Fleas in Carpets

[Bliss]

I'm looking around the net and seeing a lot of recommendations, ranging from sprinkling with salt and vacuuming up after 24 hours, to chemical powders, to diotemaceous earth (What IS that?), to steam cleaning with borax...

If you guys or someone you know has ever had to deal with this, what can you recommend as an effective kid/pet-safe way to get rid of the little bastards*?





* the fleas. Not the kids/pets. >.>

[Trieste]

Bomb the motherfuckers.

Honestly, when I had fleas in my home a few years ago, I just bombed the house. It's a BIG pain in the ass if you have lots of dishes and have nowhere to bring the kids, but if you can pull it off, it was the simplest solution for me (and fairly inexpensive).

Buy flea bomb (it's one per every so-many square feet, so for a whole house you may have to buy two or three) and set it up. Open up ALL cabinets/closets/crawlspaces/etc so the bomb can circulate through them. Pack up kids and pets for a couple hours, take them out of the house, set off the bomb. Return 2-3 hours later (depending on the bomb), open up all the windows and doors, air the house for a while, then come back in and vacuum up all the little bodies. I never had to use a second bomb, and our flea infestation was BAD. (I had so many scars on my legs, it looked like I had contracted chicken pox and then taken sandpaper to the sores)

The most pain-in-the-ass thing for me was that you have to wash down ALL the dishes afterward, because the poison does settle on them... but I had a dishwasher at the time, so it wasn't a terrible thing.

[Bliss]

It's not that bad - it's a relatively recent issue - but when I was younger it got bad in my parents' house, and I want to head it off before it DOES get that bad.

And since expensive/cheap is relative, how much are we talking when you say "relatively inexpensive"? (asks the recently unemployed girl)

[Serephino]

We had to bomb a little while ago.  Nothing else worked, including the chemical powders.  Well, they worked in the rest of the house, but my boyfriend's bedroom....  not even the bombs worked.

Someone once suggested putting a bowl of warm beer on the floor overnight.  Something in it is supposed to attract them and then they drown themselves. Since we're not beer drinkers I borrowed a can of Miller Lite from my mom, and that didn't work so well.  There were a few dead ones in the morning, but maybe lite doesn't work.  When we get some money we're going to try regular stuff. 

[Trieste]

It's not that bad - it's a relatively recent issue - but when I was younger it got bad in my parents' house, and I want to head it off before it DOES get that bad.

And since expensive/cheap is relative, how much are we talking when you say "relatively inexpensive"? (asks the recently unemployed girl)

I can't remember the exact price, but I remember being relatively surprised because I was expecting to have to drop $15-$20 per bomb. I htink it was more like $5-$10 in Florida.

[Bliss]

I can actually probably afford that. *makes note to look into that next if less poisonous methods fail out*

[Ket]

DE (diotemaceous earth) is fossilized little hard shelled algae. It's kind of abrasive like pumice and used in a variety of applications like pool filtering, liquid absorbent, cat litter, etc.

When I had carpet and had a bad flea problem, I tried everything. I went through I don't know how many vacuum bags, bombs (which I now HATE with a passion), sprays, flea dips, etc. I found what worked (though caused temporary discomfort on my part, but no more discomfort than I'd already experienced was to make sure my dogs were dosed with Frontline. For some reason, it killed the ones on them, then any new ones that jumped on them from around the house. It took about 3 week, then we were flea free.

If you're doing the vacuum method, don't forget to vacuum your baseboards, windowsills, curtains, basically any and all cracks and crevices in your house. Fleas love those areas.

Good luck! It can be a battle. Luckily, winter is coming on and they always seem to just disappear for me during that time.

[Oniya]

DE (diotemaceous earth) is fossilized little hard shelled algae. It's kind of abrasive like pumice and used in a variety of applications like pool filtering, liquid absorbent, cat litter, etc.

I get a certain sadistic pleasure from DE - the way it works is the little hard shells cling to the insects and sort of grind against the exoskeleton.  Ever gotten sand in a place you shouldn't?  Yeah.  Only it's sharper, and bugs don't know enough to try to wash it off.

[Bliss]

Yeah, I read up on D.E. and it gave me such horrendous glee. It basically slices open their exoskeletons and they dehydrate/dessicate because their insides come out.


Mweheheheheheheh....

[Beguile's Mistress]

Both DE and the bombs worked for me when my room mate let my cat get our and she came home with a boat load of little friends.  The first time I used DE because I found out about right away.  The second time I didn't learn about it in time and w had to bomb the house. 

[Ket]

Yeah, I read up on D.E. and it gave me such horrendous glee. It basically slices open their exoskeletons and they dehydrate/dessicate because their insides come out.


Mweheheheheheheh....

Yes, but then you have flea guts allll over your house...

>.>

-hands Bliss a roll of crime scene tape-