How to de-flea a house?

luckycat99

Hi

My cat has fleas and we need to treat the house. I have given him Frontline spot on. But the rugs, beds etc need to flea sprayed. The vet sold me some Acclaim spray. He said that I need to spray all the floors (wooden), skirting boards, sofas, beds etc.

I'm wondering how to go about it since I've never had to do it before. The vet said that flea eggs are sticky and might stick to you as you walk around the house. So does that mean that we will have to spray the whole house all at exactly the same time i.e doing one room one day and another room the next? There isn't anywhere the cat doesn't go, so if we have to spray where ever he has been, that means the whole house.

Plus all the bedding etc needs to be washed.

So I thought I would need to literally drag all the furniture out, do all round the walls, floors etc, mattresses (both sides), rugs, carpet, sofas. Do it all at the same time and then put all washing on at the same time. However this will be a military operation and I'll be doing a 4 bed house on my own & I'm still getting over flu. So is it possible to stagger it in anyway or would doing one room and then using that room without doing the rest of the house muck up the system??! (does that make sense?) - also there is no-one who could help me.

Thanks!

lc99

Becles

My dogs had fleas once and I did the whole house in one go. I waited until everyone else was out and shut the dogs out in the back garden.

All bedding and washable soft furnishings were washed at 60°C. Carpets, furniture, wooden floors and everything else was sprayed with a spray called RIP Fleas. It really stinks and I had to have the windows open while I was using it.

It was a huge and tiring job, but it did get rid of the fleas.

hermum

When I've done mine with the acclaim spray, I go through the whole house, starting upstairs, leave it for however long it says on the tin before opening all the windows. That is apparantly a vital part of it. Left it for however long it says, then strip all the bedding & put it all in a really hot wash also curtains.
I've also dumped the dogs bedding & given fresh.
Over the years I had several infestations, usually after we'd been away & the little blighters spent the time breeding. I now do the house a couple of times a year with acclaim & haven't had the problems since.

mkaibear

We're in the same boat at the moment. Our three little monsters have acquired their own little monsters, so we're working through the house cleaning everywhere.

We have been doing the following;

Tidy thoroughly.
Vacuum everything fabric in at least two directions (to give maximum chance of picking up eggs, etc).
Flea-bomb (one of the Bob Martin ones) or use strike-back spray (cypermethrin spray)
Then close the room, empty the vacuum cylinder in the outside bin immediately. We then stop the cats getting into that room whilst we do the next one.

Basically, to get rid of fleas you have to break the lifecycle - by killing the fleas and / or stopping the eggs from hatching.

Killing the fleas requires flea-killing chemicals (although you can drown them) - we have treated the cats with spot-on and with a chemical spray, and OH is regularly going over them with a flea comb - because they sit on her as she has a lap to sit on - mine is somewhat obscured

Killing the eggs requires specialist chemicals, but we are also vacuuming regularly to get rid of them as much as possible.

Unfortunately the eggs can take as little as 2 days to hatch, so you really need to be vacuuming every other day - or ideally every day - to reduce the numbers as much as possible.

Vacuuming and cleaning also removes the flea dirt (blood poo!) and organic matter that the larvae need to eat so they will end up starving and get vacuumed up the next time I go over a place.

I estimate it will take us 3 weeks to get the house properly sorted. Not much fun but has to be done!

themacster

I've always used Acclaim. I've not had a flea problem since moving to our current house with laminate floors 4 years ago. Fleas are most of a problem in pile carpets, they can snuggle down and be safe - laminate or tile floors minimise the places fleas can live. When I did treat I sprayed then left the house to avoid breathing in the fumes. I do find Acclaim very effective

luckycat99

Thanks guys.

It sounds like it will have to be the miltary operation I was anticipating rather than doing it in stages. Oh dear.

Thank you for all your advice - much appreciated.