Fleas and floorboard/new carpet advice please!

MrsNurseyC

Hello all, opinions on our current household crisis would be really appreciated!

Hubby and I have been in our new house for approximately 3 weeks. The previous family who lived there had 3 kids, a cat and a small puppy...

Anyway, last week we got started on the job of looking round for new carpets for upstairs, and aranged a date this coming week for getting them fitted.

Co-incidently, last week I started getting bitten on my legs and feet, and after a few days of feeling awful, and waking up each morning with more red bite marks- I noticed a flea jump off me while chatting on the phone! We don't have any animals by the way.
I bought a can of flea spray from the local vet to treat the house, but later returned home and found my dear hubby had enthusiastically ripped out all the upstairs carpets, to treat the flea problem and to prepare for the carpet fitters coming on Tuesday...

The thing is from what I've read about fleas on't net, the eggs fall down between the cracks on the floorboards. If I hoovered the floorboards and sprayed the insecticide between the cracks, would new carpet and underlay stop the infestation from coming back...or would it add to the problem, by 'sealing' the flea eggs under the flooring?

Argh!!!! At the moment, I feel like I'm damned if I do, damned if I don't...

missimaxo

From what I have experianced and read the flea spray for homes can take 2 weeks or so to actually kill all the fleas and emerging fleas...

Not sure abour spraying floorboards but personally I would give it a go.

If you run out of the vet stuff... try cockroach and ant killer from the supermarket (also kills fleas). We have 3 cats and TBH do not flea kill them as often as we should. We had a bit of an ifestation at our old house and it took 2 weeks for the blighters to go completely (in carpets not boards). I discovered the cheaper stuff then! I now use this every month and so far (2 1/2 years) have not had a problem since.

PROFESSIONAL_LANDLORD

Hmmm, Amazing that people won't spend a couple of quid on a flee collar,:mad:

Postpone the fitting of the carpets!

The last property I got back was so infested all the furniture, beds, suite, had to be sprayed weekly for a month ,to allow for egg hatching, perimeter of rooms (around skirting boards) are their favoured places .


A certain individual who owed me money was invited to the property for a talk , I never ever saw my money, but I managed to keep him there for 25 mins.

looby-loo_2

I use ACLAIM from the vet. It's expensive at £13 a can but easily does the whole house and seems to last a whole year with four cats. I vacuum the house and spary the carpets the day before we go on holiday in July because I had noticed about four years ago that on return from holiday after the house was shut up we all got bitten. Since I've sprayed there has been no problem.
I'm having a new carpet fitted next month. I shall spray it straight away to add protection.

ceebeeby

Agree, delay carpets being fitted. Don't forget to do soft furnishings as well. Leave at least 2 weeks as this is how long it takes to hatch and die.

Lord_Gardener

Get the pro's in!!! We had this problem with our first house and had to rip out all the carpet and hessian wall paper! We got the local pest control officer in who 'bombed' the place 2 weeks in a row to kill and break the flea cycle - it worked!!!

MrsNurseyC

Thanks every one who took time to reply. My thanks button has disappeared temporarily (why does that happen from time to time?) but when it returns i'll click you all...

Looby-Lou, the flea spray we've bought is the Acclaim stuff It was £13, but from reading around, I've heard it's good stuff.

Professional Landlord- you're a sneaky beggar, but reading that little anecdote didn't 'arf make me laugh!! :rotfl:

I was wondering whether to get the new carpets delayed- I'll show this thread to my OH who (like both of us) just wants to get the problem sorted, but he's more keen to get the carpets on top of the boards, whereas I want to be sure I'm no longer getting bitten when the new flooring goes down...

Cheers guys!

never_enough

Delay the carpets until you're sorted, you'll feel so much better if they're not contaminated too. You really want to make sure they're gone. We had fleas arrive via a rug given by a friend. They found a happy home on our poor (house) cat who has an allergy to fleas & fleakiller. It was a nightmare. You have my sympathy.

maninthestreet

Get some of these:

http://www.amazinganimal.co.uk/flea-killer-trap-p-12715.html