What experiences have you had with fleas in your house and what did you do to eradicate them?

We had fleas last summer and I was really against spreading pesticide throughout the house. We also have no carpet except for a few rugs, we have one cat, and try to be fairly clean.

So we treated the cat with Frontline, did laundry every night, vacuumed the bed, couch, and the few rugs we have every other day and then washed all the blankets and sheets once a week.

It was a lot of work but we did that for three weeks and still had fleas, so we bombed the house and that kept them away for a while, but they were back within a month.

It really bothered my wife (for some reason, I’m not as tasty) so I called an exterminator. I tried to find a “natural” one and they came out to walk through the house and make recommendations. It’s still poison, but they use pyrethrin which is plant based and at least made me feel a little better about the whole thing.

They did an initial treatment in the house, and come back every two months to spray outside but don’t come inside unless it’s needed for some reason. We haven’t seen fleas since then. The initial treatment was ~$150, it’s ~$80 every two month after that. As a happy bonus, we don’t have ants in the yard any more.

Our house is older, and built with a pier and beam foundation that leaves a good amount of space under the house. I think a lot of our efforts were wasted because there were always areas under the house that we couldn’t clean and weren’t affected by the bombs. If you have a solid foundation it may be easier.

I couldn’t use Frontline or any bombs as I am sensitive to chemicals. So I did it the old fashioned way. Quarantined the cats in one room. Kept bathing the cats and hand pick the fleas out. Placed soup plates with warm/hottish soapy water in the quarantine room so that the fleas will sense warmth and jump in and drown. The kitties had been more or less de-flea-ed and left the room when I started the warm soapy water treatment for the quarantine room. After two weeks or so, no more fleas in room.

You can most likely find my more detailed previous answer thru Search.

Basically using Frontline on the three cats applied once per month for three months straight did the trick. This was combined with thorough vaccuming (and promptly discarding each bag each time) and thorough washing of the bedding, this did the trick. No bombing or toxic chemicals necessary.

I always suggest an exterminator. They usually guarantee their work and truly by the time you purchase bombs, powders, etc. for the whole house (a couple of times because once never does the job) you have spent practically what a professional would cost.

There is a product here and I assume everywhere called Comfortis. It is a pill given orally. I am not crazy about using this sort of product but I really don’t like fleas. It is suggested to give once a month but I only use it when I see evidence of fleas on the dogs. It works better than any product I have ever seen. I think it is available for cats as well as dogs.

Did you do the flea test? Get a fine tooth comb such as is used to check for head lice, use it on the critter’s back just in front of where tail meets body. Then wipe the comb on a damp paper towel. Flea poop is basically dried blood and where there are fleas there is poop as well. The paper towel will show little red spots where the water dissolves the poop. That will tell you if your cats have them.

How to tell if they are in the house, sit on the floor in your underwear, if they are there, they will probably hop onto you. But they usually don’t stay, they like fur.

And remember too when critters have fleas, they usually will have tape worms as well. They are not nice on the floor either so it is always a good idea to worm after you get rid of the fleas.

Good luck!

@rooeytoo: I have definitely seen fleas, so I am positive it’s fleas.

Then I stand by everything I said above. Get Comfortis for the cats, have the house treated and all will be sweet as!!!

I’m a bit late to the party, since last year’s flea season is over and this year’s won’t start for another month or so, but some general info about fleas will help you in the future. The flea makes a coccoon like a butterfly or moth to pupate in. That’s why one treatment is never enough, inside those cocoons they’re naturally protected.

Many pesticide products for fleas involve the use of growth regulators that break up the life cycle of the insect. Some of these products only have growth regulators in them, which will have almost no effect on mammals such as cats or babies.

If you’re adamant about no pesticides (which is a looong discussion) you will have to use sanitation to get rid of them. It’s a tremendous amount of work. Vaccuming even the hardwood and linoleum weekly will pick up the eggs and some of the larvae. Mopping the hardwood/linoleum needs to be done daily to remove all the food for the larvae possible. Vaccuming the carpets not only removes food for the larvae, the vibration from the beater bar resembles the tremors from a host animal walking by which will trigger the cocoons into hatching out. Eggs that you vaccum up can hatch inside the vaccum bag, so that needs to be outside or thrown away to prevent re-infestation.