Fleas

[ho'ard]

Some friends are currently in flea hell. They share a 5 unit building and I guess some of the cats wander from unit to unit. Every unit has fleas . . . .
Anyone know a sure-fire way of dealing with this?
Thanks.

[OWC Jamie]

You have very small friends.

[Filliam H. Muffman]

Other than burning the building down?

My own recommendation that might be overkill but it almost needs to be nuclear to deal with all the different people. Put the cats in cages. Give them a dip or at least a bath and a thorough grooming, then treat with something like Advantage or fresh flea collars. Get all the bedding and any other textiles near the floor dry cleaned or whatever the cleaners recommend (call a couple of cleaners to get more than one opinion). Give all the units a good cleaning and and vacuuming (throw out the bags after) then have a professional pest control spray them. You can let the cats out of the cages after a week (or three) of no fleas.

I had a massive infestation of fleas in a cement finished basement/garage about 20 years ago. My pants looked like someone threw a tablespoon of pepper on them after a minute or two. The landlord called pest control and they sprayed the baseboards all around the house and the equivalent area downstairs plus around the water heater. The pest control might have also fogged the basement but I do not remember for sure. I stayed with family for three nights because the fresh spray gave me a bit of a headache. Everything was better (fleas and smell) when I went home. Neither I nor the previous tenant had pets, so I do not know where they came from since there was no evidence of rats or mice.

[JoeH]

Assuming the cats are indoor cats only, this is what has worked for me in the past. Have cats deflea'd professionally at a vet or grooming service. While everyone is out, use the recommended number of flea bombs in all the units. It needs to be one containing a growth regulator that will keep any fleas that hatch from remainng eggs sexually maturing and laying more eggs. This may have to be repeated after about a month.

With outdoor cats, this gets much more difficult. I have not found a brand of flea collar or other treatment that works consistently. About all I have seen work is winter stopping the reinfestation for a few months.

[Robert M]

H,

There is no sure-fire way to deal with them. You need patience and elbow grease. But, for that type of infestation, call in the pros. Fleas can be tremendously difficult to deal with and with the kind of concentration you described a pro is the best choice.

Robert

[bfd]

Diatomaceous Earth sprinkled sparingly.

Advantage the cats, that'll eliminate the food source.

Precor or Ultracide http://www.doyourownpestcontrol.com/SPEC...r20001.htm inside as a last resort.

The coming fall weather should knock them down outside without any action.

[what4]

Here is a way to help without using pesticides: Attract them with a light and drown them.

Here's how:

Fill a flat baking dish halfway with water that has a little detergent in it to remove the surface tension of the water.

At night, turn of all the lights in the room except a small light right over the baking dish. You can just place the dish beneath a night light that is plugged into a low wall socket.

Fleas, attracted to the light, will jump into the water and, in the absence of surface tension, sink and drown. Without the detergent, they'll just walk across the water to freedom.

On those occasions we have had infestations of fleas indoors, this method has removed dozens of them every night.

[vicrock]

Actually the best is Frontline on the cats - it is not going to hurt them, and it will kill the fleas.

[Robert M]

What,

The idea is sound except that it isn't going to work with a serious infestation. Themethod is useful only to confirm that you in fact have a flea problem. As those dozen(s) of fleas die, there are already vastly more of them jumping around and/or in the process of going from egg to full-blown bloodsucker.

Robert