We recently bought and moved into a house that was infested with fleas. We have a dog which we treat with frontline. We have been vacuuming the house every day for 3 months now. In addition we have had a exterminator out to spray twice. I have also sprayed (peremthryn and precor) myself a couple times in the 3 month span. The problem has definitely gotten better and we thought we had finally rid the house of the issue. That was until we found a flea on our dog yesterday. This was the first one we have seen in 3 weeks. I gave him a capstar and washed all his bedding. Should I be concerned that we are still infested?
Hello,
We have been dealing with a flea problem with our small dog and in our house for over 3 weeks. We first discovered several fleas on her over three weeks ago – I can’t be quite sure how long she had them. We immediately gave our dog a bath in flea shampoo but still saw fleas return to her immediately. We haven’t dealt with this before so weren’t sure how to handle and thought that would be enough – boy we were wrong!
This is the first time we ever have been infested with fleas. Our dog had them on him and it took us 2 days to realize that he actually had fleas. And then we went to work with bombing the house, vacuuming the carpets and furniture, washing sheets on the bed, throwing out the dogs bed, washing all the dog toys in hot water, and spraying the carpets, flooring, and furniture. The dog has been treated with spot on treatment Frontline Plus, Capstar pills to kill adult fleas, and Program to kill flea eggs and larvae. And he gets a bath at least every 5 days. Since he has been on the Capstar pill I have not seen any fleas on him. But I know we still them since we have flea traps throughout the house and are still catching them. My first question is that if there are no fleas in a trap and it has been 3 weeks does that mean that room has no fleas? Second question is that we live in a 2 family home, with me and my family living on the bottom floor and other relatives living on the top floor, so if we went upstairs or in the car or anyone elses house, could we take the fleas on our clothes and have someone elses home infested or our car? Third and final question is that we are planning on steam cleaning the carpet and have gotten mixed opinions on whether to do it or not, will it help? and if we do treat the carpet/area rugs can we put powders (fleasbuster) down afterwards? How dry does the carpet have to be? Also, if we do steam clean the carpet does that mean fleas will hatch sooner and we can come home to a swarm of fleas afterwork? Just trying to get an idea on this. The dog would not be around when treating, so they won’t after him if we came home, any ideas or suggestions would help. I’m just not sure when this will be over.
Our cat always used to walk on our oriental rugs and would sit on the furniture. Now, he only will walk on the hard wood floors and avoids the carpet and never sits on the furniture any more. Why all of a sudden is he doing this? He is an older male cat that we took in as a stray 6 yrs ago.
I just finished watching your excellent video and reading your article about FLEAS! Oh my … they are persistent critters, aren’t they? Here’s my problem:
1 small dog who is primarily inside, but takes walks and goes out in the back yard 1 stray young cat who mostly lives under front porch (among leaves and other debris that have blown under there — not readily accessible — meaning under the porch AND the cat!
I have recently discovered fleas on my cats. I was reading your very informative articles and saw that this product, Precor 2000, is helpful in getting rid of fleas in the house, carpets and on furniture. However, I read that the active ingredient is permethrin, which is toxic to cats. If I spray it in the house, can it hurt my cats? If it will, what can I use to get rid of fleas in the house so that the cats won’t get re-infested?
Thanks :)
Alison
I have 4 dogs and i live in the woods on a big property. Our dogs always get fleas and we get rid of them but it doesn’t always work as planned. The house wont have fleas for about a month then they all come back because our dogs play outside most of the day. Now the fleas are worse this time of year and one of our dogs has them worse then the others. Shes constantly itching and scratching, I don’t think she does anything else, but that. I’m really worried because she is tearing at her skin so bad her hair is falling out on her tummy, she just grew all her hair back from last time, she is a beautiful golden retriever about 8 years old in November, in good shape, but the fleas. As You can see we have spent a ton of money getting bombs and flea shampoo and flea stuff to go on after, but it doesn’t work that long and the fleas keep coming back, what should i do to get them gone for good?
We have lived in the same house for almost a decade. We have never had any pets and haven’t even had anyone else’s pets in our home recently (within at least 6 months or more). Just in the last 24 hours I’ve started seeing quite a few fleas on my feet and lower legs (summer clothes…shorts and no shoes). And these are definitely inside the house; not brought in from outside. I would have thought without pets the possibility of getting a fleas infestation inside our home would be remote at best. And they’ve appeared so suddenly. Have never noticed any before about 24 hours ago. We keep a relatively clean house (vacumning about once a week usually). So ultimately I wanted to know if this is a situation you are familiar with and how common (or uncommon) is it?
ive been getting bit by what i thought were mosquitos throughout the night but last night i found a flea and i searched my bed and i found about 5 in the corner. i removed my bedding and washed it in hot water and still found some on the floor when i swept. we got rid of the dog a week ago, the dog came in my room once a week but yet my room seems to be the only one with the issue. the house is all wooden flooring and i dont know what to do im 32 weeks pregnant and i read that i have to find the issue but i dont know what it can be. i live in an apartment complex. im freaking out horribly if you could give me a cure for this id greatly appreciate it.
