Pretty Big Flea Problem

[poetry]

hi! i'm new here and didn't really know where else to look for help in this, and i don't really know what to do.

so, background: for about two weeks now my roommate's cat has had these weird bumps on his neck, we never thought much about it, and when we checked we only saw scabs so we assumed it was allergies or something.

obviously, that was a big mistake.

it turns out we've had fleas this entire time and its gotten pretty bad. our floor is carpeted, to top this off. i'd try going downstairs with white socks and come back upstairs with about four fleas on my feet. we called pest control two days ago and my roommate went to the vet and put revolution on her cat, and my cat's been on it but i refreshed her dose since it was almost the end of her month; we've been keeping each cat isolated from the rest of the house in separate bathrooms, so things have calmed down..... a bit.

it's been about three days since i put revolution on my cat and i'm still finding fleas on her. it's not as bad as it used to be (they're mostly concentrated on her head/neck and underarm/stomach area) but i'm kind of concerned about revolution not having done the trick yet. i've tried flea combing but i can only get around 5 or 6 fleas in one session (she almost bites my hand off when i try to get to her stomach area, so that's really all i can find on her head/neck and back)

meanwhile the rest of the house is still full of baby fleas!? they aren't full sized but they're tiny and they're everywhere (i'm still picking them off of my socks whenever i go downstairs) we've been vacuuming every day since pest control came in and i've cleaned every last sheet and pillow i own. i've ordered some Precor spray that's supposed to get here this week but i'm concerned it won't be enough

so.. where should i go from here? in regards to house and cat? i've been avoiding bathing my cat because i've never had to do so in the 5 years i've had her (and.... she's a himalayan) but at this point i'm concerned the revolution isn't doing enough. i'm traveling in about a month and i'm concerned i'll still be dealing with a small ocean of fleas by then.

 

[orange&white]

I went through an entire Summer of Flea Hades in 1994 when I brought in an 8 week old feral kitten who was infested, and I owned 2 domestic cats at the time.

The exterminator should have given you a guarantee to get rid of the fleas for one price up front, no matter how many trips they have to make out to your house. (In 1994, I think BugMaster came out about 4 times over the course of late-Spring through Summer.)

The spray the exterminator used probably had an insect growth regulator (IGR) which is supposed to prevent eggs from hatching. Didn't work in 1994...flea eggs kept hatching every 3-4 weeks, and they'd come spray again.

The fourth time the exterminator came out, he left me a bottle of Precor and said that was essentially the product that they use. That fourth time was a charm, and I never had to use the Precor.

If you do need to use the Precor, just make sure to keep any kitties out of the room as long as possible, at minimum until you are absolutely certain that the spray has dried. It's ideal to spray the whole house at one time, but with cats, you're just going to have to move them from room to room.

The Revolution should also help sterilize the fleas so their eggs won't hatch while you go through a process of getting all the existing "fertilized" eggs from hatching in the carpet and home fabrics. It's not a fun adventure, that's for sure!

If the cats are currently itching/scratching themselves crazy, there's a pill you can give them that will kill every live flea on them within 24 hours...usually starts working within an hour. I think it's called Capstar.

 

[poetry]

I went through an entire Summer of Flea Hades in 1994 when I brought in an 8 week old feral kitten who was infested, and I owned 2 domestic cats at the time.

The exterminator should have given you a guarantee to get rid of the fleas for one price up front, no matter how many trips they have to make out to your house. (In 1994, I think BugMaster came out about 4 times over the course of late-Spring through Summer.)

The spray the exterminator used probably had an insect growth regulator (IGR) which is supposed to prevent eggs from hatching. Didn't work in 1994...flea eggs kept hatching every 3-4 weeks, and they'd come spray again.

The fourth time the exterminator came out, he left me a bottle of Precor and said that was essentially the product that they use. That fourth time was a charm, and I never had to use the Precor.

If you do need to use the Precor, just make sure to keep any kitties out of the room as long as possible, at minimum until you are absolutely certain that the spray has dried. It's ideal to spray the whole house at one time, but with cats, you're just going to have to move them from room to room.

The Revolution should also help sterilize the fleas so their eggs won't hatch while you go through a process of getting all the existing "fertilized" eggs from hatching in the carpet and home fabrics. It's not a fun adventure, that's for sure!

