Apologies for the ot post, but I thought someone might be able to help.
Basically the whole family has been repeatedly bitten by fleas, a doctor has identified them as fleas.
He thinks we need to clean more, my wive cleans very thoroughly. I reckon there is some beast flea laying eggs rf what haves yous.
Any idea of a spray/power/ or one of those bomb things you can use to kill the gits. Its an unbearable itch! from the bites.
We had this problem when we first moved into our present home. We put it down to the previous woman encouraging semi feral cats as well as her own two or three and a dog. Oh, and my missus had her leg in plaster and got some bites inside the plaster......
In the end, we called Environmantal Health at the local council. They sent a guy who visited two or three times and sprayed some insecticide in each room.
Where you live can have a bearing as well, especially if you're near open fields.. They may not be fleas but harvest mites, and yes I know it's not harvest but they're active all through summer. We've had a couple of years when they've played up. Just need to keep any animals treated and get some carpet flea powder.
Household flea sprays at
AIUI, typical sprays kill all these except the pupae. You therefore have to do the treatment, wait two weeks, and then repeat it. By then, any pupae will have hatched to adult fleas and you can thus kill them and any eggs they may have laid.
Anyone know if the "bombs" are available in this country? I used to use them in the US, very convenient. They are essentially spray cans where the nozzle shoots straight up and can be latched. So you set them and go out for a few hours, then air the house. I lived very near the Alameda de las Pulgas (Flea Street), so I was doing this about once a year.
Vets can usually provide appropriate sprays. One for the infested animals and one to treat carpets and furnishings to kill the eggs.
Local council is cheapest way to treat the house. Sounds like you have a population explosion. If there are no pets to feed them they will turn to people.
You didn't say if you have pets. IME cat fleas are more likely to bite people (or at least, cause noticeable bites) than dog fleas. But for either animal, treat with Frontline and that will (eventually) clear the house as well as keeping the pets clear. Slightly cheaper at Crufts or on the web than standard vet / pet shop.
What a crap opinion! I hope he knows more about medicine than he does about household pests! You needed a pet shop, not a doctor!
We once came back from holiday (I shudder at this thought even now), and the house was infested. I had my white running socks on, and no shoes, and we could count the bastards crawling up my socks!
Cause: Our, and next door's, cat had got fleas earlier in the year. They (the fleas) had left eggs and larvae around all over. When they hatched, there were no cats around to jump on to (both in catteries), so they jumped on the first warmblooded creatures to appear: us.
Solution: sprays as described in the previous posts in this thread: they really did work (and were applied with an enthusiasm born of sheer terror).
John
Contact the Channel 4 people, they'll probably do it for free provided you appear on that new down-dumbed Sarah Beeney property programme ...
Nick
If you can get one somewhere, a dichlorvos based vapona slow release thing works wonders. But they're banned now :( apparently we're better off being infested, and incapable of making such grown up decisions ourselves.
NT
Ditto.
We called Rentokil, since he could come that afternoon whereas it was some days for the (free) council chappie. He sprayed, we never got bitten again.
yep. its pretty simple.
Get the animals done first..the dab on the back of the nexk stuff works well.
As for the house,its really simple.
You can get sprays - spray the whole room, bedding the lot. Shut door and wait.
Anything that hatches will die. you will get small bites for up to 6 weeks - maybe more - as the bugs hatch, but they die quickly.
In article , Huge writes
It was a while ago but it was less than I expected.
A few fly by night operators I called at the same time quoted 1/3-1/2 the price to treat just the 1 room that was showing the problem at the time.
Small itchy bites in small groups usually, which don't start to itch until many hours after being bitten.
Do you have carpets?
You can get an idea of how widespread they are by walking through your house wearing white socks. If you end up with several fleas on the socks (black specs that leap off as you try and touch them) then you have a problem.
There are various products you can get to treat the house (try Wilkinsons), but in my case they weren't completely effective (fleas introduced by cats into fully carpeted house). I had to walk around in wellington boots at lot of the time (otherwise I'd get up to 30 bites per foot).
In the end I sold the house, although the problem had partly diminished of it's own accord by then (I also spent a lot of time on holiday...)
I get a "surface spay" similar to ordinary permethrin fly spray. It costs more but leaves the surfaces wet and lasts a week or two. Spray the floors in the whole house. Repeat every week. It may take three or four times to kill the newly hatched fleas.
Yup, permethrin flea spray works for me. Don't buy it from a vet, though, as there is often a large mark-up.
Strangely, I've found chemistdirect.com a good source; they do cat treatment too.
That sounds like very slow broadband: have you checked the wires to the master socket?
Nick
HA HA HA HA HA!!! :-D vbg
Odd you should say that, as I'd originally written 30 bytes per foot...
1 can of VetKem Acclaim will spray the whole house. Available in some branches of Boots (£12.99), from any Vet, or online. If you don't like pesticides, then you need to provide an alternative source of heat and food. get an old 1 or 2 bar parabolic electric fire at a boot sale for a couple of quid and heat the affected room with it. The fleas will be attracted to this nice source of heat and exterminate themselves when they jump onto the nice red-hot bar.
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