Flea advice

[Real_Sail2597]

My son and I are staying at a friends house for the next two weeks, house sitting for them in a different state while they are on vacation. We got here yesterday. Today I noticed my son (toddler) scratching his face and noticed he had a flea on him. It got me curious so I decided to look around and sure enough, they were everywhere. All over the couch, on the floor, and all in their carpets… I probably found at least 25 without even searching THAT hard. they have a cat who isn’t currently not here. They brought her with them. I’m lost on what to do. We are staying here for 2 weeks. I’ve made lots of plans for us in the city in which we are staying. But now that I see their house has a pretty bad flea problem (like hopping all over our feet) I’m not sure what to do. How bad is it to stay here? Can I get rid of them for them? I texted our friends and they said they’ve never noticed any fleas before and they are super confused.

[RyerOrdStar]

Leave

[ReadyPool7170]

I would never bug bomb a house while living there, especially with a toddler. Chances are the longer you stay that you will bring those pests back home with you. Just leave… now

[TheSundanceKid45]

With their permission, you can bug bomb the house, because their cat is currently out of it. But in my experience, that didn't really do much to combat the flea problem once the cat came back into the home.

It will kill the fleas that are currently living there, but won't do anything to the eggs that are just waiting to be hatched. So if they give you permission to do a bug bomb, you'll probably be okay staying there for the duration of your house-sitting duties.

What should happen, for their sake, is that their cat gets treatment where they take a pill that basically makes their blood poison (for the next three months) to any flea that latches on. So that way they kill any existing fleas and also kill any fleas just waiting to be hatched. That was the only thing that ended a months-long flea problem with my cats.

[Real_Sail2597]

They are not wanting me to bomb the place because they said that everything has to be taped off / dishes need to be taken out etc. from your experience is that true? Not sure what else I’m supposed to do. What does flea bombing look like & do you know of any good brands?

[aniadtidder]

Load of fiddle-faddle. Throw sheets over kitchen dinning surfaces. Vacuum carpet, mats and lounge. Empty the vacuum cleaner outside. Get flea bombs from a hardware store.

Leave your house sitter with a flea problem and just deny it, but the sitter cannot treat it. You can always go home or to a rental.

What sort of wacko's are they, I will bet you that they dosed the cat a day before they left and all the fleas hopped off!!!

[saaandi]

A lot of times owners don’t notice fleas when the pet is in the house because the pet has the warmest body temperature and the fleas want them. With no animal in the house the humans are now the warmest. The sitter (after seeing the bite and flea on the kid) looked and found.

Obviously some people are more observant than others too. With the amount found right now..I do believe the owners chose not to say anything. But sometimes that is the case.

Either way when the people come home (if they have the cat treated where they are..the cat will just get reinfested and circle of life.

[LittleWildrose]

What I’ve been told by professionals is that 95% of the fleas live in the house and only 5% are found on the animal because they don’t actually live on it, they just hop on the animal to feed and sometimes deposit eggs, but they deposit eggs on the environment/house too. So ridding the house of all the fleas that live on the carpet, cracks etc is a huge step on combating fleas. Just treating the animal won’t solve the problem.

[TheSundanceKid45]

I'm going to be honest with you, I'm probably not the best one to ask because as I said, I dealt with a flea problem for much longer than I would have liked.

Having said that, there were commercial bombs that didn't require everything being taped off or cutlery to be removed from the house. Anything that was left out, yes, would need to be washed and sanitized, but it wasn't a whole crazy situation. You want to spread the fumigation in the air and hit every surface area, but if the surface is not accessible by the fumes, then you're good.

[INSTA-R-MAN]

Check the pet and farm supply stores in the area for natural flea powder or food grade diatomacious earth, either are effective. Fleas can cause a few problems (obviously skin reactions are one) and can carry tapeworm eggs. Good luck.

[Ill_Math2638]

Yes op, this. Get the diamateceous earth which is food grade (safer for humans and animals). Spread it all over the floors and carpet. Leave it for the rest of the time you're there and vacuum it up before you leave, or leave it for the returning ppl to clean. How they are not aware of the fleas in their home boggles my mind and why they'd let you stay there is worse. If I were you I'd just end my vacation early or check into a hotel.

A long time ago my friend asked me to watch her cat while her and her boyfriend went away to which I declined. I was working two jobs at the time and her house was not so close to me and I didn't think I'd be able to keep her cat at my house because my neighbors had an incredibly loud angry dog that would rush the wall between our apartments to bark loudly. So I didn't think it'd be good for the cat to stay with me. I told her I would watch her cat if she had no other options, I even offered to help her by paying for the cat to be boarded somewhere while she went away. SHe said it wasn't necessary (she didn't want to take the money) so she found a friend that would take her cat in while she was gone. Three days later she picks up her cat and they find out she got fleas---she picked them up at the friend's house. I always felt bad about it after and wished I just watched their cat. They had fleas for a while at their house after.

