Help! Fleas! Help! (Kihei: apartment, house, neighborhood)

[Calico Salsa]

We've been doing the good deed of trapping and spay/neutering feral cats in the neighborhood, and in the process had a mom & kitten in the garage for a week+. Apparently they took their feline revenge by sprinkling fleas everywhere.

We fogged the garage twice, but still have hoppers, probably because of all the stuff in there providing too many nooks & crannies for the fog to penetrate. We'll keep fogging until they all die; this fogger only requires 2 hours of closed-up time.

About to fog the house, and the chemical company says no need to cover electronics anymore. They say the substance won't hurt screens or electronics, the old reason to unplug electronics was the possible spark and this version of fogger has no flammable gas propellant. We are going to turn off the smoke alarms and also all the computers just so the cooling fans don't suck the fog into the works.

After we fog, we're going to spread flea power and vacuum while having a cut up flea collar in the vacuum (learned this online).

We bought something to use in the yard that is non-harmful to animals & people. Skeptical about how well it's going to work, but will give it a try first.

Anyone have any other tips?

[Balad1]

As you probably know the fleas keep hatching from the eggs even after killing the adults.

My wife is a recently retired vet and says there are products available from a veterinarian that can keep the eggs from hatching. She recommends paying more up front from the veterinarian for a solution rather than using questionable products from Wal-Mart, etc.

Of course if you have pets they need to be continuously protected by a product like Revolution. We use the product on the mini zoo of rescues we have in our home and have Never had a flea.

Good luck

[Calico Salsa]

Good idea. I called the vet who fixed the ferals, but they don't carry house-treatment products. I'll check with the local pet store here in Kihei.

A personally horrifying story -
Saturday morning doing house chores, walking about with white socks on, and at one point standing in the kitchen felt little stings around my ankles. Looked down and the socks & my ankles were just black with what I thought were ants. I tried squashing them with my hands, and that's when I figured out they were fleas! Turns out I'd picked them up in the garage, tracked them all over the house, and even into the car where we'd loaded up garage giveaways to go to the Goodwill.

I'll take ants and mice over fleas any day.

[calisnuffy]

Carpet powder is what really does the best

[justNancy]

Bless you for all the wonderful work you are doing. Last year I fed a family of ferals (they had already been trapped & neutered) and, when the temperature dropped, I let them sleep on my lanai. I also let one of the cats into my apartment once, which was a very bad mistake. A few weeks later, the fleas began to hatch and I had the same experience wearing white socks. I was covered in flea bites.

I hate to say this, but I tried every natural spray, powder and remedy available. Finally, I gave up and bought Raid flea killer. I was very careful not to spray it outside where they ate. I then soaked my lanai with warm, soapy water to drown the fleas.

If you vacuum, make sure you empty the bag (if there is one) daily. It gets to be expensive, but I could see the fleas moving inside the bag.

[Koale]

Aloha...oh I feel your pain...
A method we used when our downstairs neighbors 'bombed' their apt and the bugga's decided to invade our home and all 4 dogs...omg it was horrible.
Use a 50/50 mixture of salt and Boraxo. Sprinkle it over your carpet (assuming you have carpet). Brush it in w/a broom and let it sit for about 30 minutes and vacuum it it. Doesn't bother anything and it works like you wouldn't believe.
Koale.

[Calico Salsa]

Thank you!!

We finally found some diatomaceous earth at Lowe's. Heard it's great to use as the carpet powder too. We didn't know exactly how to get it down into the bottom of the carpet fibers, but using the broom is an excellent idea.

If I had the money, we'd rip out the carpet and put in laminate floors. Bamboo or cork if we had even more cash. Carpet seemed like a good idea, but it's really a pain here.

[PacificFlights]

We must have pest control procedures to prevent the spread of insects from one place to another. Our product for fleas have the active ingredienst of Methoprene, Nylar and Permethrin. This combo deals with the adults by killing them, prevents eggs and larve from completing their cycle, and shields against a return by other fleas. It breaks all three cycles. Down side, it may kill you.

[Jungjohann]

EH!!!!! No wat you need!!!! REALLY SMALL GECKOS!!!!!! Not really.......... Had the same pilikia here in Kihei, both my cats,,, wait, thats not right,,,, the two cats, Popoki and Ele, who let me live here with them,,,, thats more like it, managed to drop off a few fleas,,,, of course neither cat would admit it, pretty soon the little ankle biters were setting up house in the carpet... I bombed the place, only 750 sf,,, didn't seem to phase em,,,, bombed it again,,, still little effect,, then nuked the place with 3 of the cannisters... Followed that with a thorough steam cleaning of the carpet, (even UNDER the couch,,,,, I KNOW!!), and gave the cats a dosage of Advantage.. Haven't seen a flea for quite a while. Summertime here on the leeward side the flea population really goes lolo....Now, if you could just train centipedes to go after fleas you might really be on to something........

Aloha and,,, uuuurrrrpppp,,, scuze me, okolemaluna

what the heck is that on my ankle??????????

[Love-aloha]

Try a flea collar in vacumn bag. Hope that helps!