If the cats are currently itching/scratching themselves crazy, there's a pill you can give them that will kill every live flea on them within 24 hours...usually starts working within an hour. I think it's called Capstar.

hmm okay! i was thinking about calling the exterminator back at the end of the week, i think i'm definitely gonna do it now. thank you for the tip!

i'm not too worried about having to move the cats around, we've been keeping them confined to the bathrooms since we don't really know how many fleas they have or how many fleas the rest of the house has. but it definitely makes the endless vacuuming process a lot easier!

and yeah, i was thinking about getting capstar but when i went to petsmart to get some i was told that i should avoid using it in conjunction with the revolution because it would probably be way too many chemicals, so i didn't want to take that risk.

 

[DeannaF]

The pest control company should come out in multiple stages as the egg to flea cycle can be once every week. So the first time he comes to spray it will kill the adults but the eggs that are waiting to hatch need to be treated once they do hatch.. should be repeated at the least 3 times.

Most of the flea meds take time to work but Capstar does work within 30 minutes but like the advice you were given..I don't think I'd mix the 2. However, on the Capstar instructions, it does say you can give antoher dose a day after the first dose so I'd think you'd be fine.

 

[Ardina]

I can't recommend diatomaceous earth (DE) highly enough. But make sure it's the food grade one, not pool grade! Last summer, my cat and I were being eaten alive by fleas, and with DE, I got rid of the problem in one weekend. DE is a white powder that works by microscopically cutting and dehydrating the fleas. So this is how you do it:

1) Start in the evening: vacuum everything to get as many fleas to hatch as possible. Make sure you move furniture and get places that you don't normally vacuum.
2) Lay down a thin coat of DE, and work it into the base of the carpet with a stiff-bristled broom. Again, make sure you get places under furniture that you don't normally vacuum)\. This is going to be messy and can irritate lungs, so I kept my cat in the bathroom while I worked.
3) Give your cats capstar to kill all the adult fleas and keep them off for 24 hrs. I had my cat on Advantage, but it didn't seem to be working all that well. I gave the capstar while she was on Advantage, and it didn't seem to cause any problems.
4) Leave the DE down overnight. It's fine if you let your cats out at this point. Even if they get DE on them and ingest it as they groom, it won't do any harm. And as the fleas jump off because of the capstar, they'll fall onto the DE and die.
5) The next morning, confine cats in bathroom while you get the rest of the house flea-free.
6) Toss all cardboard scratchers and similar things that can't be washed. I suppose you could use DE on the sisal post type scratcher since those are more expensive.
7) Wash pretty much everything you can in hot water - clothes, cat bedding, your bedding, curtains, and anything else cloth-like.
8) Vacuum up the DE. Though you may want to use a shop-vac or a cheap vacuum because the fine dust can get into the motor and kill your vacuum. I was able to get by with a cheap vacuum that I emptied often to keep it from seizing up. When vacuuming, don't bother moving the furniture - anyplace you wouldn't normally vacuum, just leave the DE down to keep working.
9) At this point, now that you've decontaminated the rest of the house, flea comb your cats in the bathroom to make sure you don't have a single adult flea left. If you can, give them a bath (if not, don't worry - I wasn't able to bathe my cat, and it worked out fine). Also decontaminate your bathroom by wiping down all the surfaces with your normal cleaning agent.
10) Now that you've killed off the adult fleas, you need to make sure you kill each wave of fleas as they hatch. The DE that you left in the corners and under furniture should take care of a good number of them. Vacuuming every day should get rid of most of the rest (and don't forget to vacuum cat trees). Keep flea combing your cats every day as well to catch a resurgence early.

And that's it! I never saw a single flea after that weekend, and hopefully you won't either.

 

[poetry]

The pest control company should come out in multiple stages as the egg to flea cycle can be once every week. So the first time he comes to spray it will kill the adults but the eggs that are waiting to hatch need to be treated once they do hatch.. should be repeated at the least 3 times.

Most of the flea meds take time to work but Capstar does work within 30 minutes but like the advice you were given..I don't think I'd mix the 2. However, on the Capstar instructions, it does say you can give antoher dose a day after the first dose so I'd think you'd be fine.

i didn't get any guarantee from the pest control company (granted it was the one my apartment complex provided, so my expectations weren't too high to begin with...) but it was cheap so i think i'd be willing to do it again.

and okay! i think i'll call my vet to double check and make sure but that does sound like a good plan. thank you!

