Serious Flea Problem

[Her Majesty Dogmad]

Yes, do not bath 48 hours BEFORE or AFTER a flea treatment if it is a spot on the neck treatment.

[HeavyPaws]

We had such a serious problem in our last place that we kept a dish of water on the bedside table so we could drown the fleas we picked off ourselves at night.

Yes, I am serious. It was like the Dark Ages. NOTHING worked.

I remember one day we did a 'purge', we sent the dogs away to the groomers and boarding for the week to be de-flead, we hired a professional pest control expert who sprayed our entire property, we stripped our beds off {mattresses and all} and sent the sheets to be washed at the cleaners, the quilts and mattress to be treated and washed at another place the pest guy suggested, we emptied our clothes drawers and washed them all, we even went to our inlaw's house while it was all happening and washed our hair and scrubbed down so not a single egg or flea could escape the slaughter.

We couldn't go back in the house for another 24 hours because every inch of everything had been sprayed.

The night we slept in our house again after our *expensive* total purge, OH turns to me and says "look"

Flea, on his arm. A nice fat one too.

We moved.

Our new house for some reason, has no fleas. I use lavender oil mixed with water and spray it on the carpets and human bedding every week before and after vaccuming, and the dogs get obsessive check overs every week.

This is gross, but a failprrof way I've found to check for fleas on carpets is to get a small glass bowl. Next time you buy beef, drain the blood into the bowl, and heat in the microwave for 20 seconds to make it warm.

Place the bowl on the floor in a locked room, leave for a few hours.

When you take it out, place it on the table and peer down so you can see anything that may be floating on the surface or hold over a lamp. The fleas are attracted to the warm blood, hop in, but can't get back out. You'll find them kicking on the surface or doing laps in the blood.

The light going through the blood makes it easy to see them.