How do you get rid of fleas?

The cats easy, the vet is arranging a prescription. The problem is they’ve been all over the house and the black bits (that I now now are flea poo) is all over the place …and presumably flea eggs too.

I actually found baby fleas wriggling on clothes left lying about that the cats had slept on!

They need a host to survive, so as long as your cat is the only animal in the house and you’re strict with the 3 monthly “spot on” stuff they will soon die off. Speed up the process by spraying the edges of all rooms with anti flee stuff.

They can bite humans but cant survive/breed on humans alone. Much like an ex gf I had.

Diffuser spay, vacuum, spray, vacuum, spray, vacuum.

Had the same problem, just about got rid of them. Relaxed for a week and the buggers are back. Off out to buy more chemical death soon.

Frontline is the only thing that worked when my cats had fleas.

Your vet or local pet shop will be able to sell you a spray to use on carpets, curtains and furniture. Fairly unpleasant but does the trick, you spray, leave then hoover. Quite toxic so you need to keep cats and children outside whilst you do it.

Frontline on the cats and endless vacuuming of the house for about a month. Google the life cycle of fleas to get a better picture of what you need to do as the eggs can hang around for ages.

For the house its best to get a man in. They have some super strong stuff.

Your vet or local pet shop will be able to sell you a spray to use on carpets, curtains and furniture.

+1 Nothing you will buy from ‘pet shops’ will work (as effectively).
The house stuff we last got was called Indorex, though amazon seemingly stock it now..

Old trick (that has worked for me) is to place a large dish with about 1/2 inch of water in it and drop of fairy liquid on the floor. In the middle of that water put a tea light / candle. switch off the light in the room and close the door… Come back some time later and you’ll find a supply of dead drowned fleas.

They are attracted to the flickering light of the candle and as they jump to it they land in the water, the fairy liquid breaks the surface tension so the fleas fall into the water rather than onto it.

Over a few days I successfully cleared out our utility room (which is where the cat slept and the infestation was worse). Combined with a regular dose of frontline to the cats we were flea free,

Then the cat died and we didn’t have the problem anymore.

This year for the first time ever I have encountered problems with Frontline eradicating fleas. My vet assures me that this is because fleas can breed and lay eggs before Frontline kills them, guaranteeing that the cycle is maintained.

I am now trying “Stronghold” which allegedly kills fleas, eggs, and larvae. And apparently also internal parasites. Which all sounds too good to be true. Although at over £7 a dose I hope it manages to have some effect.

So if I understand correctly the fleas cannot survive without a host (the cat) and cannot use a human as a host?

Also seen this:

Flea Killer

Kind of like the candle and water idea! Got to be worth a try for a fiver!

So if I understand correctly the fleas cannot survive without a host (the cat) and cannot use a human as a host?

Yep, though they will try ‘you’ just to make sure… it’s the long term eggs that repeat the cycle, you must eradicate these

Frontline has always worked in the past with our animals but has failed to work this past few months. I tried the new Bob Martin stuff (same active ingredient as frontline) didnt work either.

After looking on the net, apparently fleas have built up some tollerance to frontline. I was recommended something called ‘advantage’ which seems to have worked. Similar to frontline but with a differant active ingredient.

And a spray for the house called ‘Indorex’ was recommended by the vet.

Both are available online.

Yeah I know, I could do a dot to dot on my ankles! Why the ankles I’ve no idea!

Why the ankles I’ve no idea!

Because cat fleas can’t jump very high – cats aren’t very tall.

Lady fleas can lay 50 eggs a day, and young fleas can hang about for up to 200 days before coming out as adults to find a host to feed from.

You need to treat the cat, and treat your house with something that will kill the adults, juveniles and eggs, and do lots of hoovering on all surfaces and under furniture and other dark places.

Chemical warfare may be your only option. We’ve used Indorex spray and it seems to work, the fleas have gone and the cats are still alive (so are we). Not something I’d want to spray round the house too often though. As for the cats, we’ve found that the flea treatments you get in pet shops or supermarkets are generally ineffective, you need the stronger stuff from the specialists or vets.

We were led to believe that fleas can’t survive below a certain ambient temperature, so in winter we always used to make sure that we had a good week or two of windows open without the heating on once the weather got properly cold..

good fun for dressing up like polar explorers at bedtime and sexy contact time had an extra bit of zest to it..

this combined with lots of meticulous hoovering and plenty of flea spray along the skirting and in nooks and crannies was very effective..

we even managed to stave off the potentially biblical flea infestations that my mate’s sister used to regularly inflict on us with her foul mutt..

For the house use ‘Acclaim’ spray

For the cats use ‘Frontline’ drops

Both can be bought from your Vet, not cheap but work and last

We used Flea Bombs in New Zealand, at least once a year. You pretty much have to abandon the premises for 24hrs. Did the job.

I really hate fitted carpets !

P.S in combination with flea collars, spot treatments etc. They bring them in from outside. Kill the source then the infestation.

There is something good you can get and think its something Earth. We used it before around the house and in te Hoover bag and the. A lot of hoovering especially in the locations you don’t normally Hoover

Frontline is the only thing that worked when my cats had fleas.