I can't recommend diatomaceous earth (DE) highly enough. But make sure it's the food grade one, not pool grade! Last summer, my cat and I were being eaten alive by fleas, and with DE, I got rid of the problem in one weekend. DE is a white powder that works by microscopically cutting and dehydrating the fleas. So this is how you do it:

1) Start in the evening: vacuum everything to get as many fleas to hatch as possible. Make sure you move furniture and get places that you don't normally vacuum.
2) Lay down a thin coat of DE, and work it into the base of the carpet with a stiff-bristled broom. Again, make sure you get places under furniture that you don't normally vacuum)\. This is going to be messy and can irritate lungs, so I kept my cat in the bathroom while I worked.
3) Give your cats capstar to kill all the adult fleas and keep them off for 24 hrs. I had my cat on Advantage, but it didn't seem to be working all that well. I gave the capstar while she was on Advantage, and it didn't seem to cause any problems.
4) Leave the DE down overnight. It's fine if you let your cats out at this point. Even if they get DE on them and ingest it as they groom, it won't do any harm. And as the fleas jump off because of the capstar, they'll fall onto the DE and die.
5) The next morning, confine cats in bathroom while you get the rest of the house flea-free.
6) Toss all cardboard scratchers and similar things that can't be washed. I suppose you could use DE on the sisal post type scratcher since those are more expensive.
7) Wash pretty much everything you can in hot water - clothes, cat bedding, your bedding, curtains, and anything else cloth-like.
8) Vacuum up the DE. Though you may want to use a shop-vac or a cheap vacuum because the fine dust can get into the motor and kill your vacuum. I was able to get by with a cheap vacuum that I emptied often to keep it from seizing up. When vacuuming, don't bother moving the furniture - anyplace you wouldn't normally vacuum, just leave the DE down to keep working.
9) At this point, now that you've decontaminated the rest of the house, flea comb your cats in the bathroom to make sure you don't have a single adult flea left. If you can, give them a bath (if not, don't worry - I wasn't able to bathe my cat, and it worked out fine). Also decontaminate your bathroom by wiping down all the surfaces with your normal cleaning agent.
10) Now that you've killed off the adult fleas, you need to make sure you kill each wave of fleas as they hatch. The DE that you left in the corners and under furniture should take care of a good number of them. Vacuuming every day should get rid of most of the rest (and don't forget to vacuum cat trees). Keep flea combing your cats every day as well to catch a resurgence early.

And that's it! I never saw a single flea after that weekend, and hopefully you won't either.

i'd heard so many mixed reviews about DE that i didn't really know whether or not i should go for it, but the fact that it's really safe for cats is incredibly reassuring and you've got me sold on it. this sounds like an excellent plan, as we are currently being eaten alive (i have around 20 bites in each foot!?) and i'd be willing to try anything as long as it doesn't pose a risk for the cats!

also, would a cheap vacuum still be able to get all of it out? i have a pretty cheap one that i never use because it doesn't really get rid of cat hair from the carpet, but if it would still do the trick it would be perfect.

thank you so much for the advice!

 

[Ardina]

The fact that it's safe for cats is what led me to try it. The flea meds are bad enough without bombing the whole place in poison...

The cheap vacuum gets most of it out. Just empty it often - at least a couple of times per room - to make sure it doesn't die before you're done. I used my good vacuum afterwards to get the little bit that was left.

Oh, one more thing - if you have a canister type vacuum, make sure you empty the canister outside and get it out of the house ASAP, or the fleas will just crawl out and re-infest your house. If it's a disposable bag type, get rid of the bags quickly. I actually just left the canister outside my back door for the whole infestation whenever I wasn't actively vacuuming. Hope this helps!

 

[poorsasha]

hi! i'm new here and didn't really know where else to look for help in this, and i don't really know what to do.

so, background: for about two weeks now my roommate's cat has had these weird bumps on his neck, we never thought much about it, and when we checked we only saw scabs so we assumed it was allergies or something.

obviously, that was a big mistake.

it turns out we've had fleas this entire time and its gotten pretty bad. our floor is carpeted, to top this off. i'd try going downstairs with white socks and come back upstairs with about four fleas on my feet. we called pest control two days ago and my roommate went to the vet and put revolution on her cat, and my cat's been on it but i refreshed her dose since it was almost the end of her month; we've been keeping each cat isolated from the rest of the house in separate bathrooms, so things have calmed down..... a bit.

it's been about three days since i put revolution on my cat and i'm still finding fleas on her. it's not as bad as it used to be (they're mostly concentrated on her head/neck and underarm/stomach area) but i'm kind of concerned about revolution not having done the trick yet. i've tried flea combing but i can only get around 5 or 6 fleas in one session (she almost bites my hand off when i try to get to her stomach area, so that's really all i can find on her head/neck and back)

meanwhile the rest of the house is still full of baby fleas!? they aren't full sized but they're tiny and they're everywhere (i'm still picking them off of my socks whenever i go downstairs) we've been vacuuming every day since pest control came in and i've cleaned every last sheet and pillow i own. i've ordered some Precor spray that's supposed to get here this week but i'm concerned it won't be enough

so.. where should i go from here? in regards to house and cat? i've been avoiding bathing my cat because i've never had to do so in the 5 years i've had her (and.... she's a himalayan) but at this point i'm concerned the revolution isn't doing enough. i'm traveling in about a month and i'm concerned i'll still be dealing with a small ocean of fleas by then.

