I have an employee that is anti chemicals. He has an infestation of fleas in his house. We are in South Louisiana, way south. Below New Orleans. Sultry and hot. He had a cat. Said cat has expired. Fleas now are feeding on humans, etc. My guy doesn't want to do anything chemical to get rid of the fleas. What solutions? Besides moving? The house is up off the ground, built on pillars. Perry I will post this in several different forums so I apologize in advance for any redundance.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ List Manager: Puregold Goldfish List
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the problem, dont waste energy finding who's to blame ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Unfortunately, I receive no money, gifts, discounts or other compensation for all the damn work I do, nor for any of the endorsements or recommendations I make.
I read someplace that flees generally live in the carpet of houses. Tell your friend to vacuum his floors, furniture, and wash his bedding on a regular basis. He'll eventually get the upper hand.
Place a yellow light bulb into a goose-neck lamp and shine it over a pie pan filled with water and a few drops of detergent. Turn it on a night. The yellow light attracts the fleas and they jump to it and hit the water, sink and drown. It does work.
Place a yellow buglight bulb into a goose-necked lamp and shine it over a pie pan filled with water with a couple of drops of detergent. In the darken room the fleas are drawn to the yellow light and land in the water and sink. It does work. As an aside to get rid of the gnats associated with house plants coat a yellow plastic coffee can top with petroleum jelly and place it among the plants. Yellow draws them and they stick.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ List Manager: Puregold Goldfish List
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the problem, dont waste energy finding who's to blame ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Unfortunately, I receive no money, gifts, discounts or other compensation for all the damn work I do, nor for any of the endorsements or recommendations I make.
Oh my gawd.. fleas.. I HATE FLEAS.. I had NEVER seen a flea until some people moved in next door to me in 76 with a mangy flea ridden bitch that was pregnant. She had 7 pups, and they let the run the neighborhood.
Not long after that I was laying on the bed, basset hound I had .. a "blue" tan and white, so his hair was short. This was before the new "dump it on the back of the dog/cat" stuff was available. I saw this reddish brown thing crawl out of the dogs hair on his haunch and then back in. I thought they were lice. Oh if only it had been. I spent years with flea powder, flea shampoo, and there was NO winning. I had inside cats, and in/out dogs, and there was no way at that time that I could rid the animals of fleas for more than the short time that the flea powder (aka sevin dust carbyryl) was on the dogs or cats and they drooled and were miserable from it. Or until the flea shampoo was rinsed off and they were dried off and let loose.
You can kill the adult fleas, you can vacuum them up the pupae up, the eggs can be vacuumed up, but you never get them all, and if you have critters which go in and out of the house, they will always bring new fleas in with them. The fleas feed on the animal, hang around feeding until they're large enough to lay eggs, and they hop off and do so, in your carpet, furniture.. down deep in the couches and chairs where all the goodies are as the larvae feed on your shed skin, cookie/cracker crumbs, anything that is in there they eat, and then they pupate in the edges of your floors where the walls and floors meet, in the cracks of your furniture. All kinds of places.
Yes, when you vacuum for flea eradication, don't keep that bag in the vacuum! Toss it. Burn it if you live somewhere you can, because otherwise you're just populating another area with fleas, and once fleas are present they NEVER leave as they live outside on the squirrels, mice, other people's dogs and cats, and the feral dogs and cats.
I moved from that place and of course I brought the fleas with me. I fought them for years, and finally, I had to get rid of anything that went in and out of the house. I made sure that the dog was freshly shampooed and dusted so when he left, he shouldn't have taken any fleas with him. I had to flea bomb the house every 10 to 14 days for
2 times at least, but I did 3 because eggs don't die, short of burning them...so you have to kill the adults and then wait for the eggs to hatch and kill the larvae. And then make sure any animals are rid of their fleas. It was a horrible process.
