stupid fleas!

Mods im not 100% sure if i've put this in the right place - feel free to move it :d

yesterday and last night i saw some spots on DJ, thinking it was mozzie bites i didnt do much about it :redface: then last night we found more - no mozzies. they're mainly on his face and a few on his back. then thismoring (with two more having popped up after brekkie) i combed though his hair and guess what we found. a flea! the joy in squishing that little pest was brillaint. i've sprayed our carpet with flea stuff - the cats where done about two days ago - i think my brillaint FIL :rolleyes: only used half a thingy of the stuff on the cats last time, which is kind of pointless as our male alone is 10.2kg :redface: but we havent had issues with fleas since we moved in (last owner had a mangey looking dog that that them!) our cats are mainly indoor cats - so dont really see other cats, so how we got them i dont know! :confused:

so my questions are:
how do i help heal the bites (they look like bad mozzie bites, with one bad one - maybe a dubble bite on the back of his head within his hair line) and maybe take the itch out of them for the poor tacker?

i've spraied the carpet - i'll be getting DH to run over it with the Vac - whats something safe and possably natural that i can use to stop 'em comming back? (or at least try)

You can buy flea bombs for use inside the house, I'd be doing that all through the house (remove all your mattresses and bedding beforehand). I know it's not 'natural' but you really want to get on top of this infestation in one hit or it could go on for months/years.

Then get all your carpets steamcleaned ( you can do it yourself by hiring the machine) to remove/kill all the eggs etc.

Then I'd be speaking to the vet about the best flea product to use...some of the spot-on treatments just kills fleas, others have a residual effect that can kill eggs etc that your pet comes into contact with. Otherwise think about treating the outside areas that your cats hang around in, that might be the source of the problem.

I'll be watching here as we have just discovered the same problem on DS. WE have 2 dogs and a new kitten and I'm trying to figure out how to fix the situation without spending the earth as we're really broke at the moment...

MD thats the thing we steam cleaned the carpets about 3 weeks ago! :o so im thinking a flea bomb may be whats needed. last time we spraied/dusted/vac'd and steamed. so clearly we need to re-steam, maybe even find out if we can do the couches ect too...do you know with the flea bomb if you need to remove things like TV/stero/ speakers ect??

ella - treat all the pets then i guess a first step would be to get the house/carpet spray we bought and spray *everything* first time we did it i went though two bottles (one covers 15 sq meaters lol) and we didnt have an issue untill the last few days.

i think the fact we went away for 3 nights/ 4 days may have triggered it off also, becuase i've read that comming back from a holiday can trigger the flea eggs to crack or something. :wall: at least they seem to be going down!

:doh: oh sweety were having the very same problem atm with fleas im over them ive bathed the dog and cat in stuff i got the other day from the vets ..kills them in the bath but then they have fleas again .
the fleas are so bad dh went under the house and got attaked with millions of bloody fleas ,weve sprayed under there with the same dog wash LIKE GAMMA WASH still millions of fleas,i got them stupid flea bombs from the supermarket as far as im concerned they DID NOTHEN :shakehead:
i just dont know what to do either im suppose to be bringing my baby home in 3 weeks imagine leaving her on the floor :shakehead: im freaking out im not sure but i rekon its gotta do with the weather HOT THEN RAIN HOT THEN RAIN
these fleas are costing me a fortune now
fleas powder,gamma wash,new bedding for dog,my cat isnt aloud inside sooo ,
flea colors,flea bombs,baygon..
i dunno but goood luk hunny ill be waching this thread now

gee i better help with the bites to hey ?im so stupid sometimes . what about some calamine lotion or get some cream from the chemist or maybe there something you could get for the bath that might take out the itch ?.

We had the same problem, poor fred had little red marks everywyere :( I read somewhere that fleas don't like mint. So I got some mint leaves, crushed them up and put them in a spray bottle with hot water. I then sprayed the carpets, rugs and couches and mattresses and we haven't had any since then. That was about 4 months ago. It was really cheap easy and seems to have been really effective.

Hope you get rid of them soon

Fleas are nasty this time of year....

Flea bombs will get eggs, but it is ideal to vacuum before and after bombing the house. It will also get lounges etc, but I would personally remove bedding prior to bombing the house.

At the same time, I would use capstar, and then another product that is a monthly top spot for the pets or if you use frontline spray it could do as well.

Capstar will kill all the fleas on the animal for 24 hours, so it will stop an infestation in the midst within 3 hours, then you need a product that will last after that first 24 hours, and since it takes 24 hours for most top spots to start working, I would do that.

We had a flea outbreak here, and I put topspot on my dogs fortnightly. The fleas are in the dirt, so we are moving the chickens out the front yard to get the fleas and hopefully stop the cycle. Today I gave the dogs a bath and a rinse with permoxin (not safe with cats!) and will put a top spot on them tomorrow. Either permoxin or capstar will work wonders and capstar can be used on cats as well.

If you have carpets, you could google "borax" and "fleas" and find a remedy that you brush into your carpets at night and then vacuum up in the morning, but unfortunately this won't treat bedding or lounges etc which can often hold the eggs as well. Fleas will die if put through the wash cycle and the eggs will die in the dryer... so if you wash bedding that way, you should get rid of them there. If you have fleas in the garden then nothing will stop them entering the house if your animals are indoor/outdoor. You will have live adult fleas on an animal for a minimum of 3 hours no matter what treatment is on the animal.

For flea bites, you can treat the same as mozzie bites, calamine lotion works well as does a spot of vinegar. :hug: they aren't nice to see on your bubs.

ETA: smithy, gamma wash is supposed to not work anymore with fleas... but to treat dirt under the house sometimes you can do a borax solution, or a lime solution in dirt as long as its not raining :rolleyes: it doesn't work if its raining! Which is what brings out the fleas is the warmth after the rain....

PSS: flea eggs can hibernate for up to 12 months, so if you get them now, and then they may start up again next year... so keep up the flea treatment if you can environmental fleas...

We used the Flea, roach and spider bombs about 2 months ago in every room of the house and we have not had a prob since - we also threw out our old rug and bought anew sea greass rug with new pile so the fleas have not where to hide in it.

When you ude the bombs make shure you turn all appliances off and cover toys ect. I set mine all off then went out for the day and my mum opened all the windows after the 4 hrs and when we got home I vacced and wipped down all surfaces and the couch and it was AOK.

HTH
Kate