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CynthiaWVirginia -> RE: bad news. I must flea bomb the house (8/6/2010 2:36:39 PM)
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I used a flea bomb for the hallway, bathroom, etc. Put newspapers down in at least a 6 foot square or the wetness will stain your hardwood floors. Follow the directions exactly.
Once the flea population is down, forget flea collars and all that...they won't prevent the house from having a new infestation, even after the second bombing. Go to a vet (or order online) and buy Advantage. It has imidicloprid and is excellent for killing all the fleas. If you find a cool vet who will write you a prescription for largest dog size, each dog size will have about 8 cat doses, so it ends up costing about a dollar or two per month. If you cannot measure out 4/10 of a cc and squirt it onto the cat's neck above the shoulder blades, then stick to the prepackaged cat's dose, though it will cost a lot more.
This stuff gets rid of all worms except tape worm, and if put very high up the neck, it also kills ear mites. A vet recommended doing this for ear mites, and I can vouch for it. The newest little girl I adopted was loaded with all kinds of worms as well as ear mites...they're all gone now, though I had to buy pills for the tape worms. If your cat has fleas, better keep watching that butt to see if something white moves, or if what looks like dried brown rice is sticking to it's fur. Fleas can carry tapeworm eggs/larvae and when a cat chews their fleas...
Before I used this stuff, I bathed the animals in Dawn (kills fleas, my sister uses this on her dogs), used cheap dog flea shampoo to mop my floors once or twice per month, AND I put down remnant fluffy blanket fabric from Joann Fabrics (about $2-3 each) to lure my cats into using these to lie down on, then I washed these in flea shampoo by hand or else washed them with the hot cycle in my washing machine.
There is an attachment for your garden hose that will put out flea poison into your yard to cut down on fleas, I used to have to do this when I worked for a couple in California who had dogs.
There is something called diatomaceous earth that is non toxic if you buy the type from Lowes in the plant department, and not from a pool supplies store. It can be mixed with water (then I put it through a strainer) and used to spray the yard, mop the floor. It dries and leaves a super fine powder residue that acts like ground glass to a bug. Makes tiny breaks in their shells and makes them dry up. (I have used this on bare mattresses to kill lice.) Not good to use on pets, because it irritates and dries out eyes and mucus membranes.
I used to have to deal with roaches, as I lived in an apartment building that had an infestation and some hitched a ride when I moved into my house. None exist in my house after that first year and I never used bombs or called an exterminator. Ants might ignore ant bait, but they love roach bait. Get Combat in that syringe type tube and put lines of the goo where your cat can't lick it up (yes, one of my cats started licking so I had to remove it quickly). Also with the ants, I mix powdered sugar with diatomaceous earth and put this in empty match boxes at the back of kitchen drawers, and powder the bottom of trash cans with something waterproof on top to protect it from getting wet. I hunted for ant colonies outside around my house. I have found ant hills that were black with ants in a 12 inch radius around the hole. I went into the house, got a gallon of water and mixed it with an ounce or so of flea shampoo...until the water was a bit slippery, then went outside and started pouring the whole thing in a circle around the ants and worked my way inward, and dumping 1/3 to 1/2 of the gallon down the hole. All the ants died. Less ants came into my house. :) Costed me maybe a dime or a quarter.
I buy cheap tupperware type things from the Dollar Tree, and keep grain products in them. Other things like cookies and crackers I keep in zip lock bags. Packages from stores often have little holes in them that ants will find. Starve them out, but also trace where they entered into your house and plug up that hole or crack with some caulk.
I keep a trigger spray bottle handy with some dog flea shampoo very watered out for when I need to kill some bugs. It kills flies and ants and spiders. I prefer the cat flea shampoo, which is a light lavender instead of doggie green, as it is made with pyrethrin (natural ingredient that breaks down and is safe for cats) instead of permethrin (man made and can kill cats).
I stopped using foggers and spray cans of poison because it triggers my lymphoma. The building I used to live in was sprayed every blessed week. This is why I'm so strange about finding other ways. I have two male cats that I allow outside, the girls I keep in the house. Males are neutered, btw. I use Advantage on them and the girls, and have no flea problems. I don't have to do anything else to the yard or to the house, like I did before I "discovered" this stuff and used flea collars or grocery store stuff with pyrethrin to put between their shoulders. This is so much easier.
Good luck.
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