I feel your pain. I used to use frontline, but that stopped working and I switched to Advantage. With my new cat, advantage wasn't working for more than 2-3 weeks and the flea population grew quickly. I got her on comfortis which worked fantastic. We had our house exterminated. They told us to vacuum daily and not wash floors for 3 weeks. Also keep your vacuum bag outside somewhere out of the house because fleas will crawl out into your house again and put a cut up flea collar in the bag to kill any fleas you vacuum up. I got so desperate after still seeing flea eggs and pupa that I dumped food-grade diatomaceous earth on the floors and vacuumed up the next day. I got fleas in my car and office as well. It was a nightmare. I don't see fleas anymore, but I just sprayed my car and office this weekend with spring coming. Good luck.

 

[red top rescue]

You can use Advantage II as often as once a week. In summer in the south, I use it every 3 weeks, which is the basic flea life cycle. In addition, while Advantage was getting the small fleas and larvae, there were some big giant DOG fleas on my cats (they go out) that took days to disappear, so I used nitenpyram (capstar - there are lots of different brands out there now) and it knocked out those big suckers overnight. It is perfectly safe to use with Advantage according to my vet, and that's the only topical I will use. In addition, I do use DE generously around the house.

 

[basscat]

DE is NOT going to solve anything in one weekend, one week, one month, or even two months. Unless your goal is a house full of dust. And I mean there will be dust EVERYWHERE.
Nobody makes a call and gets rid of an infestation in a few days.
It takes weeks to months be flea free from an infestation. And if you are getting fleas on your socks, inside your house? You have an infestation.

Move everything and vacuum everything and every where.
Spray Precor on everything and everywhere also. ESPECIALLY near corners and walls and edges of anything.
Vacuum again the next day. Then begin vacuuming every other day.
One week later, Vacuum, and Precor again...Repeat the every other day vacuuming.
Do this for 6 weeks. And expect to STILL see a few fleas for a few more weeks.

6 weeks is like winning the battle and just walking away leaving the wounded enemy out there to perish on their own.
If you went ahead and Precore/Vacuum for two more weeks. It'd be like you won the battle in six weeks and decided to walk the battle field and put the enemy our of it's misery yourself.

After that, Vacuum/Precore/Vacuum the floors once every other month. No new fleas will ever take hold and cause a problem that way.

Bathe pets and apply topical. Reapply topical every 30 days. About 10 days after the 2nd application, you shouldn't find any more fleas on your cat unless they JUST got on them. And if they did JUST get fleas on them? Those won't be able to survive on your cat, or, in your house.

It's not the last thing you did that got rid of the fleas.
It's the 1st thing you did.
If anybody tells you what "finally" worked? You should ask them what they started with, because that's what actually worked.

Precor is good. PT Ultracide is good. Most any flea spray stuff will work if you spray it once a week and vacuum every other day for 6 to 8 weeks.
DE will work if you're a glutton for punishment. No way you're going to ever vacuum it all out of your carpet though. WHICH, is good because it has to be there, for quite some time, to work.
Be prepared to have year round allergy symptoms though.

 

[Ardina]

Well, basscat is certainly right about the house full of dust part. Yes, DE is a pain to clean up, but it did work for me. Months of infestation, and I'd tried spot-on advantage, flea traps, vet's best flea and tick spray, and constant vacuuming, but the problem was only getting worse. I'd pick off dozens of fleas off my cat every single day and probably missed a bunch more. DE was the only thing that worked to get rid of most of them in one shot, but you definitely have to keep vacuuming for weeks afterwards to make sure they don't come back. So, I think we'll have to agree to disagree on DE, basscat.

But I didn't know about Precor then and would probably have tried that first before trying DE. So thanks for the info in case I get another infestation!

 

[basscat]

If you have a thousand fleas in your house and spray to kill them. You will kill most of them and a flea trap will confirm this.
For about a day. Each day a few thousand more hatch out, some of which die from the residual spray. Some don't.
For about another day. Then more hatch.
Leaves a person with the impression that fleas are immune to sprays, and sprays do nothing but FEED fleas.