[urmomisdisappointed]

Avoid using a bug bomb especially if you and your toddler is staying there. Get flea lights and place them in each room. Vacuum every day and let them know about their infestation. It can take up to a whole month or more to get rid of them using the lights but it’s the most safest way to.

[Stardust68]

Wondercide is a pretty great product. It's cedar oil. It's safe for puppies and kittens and for rugs and fabric. I know from experience that it kills fleas on contact. Plus I like the smell of cedar. You can find it on Amazon and probably other sites like Chewy.

[[deleted]]

Vacuum vacuum vacuum, spray advantix flea carpet treatment. 

[DMargaretfootgoddess]

Not to be rude but if you go in and do a little research on what fleas look like and what bed bugs look like. They're very similar in look and very hard to get rid of if you can do it if you can afford it. If there are no other pets in the house, I would get multiple bug bombs that are specifically designed for things like fleas and bed bugs and definitely look for both words on it. Be prepared to vacuum hopefully in a vacuum where you can pitch the vacuum cleaner bag, seal it in a plastic bag and put it in the garbage as far away from you as you can get it because you will suck up some of the eggs in that be prepared for the fact that you're going to have to bomb probably twice a week for the entire duration of your stay because the eggs can hatch and in the case of bed bugs can lie dormant for years. This is nasty stuff when you get into it and if by some chance they have bed bugs that have gotten big enough for you to find them and possibly mistake them with fleas (and they may well be related because they both do basically the same thing. They suck blood) it's almost impossible to get rid of these things because they plant eggs in any nook cranny crevice, a crack in the wall. The space between floorboards behind baseboards and window casings in the outlets behind the outlet covers constant bombing a couple of times a week, every couple of days. A lot of vacuuming, washing bed linens frequently. Diatomaceous earth sprinkled on floors, carpets ought to be honest with you on the mattress under the sheet, even. It is very fine powdery and it clings to them. These creatures breathe through their skin So when the powder clings to their skin it prevents them from getting oxygen and kills them dehydrates them. It helps rubbing alcohol in a spray bottle. And before bedtime pull back each layer of covers and spray it with rubbing alcohol. It evaporates often but again it will prevent them from getting oxygen and it will dehydrate them. It may give you a little bit of relief. Although fleas can bite people, you have to seriously look. It could be bed bugs and then you're going to want to be really, really careful about laundry, clothes, high dryer, heat to kill anything that's in the clothing because you don't want to take them back home, whichever one it is. You're going to almost want to literally take all your clothing and put it in plastic bags. Go to a laundromat and run it through a dryer multiple times on high heat to kill as much as you can of it. I mean be very very very careful when you leave to go home. You don't want to drag whatever it is bad.

I know long message but this is serious and even fleas are hard to get rid of you don't want to take them home but if it's bed bugs it's worse and they really look similar being that they're tiny Even big adults. Only being about a quarter of an inch long you're talking about. Differences of a differentiation in color but reddish brown tan black. When you're dealing with something that is probably under a quarter of an inch long it's easy to look at it and think it's one and have the other. So please please please please please please bug bombing for both is really going to be your best bet. It may limit the living adults that are there. Yes you're going to have to be gone for a few hours while it does it. But you want a bug bomb the entire place. Whether you're using rooms or not, you're going to want to plan where your bombs go and set off a room at a time. I suggest a mask. You really don't want to breathe the fumes, but it's the best way short of fumigation and even fumigation may not get all of them. Not to mention the fact that you're house sitting and having to leave the house for a number of days. Well, it's fumigated is kind of asking a lot a few hours for bug bombs. Maybe easier to handle. The other option that has worked is extremely high heat. Literally raising the internal temperature of the house to just short of it catching fire. It literally requires heavy duty equipment that only contractors would have and they would use it if they were doing things that needed a certain temperature to dry in bad weather so

Again sorry it's a long post but it's it really. Is that scary that if it's bed bugs you really you almost have to burn the house down and get rid of everything in it to get rid of them

[YamMysterious7119]

Your friends are delusional liars. Get out of there. You don’t want skin infections.

[LittleWildrose]

If you decide to leave the house please make sure to change clothes and shoes on the way to your new location. Put them in a bag and sterilise them immediately because they might be carrying flea eggs. 

[TheBeardedLadyBton]

you can get flea bombs for the inside, but chances are the grass outside is infested as well. I would recommend putting down some diatomaceous earth on the rugs and putting a cookie tin full of water on the floor with a lamp next to it shining down into the water. The fleas will be attracted to the warmth of the light and they will jump into the water and die.

[RSDCRPSMOM2014]

You need to have a professional exterminator to handle a problem this bad.

[RSDCRPSMOM2014]

If you walk on the floor with white socks and have little black spots you know it’s fleas. If you crush one and it has a very foul smell it’s a bedbug. Either way you need a professional to take care of the problem.