Cat Left Behind Fleas
Elaine from England
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RE: Cat Left Behind Fleas
A vet told my sister-in-law whos house was infested with fleas to buy sevens dust. You can buy it at walmart for gardens. Sprinkle it on your carpets vacumn in a couple hours repeat every couple weeks if needed. Use it on your furniture to. It fixed her problem.
Post By Enter your name. (Guest Post)
Fleas What I tried
I used borax and added Essentual Oils to the borax. Peppermint, Lavender and Eucculpus.and Tea Tree.
I had a coffee (plastic) container and punched hols in it. so far its working and no more itching. and did frontline on my 2 dogs and a cat. and its smells good to. I have no small children to worry about.
Hope this helps
Post By Deb (Guest Post)
RE: Cat Left Behind Fleas
The hard part about ridding your home of a massive flea infestation (even if it was from a prior tenant) is that fleas have a 4 stage life cycle, eggs - which can sit dorment for a considerable length of time, a larvee stage where they are like little worms, a pupae stage (which can sit dorment for more than a year, survive freezing temperatures easily - this is why outdoot fleas always come back again and don't get wiped out by winter), and finally the adult biting flea. Cat fleas lay a tremendous amount of eggs, and again, these things fall off whever the pet was. They could be in cracks in the floor, carpets, bedding, under floor boards, crawl spaces, heating/cooling ducts, you name it. They only come out of the pupae stage when conditions are right - IE: they sit dorment till something warm enough comes by to activate them. This is why you are suddenly experiencing and outbreak and why you sprays didn't kill them - most sprays only work on adult fleas, some on adults & pupae.
What you want to do to get rid of them: Boric acid, its cheap usually under $5 for a 1lb container of it (which should be enough to treat every single crack and crevice in your house by puffing it lightly into them (so no roaches or other bugs either!) and leave you enough to -work it into the carpet with a broom - you want to go a bit heavier on the carpets this is where larvee tend to live the most, let it sit awhile and vacuum (and no, its not really a danger to your pets, the LD/50 on this stuff is going to be in the several ouces at a time consumed even for a small kitten...It IS however, a skin irritant, lung irritant, and nose irritant so you might want a mask while you work with it - it wont kill you, but its unpleasant, which is why they tell you not to apply it directly to pets - could give them a tiny rash of sorts.) This last a long time, and it gets them in the larval & sometimes in the egg 7 pupae stage, but not as much in the adult stage. (I didn't say they were easy to get rid of..). If you have cats or dogs: Frontline plus or Advantage, not cheap, in the $45 dollar range -- but some things are worth it because of the degree to which they work. They sell "different formulas" for cats & dogs, but they contain exactly the same thing, its only the size of the tube, amount applied, and slightly how its applied that is different. Cats you want to try to prevent them from licking themself so base of the skull where they can't get to, less of a problem with dogs but that application spot and big dogs a couple others.
To draw dorment fleas out you need only occupy the space (and you become the bait). Its been mentioned here before but lamp traps work, you can buy a commercial one for about $15 like this: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0006HPXMC/102-9914955-7513761
Or you can make your own with a 10-25watt incandesant light (it needs to give off heat as well as light) and place a bowl of soapy till its slightly foamy water under it. Set the lamp on the floor in each room for 3-4 days and you should clear the problem up.
Post By Salt (Guest Post)
RE: Cat Left Behind Fleas
If you live in the southeast where the CHINA BERRY TREE GROWS, pick the leaves and twigs off of a China Berry Tree and spread them on the floors of your home. Leave them there for a couple of days - Then pick them up or vacuum. Would like feed back on this - Take care and good luck.
Post By Azie (Guest Post)
Useful Tip
Changing the vaccumn bag all the time when vaccuming up fleas can be a pain in the butt. Instead, put mothballs in the vacumn bag, and the little pests will die instead of re-infest if you don't change the bag.
Post By Holly (Guest Post)
RE: Cat Left Behind Fleas
Just thought I'd mention Diatameteous Earth can be obtained through just about any pool supply store as I believe it's used for water softening. IT DOES WORK FOR FLEA ELIMINATION!!! Tried it.
Take care and God bless!