I use the liquid flea control treatments on my dog, yet I have found fleas in her fur. Just one or two at a time — and i THOROUGHLY check. I have given her a flea bath, cleaned everything in the house and have used the powder treatment on carpets, floors and furniture, given her another bath using the shampoo, AND I STILL FIND one or two fleas on her. I tried to give her a treatment, keep her outside while I cleaned the house, and then shampooed her with the flea shampoo before letting her back in, and this morning — another flea on her. I’m not getting bitten and I haven’t seen any in the house, but I just don’t know what to do!! is she just getting them outside and they are biting her and dying b/c of the flea treatment (not reproducing?). I’m at a loss here.
Hi, Sorry to take up your time when you have produced such great articles already. I think I have been reading and researching too much, so now I feel overwhelmed. Please tell me exactly what I should buy. I understand we need to treat each stage of the flea cycle. We live in the Florida Keys and I cannot control the environment as far as the wild cats that are so prevalent and coming through the yard. We have a 10-12lb Pom mix that uses the yard of course to do his business. I have products from the vet to take care of him. Orkin just treated the house and barrier on the outside. We washed bedding in hot water. I understand we need to vacuum regularly. Here are my questions. 1) What do I buy to treat the flea cycle inside the house and in the yard? 2) Can I use anything on the furniture? 3) Do You carry everything I need including a sprayer to hook up to the hose? 4) Do I need to use protective devices when applying? Please help. We live with my dad at the moment and his wife is not thrilled about the dog. Thanks, Cindi
I’ve been finding fleas in my 11 year old daughters long hair. We have a small dog but is flea free. What can I use to get rid of them in her hair?
I just moved into a place that had 6 big dogs. Should I remove the carpets? My little dog is showing signs of getting bit by fleas.
I’m not sure what removing the carpets will do but if you’re interested in getting rid of the fleas, you’ll need to treat using one of the methods explained in our FLEA CONTROL ARTICLE. As you’ll learn, it only takes one flea to lay hundreds of eggs and your new rugs will be infested just like the existing ones if you don’t treat. That means your options are either leave the existing rugs and treat them or replace the existing rugs and treat the new ones before they get infested.
Based on these two scenarios, I suggest you install several FLEA TRAPS along with our ONCE A YEAR TREATMENT. In my experience, this has proven to be the most effective and easiest approach to most any flea problem that includes a house with rugs.
Here are direct links to the information and products listed above:
Flea Control: www.flea.net/flea-control
Flea Traps: www.bugspray.com/catalog/products/page22.html
Once a Year Treatment: www.flea.net/flea-control#once-a-year-treatment
I live in Florida and “spring” arrived about a month and a half ago, along with a plethora of fleas! I have a cat and a dog and we live on an acre that is for the most part natural and wooded. Both pets are indoor and outdoor. My home has become recently flea infested. I must say I was happy to note on your website that I should let the pets roam inside since I had been making them stay unhappily outside all the time due to the fleas! Anyway, I also have tropical fish and am afraid to bomb or spray as a result. Also, I just got new stain-master carpet about a year ago and I am hesitant to use chemicals on it. I worry about residue on my beautiful carpet – the slimy feel of it on barefeet, that it will attract dirt and may damage the stain-master “finish” or whatever they do to make the carpet remarkably resistant to staining. What do you suggest?
Me and my boyfriend have a flea problem which we think started in summer. We just assumed it was the usual summer insects since we’re both prone to being bitten perhaps because we are pale, and so we waited it out.
We are trying to treat the house, the problem is that we live in rented accommodation and our house is small.
We cannot deflea the garden because they are shared gardens, we have nowhere to move our furniture to, the carpets don’t belong to us so we have to be careful with them.
To complicate matters further there is a cat involved which also doesn’t belong to us!
He doesn’t appear to have problems with fleas but we don’t know if he’s being treated for fleas or not. We know he belongs to someone because he used to have a tatty collar which was then replaced with a new one and even though he now has no collar he still looks well fed (we don’t feed him)
So we either make sure he can’t come in anymore (which is difficult if we need to air the house because he comes through our downstairs window), or we treat the house with flea treatments which don’t risk harm to the cat (I’ve heard flea bombs are risky) and try to find some way of defleaing him which won’t harm him if he’s already being given maximum flea protection (I’ve heard too much flea treatment on a cat is harmful)
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