Years later, I thought I could get a dog again. Bad move, it brought in fleas which killed my cats as I didn't notice the fleas in their long hair, and the dog I swear could poop on the run and wouldn't ever do it anywhere but IN the house, so I got rid of him, and when the cats died, the fleas which do prefer cats of dogs, would crawl out of the carpet and up onto my feet 20 or 30 at a time when I came home and sat down .. and believe me.. they had no qualms about biting me.. I still have the scars. I bombed and bombed and bombed again.
That was 15 years ago and I've never had another cat or dog that goes outside and comes inside. However, this past fall, a neighbor who had cats and dogs and fleas had borrowed a backgammon set and finally brought it back, complete with fleas again. I was soooo sick when I saw a flea on my cat! I am home bound, nearly bed bound, and my house is a mess from hell, and there is no way I could fix it.
Thankfully there is revolution! I got some and put it on the cat, and while it's bad that the cat has to be bitten to kill 'em but die they did, and yes more reappeared as the eggs hatched and larvae pupated, and they hatched,.. and they too died, and I put the stuff on the cat for 4 months, and there are no more fleas as it killed all of them. It also kills ear mites, and round worms and protects against heart worms.
I know that there are lots of things that people tout as something that will kill fleas, but .. there are always more. Sure lights will attract them, they will drown in water, I don't know that mothballs will kill fleas in vacuum cleaner bags.. throw them away burn them I say!! There's no way unless you have no more animals.. and you diligently daily vacuum every crevice, pull out the carpet, toss out the fabric couches.. or you have a very light infestation.. and if a light is catching them.. you don't have a light infestation. Treating the animals with revolution will kill anything that bites them and in that way, you will eventually get rid of them.
I was going to say I never saw the original post.. but just scrolled down and saw.. after all that typing. LOL Well if this is in Louisiana where there is no winter, good luck getting rid of them with no chemicals. If he never gets another pet inside, and he has no carpet/soft furniture, and washes EVERYTHING in hot water and dries in HOT dryer, maybe he'll reduce it if he's a real tidy housekeeper.. and at least sprays the piers on the house with oil or something to keep them from crawling up or at least smothers any there. Course that could make for a fire hazard if those are wood piers. But .. if the person is not wiling to put in the long term effort to trap, vacuum, wash, clean and do so over and over and over so long as he or anyone in there gets bit.
If he is bringing these fleas to work.. well then he's putting you at risk and anyone coming in there at risk as fleas carry diseases if any are present and there are a few cases of bubonic plague which kill folk around the country every year. One in florida a year or two ago. Think hers was related to a prairie dog an fleas.. bubonic plague wipes out colonies of prairie dogs regularly.. they go out and dump flea powder into their colonies often. .. and I do ramble on.. but I'd tell him.. Bomb the house a couple times 10 days apart..or ..quit, If I had to work with him and management wasn't aware I'd make them so, and I'd complain because he can infest the office, then each employee's home.. causing so much hassle at the VERY least. And far worse is possible.
My friend lives in Alabama. She got the in/out dog and indoor kitties and keeps it under control with Frontline. this stuff is a growth hormone that prevents fleas from maturing. If it is used all the time there wont be an infestation. my dogs always seem to come back from a trip to the vets with fleas.
yes, bubonic plague is spread by flea bites, but fleas from rodents, not cat or dog. keep the rodents out of your house, out of back yard if you are in the west. seems Bubonic only pops up in the west. Ingrid
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ List Manager: Puregold Goldfish List
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the problem, dont waste energy finding who's to blame ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Unfortunately, I receive no money, gifts, discounts or other compensation for all the damn work I do, nor for any of the endorsements or recommendations I make.
Saw a show on disease .. woman in Florida died from plague. Another woman had a prairie dog pet.. fleas on it .. bit her, nearly killed her. Today, you can never tell where stuff will pop up because of travel and shipping of critters.
Fleas have preferred hosts, but they'll bite any warm blooded creature handy if their preferred hosts are not handy. Dog fleas brought in by dogs killed cats and had no problem with biting me after cats and dogs were no longer available. Plus, fleas will show a preference among individuals if there's more than one available.
Fleas are evil! I hate 'em! Yeah, they're just doin' what they're designed to do, but I don't have to like it.
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