I have stray cats living underneath the house and can’t get rid of them. Clearly, they have brought a flea infestation with them. I found a flea in my bed last night and am really freaked out. I sprayed last week and don’t know why I can’t get rid of them with hardwood floors and no pets. Do you have any suggestions? Do they live on the bed? How are they getting onto the bed? I thought they could only jump ankle high.
If you read our FLEA CONTROL ARTICLE, you’ll learn fleas will gladly hitch a ride on any person that comes close to them. So if you have cats living under your house with fleas, they no doubt forage around the house and when they do, fleas will dispersed everywhere they go. In other words, they’ll be dropping flea eggs, pupae and adults where they walk. And this means when you pass a location where they’ve been, you no doubt will be in the range of getting a flea to jump on you.
At this point the flea will stay with you as long as they’re comfortable. So when you go inside, they’ll probably stick on you till you relax on a chair or couch or bed. So seeing them in your bed is no surprise and to be expected as long as you have cats living under the house and no flea treating is being done outside where it no doubt most matters.
To stop the problem, you’ll have to treat the key nesting locations (where the fleas are reproducing). This is true whether you get rid of the cats or not. You see, fleas will most likely thrive where a bunch of cats are living but they don’t need them to survive; they’d do fine on their own. So even if you were to remove the cats, you’ll still have the fleas and you’ll still have to treat. This is why almost half of our customers are people who don’t have pets!
So how do you need to treat? Several options listed in our article could be employed given your situation. For starters, I’d get as much of the are under the home treated. If you cannot access the area directly, use a HOSE END sprayer to spray the ESFENVALERATE and NYLAR. Do this every month and once the problem is under control, you can move to a once a quarter treatment so they don’t return.
For the home, I’d start with nothing more than some FLEA TRAPS. This way you can monitor the activity inside to determine if you do in fact have to treat. In our article we talk about vacuuming hardwood floors as a sure way to get rid of any adults, eggs and pupae so if you follow that regime, you should be able to keep them under wraps without having to spray. But if your traps start picking up more than 1-2 fleas a week, it would mean you’ve got something happening inside which would warrant a treatment.
Here are direct links to the information and products listed above:
Flea Control Article: http://www.flea.net/flea-control
Hose End Sprayer: http://www.bugspraycart.com/equipment/sprayers/gilmour-20g-390
Esfenvalerate: http://www.bugspraycart.com/insecticide/liquid/conquer-esfenvalerate
Nylar: http://www.bugspraycart.com/insecticide/igr/igr-nylar
Flea Trap: http://www.bugspraycart.com/traps/electric/flea-trap
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