What is the cheapest way to get rid of fleas in a home and on a cat?

Question

short off burning down a rent place or calling the landlord

Answer 1

Cheapest is not always the least expensive in the long run...

To eliminate fleas, you need to be thorough; in the end it will be less expensive because the fleas will not return.

Fleas spend very little time on the animal. They feed, hop off, and lay eggs. The eggs hatch in about 3 weeks, jump back on and start the whole process again. The eggs can also lay dormant for up to a year.

What you need to do is give the cat a bath, rinse very well, and towel &/or blow dry.

An alternative is to ask the vet for Capstar, which will begin killing fleas within half an hour. There are some very good flea prevention products on the market. My favorite is Frontline Plus. This kills fleas and prevents more from hatching. You apply it once a month.

In addition, you really need to treat your home with a flea “bomb”. My favorite brand is Zodiac with Precor. Kills the fleas and contains a growth inhibitor to prevent more from hatching. Lasts for 7 months. Then apply a premise spray under any large furniture, such as your couch and bed.

Vacuuming daily in addition to other treatments also helps. A warm light in an outlet over a tray of soapy water will drown any stragglers (the warmth attracts the fleas who jump into the tray), but this shouldn’t be necessary if you’ve already “bombed” your house.

If this is an outdoor cat (hopefully not), you may want to treat around your house as well.

For very young kittens (under 8 weeks old) stay with the natural remedies. Under 5 weeks old, you shouldn’t bathe them. Powder them thoroughly with cornstarch (safe, but destroys the exoskeletal system of fleas). Then you need to hand pick them off. A flea comb is helpful to do this.

Here are a few sites where you can buy these products:

www.jefferspet.comJeffers Vet Supplies (Dr. Jeffers & vet techs answer questions, too)
www.petedge.com/PetEdge
www.drsfostersmith.comDrs. Foster & Smith

Answer 2

Buy a flea fogger from a discount store and follow the directions carefully to rid your home of fleas. As for the cat - a good bath followed by flea medicine from the vet (about $15 for a tube that you squeeze between the cats shoulder blades). Do not let the cat back into the house until you use that stuff or you'll just get reinfested. Good luck.

(I just helped a girlfriend bathe and deflea 7 cats! This worked for her.)

Answer 3

Hartz 2 in1 Rid flea dog shampoo for the cat and a cat's flea collar, your home, there are several commercial home sprays that are effective, but remove the cat for the day (at least 12 hours) when you spray becaue it will make the poor thing sick if it stays around the pesticide. By the way, two shampoos about four days apart will kill any of the newly hatched fleas.

Answer 4

What you need to do is go to the store and get what they call "bug bombs". My cat got fleas very very badly and so I went to the local feed store and asked for the BEST, and might be a little more expensive, flea shampoo. Then, I also called her vets office and they had me buy some of the treatment you put on the back of their neck. This is also a little expensive..but overall, the treatment I got from the vet was VERY worth it and it also was the best. Every since I have given her the vet's treatment, she hasn't gotten fleas since then, and this was about two years ago.

Answer 5

Hey Tony, there are many cheapest ways... I've also responed to another flea problem... Here's my answer.


Oh i'm sorry to hear about your kitten, the best I can do for your situation is go to the vet and get revolution, it kills all stages of fleas, and ear mites and it also works with heart worms in case fleas transit their germs into the kitten's blood system. I had the worse case of fleas on my cat and my aptarment building last year and i took my cat, Chipmunk to the vet and the dr. admistrated Revolution on him and fleas were dead within 48 hours and every 6 months i admistrated Revolution myself to prevent it from happening again. I know the prices seems to be extreme but it's worth it. Also since your kitten is white, i'd suggest you stop bathing him too often because it dries their skin extremely, which it causes the kitten to groom or stratch himself more often. The best way is to get a flea comb (expensive kind retails about 5 to 10 dollars) not the plastic kind which is .99 cents at some pet stores and brush your kitten 2 to 4 times a day for about 5 minutes every time. The flea comb will remove all the fleas' faeces and its flea adults and dip the comb in a bowl of soap water (preferly in Dawn orginal dish soap and warm water) and clean the comb with paper towels.

I'd advise you that the over-the-counter flea shampoos etc does not really work that great because it only kills adult fleas not other stages :( sorry to bear the bad news.


Also, if you have carpet, PUT your kitten in a room where he can stay alone for a few hours, then vaccum your carpet first before you sprinkle some mixtures of Salt and Borax (20 Mule Team ) found in laundry asile in grocery stores lightly and use a broom to have the mixture to go deeper in the carpet to kill larve and pre-adults, and vaccum within few hours, perferly within 24 hours but if you feel you can't keep your cat in a room for a day, you can vaccum the carpet within 2 hours it's no big deal. Repeat the process every week and i'd advise vaccum DAILY because it will pull eggs and larve and other stages out of the carpet. The good news is that in the Winter you can slow down :)

The mixtures of Salt and Borax can last in the carpet for a year but since I live in an aptarment building and I am not taking a chance with invade of fleas again, that's why i use the mixtures every two weeks in Aug, Sept, Oct, and Nov then I put another mixtures every once a month in Dec to July.

Fleas can come from anywhere, it does not matter if he is indoor or outdoor cat.

Best of luck and i'll be checking on new messages later on and let us know how it goes with your kitten.

Last thing is that you also can put moth balls in closets, Fleas don't like them and will seek somewhere else to settle down which you will catch them with your vaccum :) smile if you feel that sprinkling some carpet mixtures makes you nervous, you also can put 10 moth balls in the vaccum bags or in bagless vaccum it will kill adult fleas and pre-adult right away. Other positive thing about the mixture i mentioned, they are so cheap you can buy a big can of salt at any grocery stores for 1.50 dollars and the 20 mule team borax costs between $4.99 to $6.00 dollars, just mix them equal parts. and sprinnkle the carpet equal, not too much and use broom at the same time Smile.....

Stanley

Answer 6

well, for the home get Borax Laundry booster and sprinkle it everywhere, carpet, furniture, everywhere. let it set for a few hours while you take the cat to get a flea bath. come back and vacuum the whole house, furniture ect. and throw away the bag. wash all the bedding and anything else that can be washed. then you can go get the cat and bring him home and the house should be flea free! :)

Answer 7

If you live in an area where the temperature gets cold enough, leave windows open for a few hours when outside temp is a few degrees above freezing. That has worked for me in the past--seems to kill the fleas and their eggs.

Answer 8

for the Home .. Raid makes Flea Bombs .. in the Purple box !!

For cats .. Flea Bath treatment !! made by Hertz

Answer 9

bathing the cat in flea shampoo and vacumming daily

Answer 10

Start a flea circus and send them on tour