+1

I’ve tried powders, sprays, foggers, collars, you name it. The only off-the-shelf treatment that ever made the blindest difference was Frontline. Everything else was a waste of money.

</anecdote>

what i have found works, frontline combo, vacuuming and a flea comb

It helps that my two cats enjoy being combed, but it lets me know how many fleas they have, there will always be one or two in my experience, i live in an area with lots of cats.

I also find mid july through to september to be the peak season.

Unfortunately having owned cats for 20 plus yrs the only thing that works is to treat the cat with frontline every 4 to 5 weeks. Yes its not cheap but there is no alternative. Frontline works by rendering the eggs infertile. Any fertile eggs will hatch feed on said cat and then lay infertile eggs thus breaking the cycle.

Frontline and a good powerful vacuum cleaner is the best way, never really got the flea sprays to work well(just dont vacuum the cat as in my experience they dont seem to appreciate this even if you use the “deep pile carpet” setting) As for flea powder treatments ro collars for cats they really dont work well enough or at all to justify the hassle.

Get the cat treated with Frontline as this means that all fleas that bite it are then infected and cant reproduce any new fleas at all, dont forget to get the cat re-treated every 6 months, the vet has a super powerful injection that is better and lasts longer than the spot treatments you can buy. Regularly Hoover everywhere in the house that the cat goes ( sofas, carpets, beds etc) and wash/clean all soft furnishings too . It does take about 6-8 months to fully clear all the fleas out of the house but the difference within a few weeks of starting is pretty dramatic. Ditto with the flea comb too.

Fleas are often resistant to Frontline, we have to use Advocate on vet’s prescription as FL doesn’t work.

I’ve used smoke bombs/diffusers to clear rooms before – not great for clothes although you can get permetherin strips which I think are marketed at killing moths in wardrobes, these worked for us.

Had to do this a few months back due to taking in a pregnant stray cat during the bad weather, cat had collar on but no one claimed her due to lots of posters up around the village. She gave birth to 4 lovely kittens and then rehomed by the cat protection league (all of them together). This left us with lots of fleas, similar to OP.

We got treatment for our cat called Advocate (never had success with frontline/frontline combo) and bought a tin of Indorex house spray – brilliant stuff!

http://www.vetuk.co.uk/flea-treatments-household-flea-sprays-c-3_419/indorex-household-flea-spray-500ml-can-p-677

http://www.vetuk.co.uk/pet-meds-prescription-only-advocate-for-cats-c-21_702/advocate-for-small-cats-p-770

Both of these products have inhibitors in them to prevent flea growth.

Within a day or two cat had no fleas and by the end of the first day there were no fleas jumping around. Hoover everywhere and spray, simple as that. Once you hoover, empty the hoover/get rid of bag and seal into a carrier bag to stop any fleas escaping back in. We used 2 cans of Inndorex in the end. 3 months on and still no fleas.

For the house use ‘Acclaim’ spray

For the cats use ‘Frontline’ drops

Both can be bought from your Vet, not cheap but work and last

This! But it’s a preventitive, not a cure. Also you’ll notice any little things (spiders/flies/woodlouse) that come in the house die pretty quickly for a month or two after using Acclaim.

There is a saying.. For every one flea you see you have a thousand more. If you can see them, I would get a professional in and then make sure you flea the cat and house regularly.

Frontline on the pets ,dust the floor/carpets with ant powder leave overnight then vac in the morning,repeat the antpowder weekly.

Reason being is the flea eggs are impervious to insecticide until they hatch so the regular dusting with antpowder should catch any emerging fleas and the frontline should see off the rest.

Need to spray house with Indorex or Acclaim (care with any fish tanks) this is to attack larvae and eggs in the environment.

Then use a product that will reliably kill the adult fleas on the cat. There is some indication that there may be some resistance to Fipronil (ingredient in Frontline and some others)

Good products are Advocate and Stronghold both of which are prescription only.

They do need to be used monthly though. Both will also deal with roundworms too!

Bombs +1 nuke those f****rs
check out BOGOF deals in Pets @ home

If all the animals are treated on a regular basis with stuff from the vet not the supermarket spray you should not get a problem .We didnt once and had the fumigation bloke from the council in as I could not get rid of the fleas

Agree with all the above about Frontline. But given the title of this thread I just thought I’d put in a plug for cat insurance. Our 2 year old moggie came in last night limping, so I took her in to the emergency vet. We don’t know what happened but she’d either been in a serious fight, fallen out of a tree, or been hit by a car. After a night’s stay, anaesthetic, x-rays, reduction of her dislocation, removal of two broken teeth, stitching, bandaging, medication, and analgesia the bill came to over £1,500. She then got back home and promptly removed her bandage, necessitating another night in (as an alternative to another anaesthetic and x-rays) which will probably add an extra couple of hundred quid.

Her insurance premium with M+S is £8 a month….

Interesting article on the BBC: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-19354423

We’re currently mid way through an infestation, Frontline had no affect, so we’re waiting for Advocate to work (it’s less than 100% effective so far)!

Disappointed that no one has suggested shaving the pussy 🙁