Vacuuming non-stop sucks up some of the live ones, which helps. But, mostly the vibration from the vacuum makes them hatch faster than just doing nothing. And the faster you can turn pre-fleas into live fleas? The faster you can kill them.
What most people do is EVERYTHING they can for a month, killing lives ones, with new ones emerging everyday...thus making it appear nothing is working.
Then, after a month or so, a person has made such a dent, that the fleas are dwindling. Leaving one to believe they tried EVERYTHING, but, that LAST "stuff" made a real difference.
It wasn't that last stuff though. It was the 1st stuff that worked.

Killing fleas is easy. Buy a vacant carpeted house. Walk in and it wreaks of WAY TOO MANY PETS. Your feet get covered in fleas. You want to remove the carpet and gut the house, but, there's NO WAY you're going to do that with the hoard of fleas, lice, and who knows what else.
Solution: Spray yourself and RUN through the house with a few cans of Precor or PT Ultracide. Before leaving, set off a fogger in each room as well.
Do nothing else.
Come back in 30 days and do it again.
Do nothing else.
Come back in 30 days and there will be NO fleas.

We make this difficult ourselves because we are having to live with fleas and want them gone NOW! And that's just not possible. Spraying once a week and vacuuming every other day speeds up the process, but, not by much.
The vacant house method will work in your home also. But, NOBODY can stand to just not do anything like that.

 

[shannon1984]

I didn't read all the above tips but I will add my two cents worth from experience because there is nothing more horrifying than the fear that you'll never get rid of a flea infestation. Don't panic. Your methods will work. It always takes time to fully get rid of them once you have an infestation (regardless of what you use to fight them).

I had Scamp (my best friend) 2 summers ago and also let in a feral cat who caused a massive flea infestation. I treated them both at the first sign of fleas but failed to retreat so fleas came back fairly quickly on the feral (he kept coming to eat but would only stay during bad weather). Months later I wound up infested. I sprayed and sprayed with hot shot bed bug and flea spray (aerosol and bombs). Scamp died right before the worst of the infestation (he had medical issues so it was coming). Soon after he was gone I left for 2 months. When I came back all the fleas were gone.

It was now winter and I found a Facebook post for kittens needing homes. The cats were only 6 weeks and the mom was a stray the couple wanted to keep but they appeared to have drug issues. I met them at a public place to pick up the last 2 kittens (fluffy and orange like Scamp). I knew I didn't want the hell of infestation so I bought 6 doses of PetArmour. Come spring I was busy, couldn't find where i'd stored it while they were too young, and put it off. I kept wondering how they'd made it from 6 weeks through winter and into spring without us getting fleas. Unfortunately Igmo got hit by a car. That very day I dug out the PetArmour feeling like a bad pet parent who just wasn't ever going to get it right. I treated Munchie (the other brother) and he got sick. I thought he was grieving his brother until day 2 when he had become catatonic. He almost died. I took the PetArmour back to Sam's and explained it nearly killed my cat. I remained terrified of treating him afterward.

Come May I added 2 kittens and somehow went all summer last year with no fleas. I couldn't explain it. It was like god knew I was terrified of treating them and spared me though deep down I knew there was more to it than that.

In January we started to get fleas. By the time I started spraying the infestation was already starting. I sprayed with flea spray at first for 2 weeks. By the end of those 2 weeks it was no better so I again bought the Hot Shot Bed Bug and Flea (because it fights eggs, larvae and HELPS prevent more rounds of baby fleas). Regular flea spray treats the adults but then the eggs hatch and you get swarmed by babies. It took 3-4 more weeks after I started spraying with the egg spray.

Right when I was about to give up and call a professional I read an article about flea infestations in abandoned homes. It basically confirmed my suspicions that the reason I'd gone so long without fleas was only because of how heavily I sprayed during the first infestation. The treatment was still working for many months afterward. It also confirmed my suspicions about why it takes so long to see treatment results once you have an infestation. The fleas have to move around in the "poison" for it to work. Fleas can go dormant. When you have an infestation fleas have populated every imaginable area of your home. Fleas in an abandoned home that's been sprayed will go dormant because of no host (human or animal) activity. They can survive in a treated home for months to years by going dormant. It's like hibernation. They do the same thing closed off closets, rooms, etc in our homes. In our homes there's enough activity to draw them out but we have to suffer through several weeks of struggle while eggs in hard to reach places keep hatching. If we are infested by the tme we treat there will be tons of eggs the poison doesn't reach. Only activity in the treatment will kill the new swarms. We also prolong that struggle when we close off areas of our home.

My infestation went away after about 6-7 weeks from initial treatments without professional help. It just took time to draw out all the fleas and recurring hatchlings so they'd be exposed to the treatment.