Post By Christie Baker (Guest Post)
RE: Cat Left Behind Fleas
I have not used this particular remedy for fleas but have seen it mentioned as effective. As fleas are attracted to light, at night before you go to bed put a flourescent lamp on the floor in the room where the infestation is worst, turn it on and put a basin of used dishwater (or any soapy water) beside the light. If you use a bendable fixture bend it so that the light itself is over the water a bit. The fleas jump towards the light and end up drowning in the dishwater. I hope this is clear. Pics worth 1k words here. Keep doing this until there are no more fleas. Luckily I have not had a flea infestation since we moved from a very temperate climate to a cold one, but we used to get them something fierce, so I am keeping all these wonderful hints for when we move back to Flealand.
Post By susan (Guest Post)
RE: Cat Left Behind Fleas
The problem with flea bombs is the cost as you have to repeat, repeat, repeat. Place a box of regular salt in a blender and whirl it until it is almost powdered. Move all furniture away from the walls and sprinkle the perimeter of every room. Do NOT vacuum for 10 days. They are attracted to the salt and it dries up the eggs as well. I've never had to repeat this treatment. We have a compay in California called Flea Busters and they charge 200.00 or more for the same treatment. I like to give it a thorough vacuuming before I so this and of course take the vacuum outside - change the bag and in ten days, you'll change the bag once you've gotten rid of those little critters. Bathe pets as well.
Post By Enter your name. (Guest Post)
RE: Cat Left Behind Fleas
i also recommend the diatomaceous earth- not as scary as all of those chemicals anyway...
you can also put a bit in your vacuum bag, and vacuum *every* day.
Post by weeblet
RE: Cat Left Behind Fleas
Fleas are very hard to get rid of but it's possible. The only way I've been successful is with specially made "flea bombs". You set them off inside your closed house, stay out for a few hours, then you can return and air things out. You have to repeat in several days to take care of the hatching eggs.
You can't leave any pets in the house while you flea bomb, and must put all food and dishes away. I always wash my dishes afterwards to be sure. And be sure to vaccuum daily and get rid of the bag(s).
The bombs are effective, but a pain in the neck to use because of all the precautions.
Post by jlxian
RE: Cat Left Behind Fleas
I used to work for a man who owned a garden center, he was licenced to sell and apply pesticides. This is what he told me and hundreds of customers to do for fleas.....
#1: vacuum the whole room well, including all fabric covered furniture & long curtains. Also remove and vacuum under sofa and chair cushions, you may not see fleas there but there may be tiny white eggs.
#2: Spray the perimeter of the room(s) with a Pyretherine based (indoor approved) flea spray.(you must spray the perimeter first so that fleas don't get under baseboards when you spray the rest of the room)
#3: spray the entire floor and any fabric covered furniture the cat jumped up on. Don't forget under and behind furniture. Do this twice a week for 2 weeks, if you still see a few fleas try a couple more applications.
Finally: If you have a severe infestation you may need to set off a flea bomb in the room(s). they come in different sizes and are very easy to use.
Important!! If you have gas heat or appliances you must turn off the main pilot light and gas supply or it could explode. If you don't have too many fleas I would try the borax treatment first. I have heard that it works. I prefer to try the organic approach whenever possible.
Post By Wagners1988 (Guest Post)
RE: Cat Left Behind Fleas
The only problem with using the previous examples is that the eggs that have been layed into the carpet are going to hatch and when they do there will be no residual to kill to the new born fleas. You meed to use a product that will leave a residual to kill these fleas that will be hatching. The undersides of all the furniture must be treated along with the base of the couches and chairs where the fleas will be hiding. Make sure you vacuum everything very well and then throw away the bag so the fleas don't crawl out to reinfest the house again.
Post By John the bugman (Guest Post)
RE: Cat Left Behind Fleas
Another thing to sprinkle is diatamateous earth - it's a fine powder that suffocates the little critters. You sprinkle it, leave it for 24 hours and vacuum. Good luck!
Post By Enter your name. (Guest Post)
RE: Cat Left Behind Fleas
I have heard that borox works well on carpets, and table salt. It is suppose to kill them.Pour it on then vacum it up after 24 hours. Also it is very important you vacum everywhere, even without the borox. My cat had fleas and I went to the animal clinic and got some advantage and I vacumed every other day. Remove the bag and toss it in the garbage outside right after your done.
Post By annajo7 (Guest Post)
RE: Cat Left Behind Fleas
If you can get borax in England, sprinkle it on your carpets and in the corners. If you can't get borax, table salt also works. Let it sit a while, then vacuum it up. It will take care of the fleas. If you have any tiny children, don't let them crawl on the carpet until it is vacuumed up.
Susan from ThriftyFun
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