Eradicating fleas (and eggs) in empty house

[Colin Wilson]

One other possibility (I missed the earlier part of the thread) would be diatomaceous earth - it looks a little like sand, but is extremely sharp and happily carves slices out of fleas as they come into contact, so they dry up and die.

If the house has been vacant, the flea eggs may still be lying dormant, and will only hatch when they figure out there`s activity around them again.

If you are doing the house up and haven`t yet put carpeting down, it might be worth just sprinking some about to see if it helps.

Failing that, get a "sacrificial" cat and some decent flea killer (Frontline works great) and the problem should be resolved within a few weeks with any luck :-p

[Suz]

Gasp. Horror! Cover our Toastie's ears quick, hubby.

[Kay]

You could try DEFRA,

. Or do a search on altavista. Also diatomaceous earth is a fine powder, also called fullers earth, which kills insects by breaking down their waxy cuticles causing them to dehydrate. Talcum powder would have the same effect, as would silica.

[BAH]

The local council Pest Control turned up yesterday. No cost, and he tells me he is one of a team of 5 full-time employed in this sort of work that includes rats, foxes and wasp nests. He used something called FICAM that has 2 months of residual effect. He confirmed everything said here about fleas (eggs/pupa/larvae - he called it 'salt and pepper' which is what it looks like) lying dormant until activated by the vibrations of foot movements. They can survive for up to 18 months in a empty house, using their predecessors bodies as a source of food in the absence of a living host. This stuff will finish off live fleas and future hatchings in about

30 minutes of contact. He advised to wear white disposable overalls tucked into wellies and all covered with flea spray, long sleeves tucked into gloves and so on. He reckons then that fleas on the white material can be seen and zapped. I intend to start clearing the house next week, so attired! Thanks to all for your contributions. BAH

[SCAREY-B.HERE-ON-THE.NET]

interesting

through veterinary surgeons it is called.

VET-KEM .Acclaim 2000 i paid ten pounds for a 400ml tin and that will treat

140m2 i got a leaflet of my vet when my dog got them and it realy works .if you can not get it through your vet here are some details of the tin

MARKETED BY

SANOFI ANIMAL HEALTH LTD

7 AWBERRY COURT

HATTERS LANE, WATFORD ,HERTFORDSHIRE WD1 8YJ

TEL [phone]

[Sparks]

Sainsbury's sell a little spray can, that latches, and sprays upwards

Basically, you close all the windows and doors of the room you want to treat, sit this can in the middle of the room, press the trigger, then leg it out of the room - you can use multiple cans (they come in a pack of two) if the room is big.

Sparks...

[Jason Arthurs]

I found I had a problem with my shed one spring as the local cats seemed to have been using it as a doss house and it was running alive with fleas. I got a couple of smoke cones, they used to sell them in my local Tesco pet section. Light the cone, close all the doors and retire to the next county :-) The room (or in this case shed) fills with nasty smoke which supposedly kills all the fleas.

I swept out the shed and patched the gap where the moggies were sneaking in and no more flea problems (or cats).

The gap they squeezed in through was quite small, but it reminded me of something I saw when I was a kid. Some neighbours of ours had an old knackered car parked in their drive and in the winter I noticed the windows were steamed up. Looking inside every seat had a cat perched on it (they were the sort of family who never had their cats fixed and always had litters of kittens roaming around). They were creeping in through the hole where the gearstick usually entered, the gearbox having been removed long ago. When they moved out the council had to fumgate the entire house before they could move anyone else in.

Regards Jason.