Dear All,
The weather is getting hot. Recently we have noticed there maybe fleas in our carpet. We don't want to replace the carpet, because that is several thousand dollars. I am wondering if there are some other ways to deal with it.
We don't have pets in our home. But the previous owner has one. We bought the house and moved in two years ago.
Many thanks.
There is a spray onthe market that you can apply and it will get rid of them
There are foggers on the market for that purpose. They're easy to use.
Cheri
In article , snipped-for-privacy@xxx.com says... :) Dear All, :) :) The weather is getting hot. Recently we have noticed there maybe fleas :) in our carpet. We don't want to replace the carpet, because that is :) several thousand dollars. I am wondering if there are some other ways to :) deal with it. :) :) We don't have pets in our home. But the previous owner has one. We :) bought the house and moved in two years ago. :) :) Many thanks. :) :) If you have fleas you have to have a host animal. Two years after the pets are gone is too long for the fleas to continue. If you have fleas inside there will be no mistake, you will see them on you. If you are seeing a small hopping insect, it may be springtails, very common this time of year. They will be greyish rather than jet black and will easily squash with a finger where fleas are hard to smash.
The easiest carpet treatment is to get an aerosol from a pet store, vet or dog groomer that you apply directly to the carpet and it should contain what is called an IGR. The spray directly kills the adult flea and the IGR keeps the eggs from hatching and the larva from developing into the biting adult. There will be a little residual that will kill the new adults that show up from the protected pupa (cocoon) stage. Vacuum as much as you can until you are sick of your vacuum, the vibration helps stimulate the adults to emerge from the cocoon stage and the sooner they emerge the sooner they are gone.
If you are having fleas you need to address the host. It will be a stray or wild animal living in the attic or under the crawl. In these situations you can treat the carpet as much as you want and you will be having fleas for they need to be addressed at the source (attic or crawl) and you will probably need a pro to properly treat those areas.
I had a neighbour with a flea-ridden cat (duplex house) and my unit was infested with them for several years after the cat left. The fleas don't live very long, but the flea eggs can lie dormant for a long time.
Mike
use a vacuum cleaner a couple of times. Make absolutely sure the flea aren't on any clothing, bedding, or pets.
In article , snipped-for-privacy@foo.bar says... :) I had a neighbour with a flea-ridden cat (duplex house) and my unit was infested :) with them for several years after the cat left. The fleas don't live very long, but :) the flea eggs can lie dormant for a long time. :) :) :) Well the eggs will hatch within a couple of weeks, it is the the pupa stage that can stay dormant for an extended period of time, over 9 months have been reported. If there was a continual flea problem it was brought in from strays, rodents or other wild animals.
long, but
Yeah, and the fleas will die two days later without a host.
You have to kill the bastards, then wait a couple of weeks and do it again. The first time will nuke the mature fleas. Waiting two weeks to do it again will allow the eggs to hatch but not give them enough time to sexually mature. That way you break the reproduction cycle.
I'm rather fond of insect bombs you set and leave for a few hours. I set off several of them and go to work. When I come home the little beggars are all dead.... at least that's what I used to do when I had a cat. I haven't had a summertime flea problem in many years. My dog doesn't seem to have the problem.
My vote is for the bomb/fogger....and do yourself a favor and do the whole house.
bonnie in PA
In article , snipped-for-privacy@comcast.net says... :) My vote is for the bomb/fogger....and do yourself a favor and do the :) whole house. :) :) The down fall of the foggers is that you have to leave after treatment for a few hours and may only be killing the exposed adults, doing nothing to the eggs or larvae or any adults that may of crawled away from the air flow. Where with the aerosol carpet sprays the IGR is in the product and you can be assured that you are placing where it is needed and depending on the products time away can be just a few minutes, almost a dry application along with there is a residual so one treatment is longer lasting. And I have never heard of anyone blowing up a house with the aerosols as they do with foggers...which can be a bonus.
Sevin dust, leave for a few days, vacuum.
Hello, Hint from Heloise has a great option. Totally natural, use moth balls... crush a bag of moth balls in a zip lock bag, once crushed sprinkle on the carpet. Leave on for a bit, vaccum up. Throw the old bag away add a few moth balls to the new bag. Open the windows because the smell may be a bit overpowering. My old roommate had an outside cat that would come into his room, when he moved he left me all the fleas... It worked great. Chili chick
Before we used the topical stuff for our cat, our house was full of fleas. At the same time the vet ordered topical stuff, he sold us a cannister of boric acid to use on carpets. It was to be sprinkled on the carpet, left for a week, and then vacuumed up. As it turned out, we didn't need to use the boric because the topical flea medicine for the cat did the trick. We tried everything under the sun prior to that, and nothing worked. Killing the live fleas can leave a lot of eggs, which hatch in about 3 days. The boric left down for a week would have gotten the newly hatched ones. I think it is probably available at a pet store, and I would dispose of the vacuum bag as soon as the stuff is cleaned up.
Eggs of fleas can stay unhatched for a very long time. The vibration from vacuuming can cause them to hatch. You can get chemicals that are safe to spray on your furniture. carpet, and other infected areas.
I had a dog and 3 cats that I found dropped off in our area. I took them in and got fleas really bad.
I went to my local do it yourself pest control company and used what they recommended.; I haven't had fleas in 3 years. Here is a link to some informaiton for it.
I found this works very well in my home to get rid of our flea problem in early summer. I sprinkle borax power on the carpet we leave it overnight and vac the next day it kills the eggs by drying them out. I have been using this for 5 years now and it has worked great. The local pest control told me this is what he uses in homes for families that can't take the harsh chemical smell.
"ibmtech" wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@a14g2000cwb.googlegroups.com:
I bought a gallon spray jug from Home Depot for $10,containing the insect growth regulator,and it works great,and doesn't smell.Enforcer Flea Spray.
And it also kills palmetto bugs.
Borax is NOT a safe benign chemical.
Borax can be absorbed through the skin and lungs and cause severe abdominable cramping and gastric disturbances in susceptible individuals. No kidding.
When you vacuum the carpet, a lot of the powder goes right through the filter bag and becomes airborn in a fine dust which penetrates deeply into your lungs.
Open the windows on a breezy day and wear an appropriate respirator.
"Ether Jones" wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@m79g2000cwm.googlegroups.com:
Well,first,to kill bugs,you want BORIC ACID,not "Borax",the laundry booster;they are two different chemicals.
I would not dust my carpet with either of them.
Borax is so widely used it is virtually impossible to avoid exposure. In some countries, it is even used in food. It can be used to control fleas and carpenter ants. While some people feel it is very toxic, in fact it has about the same toxicity as table salt (LD50 toxicity around 3,000 mg/kg body mass, if Wikipedia is to be believed).
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