence, as long as the cats or dogs are being treated as well. BTW, I found I could minimize the bites my kids got by having them wear long pants tucked into socks in the house, for a few days until I got the problem under control.

I like the salt idea. I wish I'd known about that...

[moondiapers]

I'd dust the carpets and furniture with diatomaceous earth before bed and leave it overnight, then vacuum it up in the morning. It'll pulverize them.

[LISSA~K]

We had a really bad flea episode this summer and what finally worked was frontline on the dog and cats, vacuuming every day and a borax/salt combo dusted on the carpet. We tried diatomaceous earth, but it only left a horrible mess all over every surface, it was a nightmare!