Flea Bomb Question

[spoilt lab lives here]

I have never had fleas in the house before but last week they were everywhere! I flea bombed the entire house and treated all the animals that was on Saturday. Now the fleas are back and that cats are scratching again. I vacuum everyday and have given the cats capstar as they were treated with spot-on last Sat.

What can I do to get rid of these new emerging fleas? Do I need to bomb the house again?

[~*Shell*~]

We tend to go overboard with the flea bombs but we make a day of it - set them all off, leave the house for 4 hours, open the house back up (open every window), leave it like that for 2 hours, then someone comes home and vacuums everything. All the animals get flea treated in the days leading up to it (with capstar) and in 5 years, we've only had fleas twice - once when we babysat a friend's cat, even though she wasn't supposed to have fleas, she was crawling with them, and once when we babysat my brother's cats - he had just moved and his new house had a flea infestation. He flea bombed his house but forgot to treat the cats so we treated them and then bombed our house the next weekend.

ETA: I should add that when I say everything gets vacuumed, I mean everything - chairs, rugs, matresses, door mats, everything! Bedding is also washed in a super hot cycle, rugs are picked up and put on the table so the bomb can get to both the rug and the carpet the rug was on, and we move the couches out into the kitchen (which has no carpet) so that the bombs can get to the space under the couches.

Edited December 1, 2010 by ~*Shell*~

[spoilt lab lives here]

Maybe I should flea bomb again and move the couches. It seems to be one couch in particular that has the problem as well. Grr its so frustrating! We never had them before but now the heat has come and they are everywhere in this new house.

[Miss BeRidgierent]

Sometimes its just the weather, at my old home we just could not get rid of them.... no matter what we did, they just lived in the ground and in the dirt.... we flea bombed, washed the dogs, spread lime over the entire yard and got the carpets cleaned and yup they were back!

[W Sibs]

We tend to go overboard with the flea bombs but we make a day of it - set them all off, leave the house for 4 hours, open the house back up (open every window), leave it like that for 2 hours, then someone comes home and vacuums everything. All the animals get flea treated in the days leading up to it (with capstar) and in 5 years, we've only had fleas twice - once when we babysat a friend's cat, even though she wasn't supposed to have fleas, she was crawling with them, and once when we babysat my brother's cats - he had just moved and his new house had a flea infestation. He flea bombed his house but forgot to treat the cats so we treated them and then bombed our house the next weekend.

ETA: I should add that when I say everything gets vacuumed, I mean everything - chairs, rugs, matresses, door mats, everything! Bedding is also washed in a super hot cycle, rugs are picked up and put on the table so the bomb can get to both the rug and the carpet the rug was on, and we move the couches out into the kitchen (which has no carpet) so that the bombs can get to the space under the couches.

I do the same.

[GTChick]

I Flea bomb the house once a year. But I over do the Flea bombs. I think my house is about 26 Squares and I use 8 flea bombs in the house. We have a old weather board home and I seem to find it works.

[Tilly]

When you flea bombed it might have killed the adults but left the eggs to hatch a few days later ...

We had fleas in the garage and I set off a couple of bombs in there but it made no difference ... I ended up spraying every couple of days (with Permoxin) for the next 2 weeks and haven't had an issue since.

[The Flea Guru]

Hi,

It sounds like you have a bad flea problem inside.

Flea bombs don't always work as well as we would like them to. Flea larvae are found deep in the pile of carpets and rugs, and the mist from a flea bomb may not penetrate deep enough in the carpet to reach them.

The mist will not get to carpets or rugs under lounges & other furniture.

Also, flea eggs and pupae are protected from the insecticide by their shell or cocoon.

Vacuuming regularly is essential for removing flea eggs, larvae and pupae. Using a vacuum cleaner with a power head which "beats" the carpet will be more effective. Empty the cleaner or discard the bag after vacuuming.

Make sure you are washing your pets' bedding in water hotter than 60 degrees Celsius.

Also, beware of steam cleaning carpet when you have a flea problem. Adding moisture to the carpets will make conditions more favourable for the development of fleas.

Make sure that you are using effective flea products on all your pets, and use products which kill adult fleas before the females can lay eggs.