&^$#&$#&%$%@ Fleas!!!!

AAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGGG!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I have never once in all my years of pets ownership and cat rescuing had fleas in my house! EVER! And now I can't get rid of the darn things!

I bath and bath and bath the kittens, vacuum their room and the house, flea spray like crazy and wash their bedding daily. And I'm STILL finding fleas on them! Not a lot, just one or two here and there, but darn it this is aggravating!

So today I loaded up with supplies. Advantage, Diatomaceous Earth and Borax. Kittens all got baths, their room got vacuumed and sprayed, and I'm going to DE the heck out of my bedroom and the kitten room, then put the advantage on them. Then I'm going to DE and Borax the rest of my house, and the basement as well as the foundation outside.

If they're still around after that I'm just going to set the house on fire and count my losses.

You live pretty far north to have a flea infestation!

I had a bad infestation one year. It was so bad that a 10 foot walk across my bedroom carpet landed about 50 fleas on my legs. That's the year we found DE. We put it on once, treated everyone with Advantage, washed the bedding and they disappeared within a few days.

You are doing all the right things, so I'll simply send you "go away fleas" vibes.

I don't have any advice here other than to hang in there and I am sending you *MAJOR VIBES* that the problem will get cleared up.

I'm terrified of fleas and we've never had a problem, knock on wood.

Thank you for the well wishes!!!

I bathed the kittens and they all have advantage on now, and we DE'd the entire house. I think it must work because when we were putting it down in the kitten room a flea landed on my foot! <creeeeepy> but it was kinda acting weird and I caught it and killed it with no problem. Maybe it had dust on it and it confused it or something.

Haven't seen a flea since, though I understand it could take longer that a day. Thankfully there are no carpets anywhere in our house, it's all tile and hardwood, so maybe that will help clear it up faster.

I don't think we have very many fleas, from what I can tell. I got 0-3 fleas off each kitten when bathing today, then the one on my foot. So, fingers crossed that this will take care of it!

Makes me feel all crawly. Anytime I have an itch I'm looking to see if it's a flea!

If you do Advantage for 3 months straight it completely stops the flea cycle. And since you live in Canada they shouldn't come back till next summer.

I feel your pain. We had such a bad infestation one hot, humid summer that I actually called in professional exterminators.

The weather these last few days with all the heat and humidity may just bring out the dang fleas even worse. Give me the cooler weather anytime and I'd be happy to put on a sweater. I've taken off everything that I can and still remain "decent".

First of all I want to say that I definately hope you get rid of those darn things. Bugs are gross, especially of the flea/tick kind. However, I want to tell you that the way you explained your situation in the post made me crack up! Fleas are physically gross, but they are funny to talk about...I don't know why. Anyways, I hope they go away for good.

I feel yr pain - we've had our indoor/outdoor cat for seven years - always controlled the flea situation with Advantage treatments - never had a problem. Well, this summer has been hot and humid - we went away on a trip - had someone watch the and feed the cat - well, when I returned - she had fleas (it was days before her next treatment) BUT there were fleas in the house - not tons but a few. I have just vacuumed, vacuumed, vacuumed, we leave out bowls of soapy water and when we ever find one - we put it in the water and they drown - but as others have posted, these are stubborn little bugs and unfortunately I feel I am going to try the Boraz route - has anyone has success with it?

Washing your beasties just before you apply a spot treatment for fleas isn't a great idea. I understand the need to get rid of the fleas they have but the spot ons are carried in the oils on the skin. Washing that off will probably deter the spreading of the Advantage so it may not work as long as it should. If you have to bathe them, I'd wait a few days at least before treating them again. Or, if you have to wash them, use water only, no soap. Use a flea comb to go over their bodies thoroughly, the fleas that you pick off can be dropped in soapy water.

Hang in there and keep treating vigilantly. The fleas in the environment are the ones that are the hardest to kill. If you keep your kitties treated with the spot treatment you have, you will stop seeing fleas altogether in a few weeks. Good luck.

I came back to this thread to announce that we are flea-free!!!

I've found the odd one here and there, and they are ALL DEAD! Woohoo! I check the kittens all the time, and not a speck of flea dirt on anyone.

Hooray for advantage and DE!