What's the best way to get rid of flea infestation?

Question

My house is absolutely riddled with fleas and I dont know what to we've bought flea powder, spray, drops, tablets, powdered the carpet, washed the animals and given them flea collars but on my kitten she just seems to have scrathed the whole time she had the collar on and now has a massive scab round her neck, i've taken it off now. I really don't know what to do anymore, we've spent so much money on stuff, we're going to take the animals out this weekend and use Flea-foggers that we've bought but what if they don't work?
What should I do?

Answer 1

give your pet a flea collar, or buy a flea spray.

Answer 2

You are quite lucky that your kitten didn't take ill. You should NEVER use any sort of powder, spray or flea collar on any cat, especially a kitten. They can ingest it when cleaning themselves and it can kill them. OTC medications do not work and are a total waste of money, not to mention can prove lethal to your kitties. Call your vet and ask him for Revolution, its a tube of liquid that you squeeze onto the kitties, between their shoulder blades, which is the only place they can't reach to groom, so it doesn't get ingested. This will kill any fleas on them now, within 1 hour, and it will continue to repel the fleas and eggs for a month. Fleas cannot survive without a carrier, they cannot feed off of humans. Usually a flea cannot live longer than 10 minutes without a carrier, and will die. So the Revolution will virtually rid your home and your pets of fleas within about a week (since their are probably eggs that will hatch in a day or 2, but will die within 10 minutes).

Answer 3

This most important thing for you to realise right now is that NO flea product bought from a store or supermarket is going to work. Pet stores aren't licensed to sell the proper chemicals for flea treatment - anything you find in store is just going to be a basic pesticide that you can't expect to work.

Sounds like you've spent a fair bit of money, sorry it's been wasted. Please go to a vets to get some proper treatment, and that includes for your house too - flea foggers are a hassle and a waste of time. See if you can get your money back for them.

You need Frontline, Revolution, Advantage or Advocate for your cat, and a proper spray for your house.

Chalice

Answer 4

First thought is maybe your cat is allergic to the flea collar. What to do is take the cat to a friend or relatives house and bath it very well in Dawn dish liquid and then an oatmeal flea shampoo. (yes I said Dawn, it was highly recommended by my vet.) on your way out of house let off flea bombs but make sure you have all the drawers and doors inside the house open. The bomb cant get into piled up areas such as laundry. For this kinda spread it out. When you return home spray the house with a flea spray for carpet and furniture, Zodiac makes a good one and it lasts for 7 months. If you live in a ground floor apartment then they may be entering trhought the window. It may be about 50 dollars or so for all these things but it will be worth it. The key is to bath the animals away from the house so the fleas can not jump off and reinfest.

Answer 5

although it sounds like you have tried *everything* - it does depend on what the products are that you are using.

when we had a flea infestation, I spent so much oon supermarket products, i wished I'd just gone to the vet to start off with, as although their stuff was a bit more expensive, it was cheaper than what I'd spent on store stuff...

All you need to do is treat the animals with a spot on and thoroughly spray and vacuum your house - with vet products.

Then treat your cat every month with a vet spot-on. Fleas won't return.

By the way, flea collars are the most rubbisg idea on the planet - i hate collars on cats anyway for a multitude of reasons, but the fleas only die if they land ON the damn collar!!

Good luck - just use top-quality products and your problem will be gone - I wouldn't even fog - return them.

Answer 6

Get either the Frontline, Revolution, or Advantige flea drops that are available from the vet. DO NOT USE the ones that you get over the counter from Walmart or other stores. Those can cause severe neurological problems or even death. It is expensive but does work. After we used that, we also removed our cats from the house and set off Raid Flea Foggers, and we haven't had fleas since, even over the summer.

Answer 7

For the cats, I recommend a flea bath, followed by drops of Advantage on the scruff of their necks every month, if you can afford it.

As for the fleas in the house, the flea fogger doesn't sound like a bad idea, just so long as you do it properly. Maybe it would be best to hire a professional before flea fogging, again if you can afford it.

Answer 8

I had a really bad flea problem a few years ago and this is what I did...first I got a product called Frontline Spray Treatment for Dogs, Puppies, Cats, and Kittens you can get it at petrx.com this is a great product for multi animal homes (I have 1 dog 6 cats 2 hermit crabs 1 guinea pig and a turtle) treat all animals with the frontline. then make sure all pets are out of the house and use the bug bombs. and that should do it.

Answer 9

What you should do is prepare to bomb your house with foggers. Make sure if you have gas appliances put out the pilot lights and turn off the gas. FOLLOW THE INSTRUCTIONS ON THE BOMBS. When you do this take the cats out and have them treated by a professional and use Frontline it is the best. Repeat in the fogging in 2 weeks to take care of the eggs that have hatched. The bombs usually have no residual so they kill what is alive. This should take care of the problem. If not call a pest control company.

Answer 10

Buy Advantage, it costs about $16 but it's worth it, you apply it between her shoulder blades and it'll kill the fleas in 10 min. it'll last about a month and when you buy it tell them it's for a cat and how many pounds she weight.
Good luck.