We have treated all of the cats (1 only inside, 1 only outside, and 1 both). We have bombed, I have vaccumed the mattresses, couches and wood floors, and still here they are!!!

Any suggestions. Suggestions that don't involve massive amounts of chemicals would be best, as I also have a two year old and a bird.

TIA for any help!

I always found that fleas infested carpets and rugs the most, so vacuuming constantly is one answer. But what happens when you have a bunch of fleas and eggs in your vacuum?  Every time I vacuumed I sucked up a little flea powder.  I don't know what you treated the cats with, but maybe it's not working?  What about your cellar?  Even if the animals don't go down there, it could be infested. 

We puta flea collar in the vacuum (per the vets advice). I treated the kitties with Frontline about 3 1/2 weeks ago. I don't have rugs, carpets or a cellar. This situation is stressful!

I keep reading about borax, but then I also hear that it doesn't work.

Thanks for the advice.

The reason I replied is because I was always battling fleas, and I hate them so because they love me.  Some people they don't bother, but I seem to attract biting insects.  Where I live now, believe or not, there are no fleas on our property.  Everywhere else, but not here.  Maybe you should call an exterminator.  We finally did last year for the ants.  They has trails through the inside of our house...it was discusting.  I didn't want to do it because of the chemicals, but what's worse--fleas are not healthy to have around.

i'm a big fan of siphotrol area treatment. the problem with bombs is that they don't reach a lot of places where fleas like to hide, like under the furniture. with the spraycan, you can reach all of those spots.

diatomaceous earth is supposed to be effective as well- it dries out the little buggers and kills them. i've never used it, but it's something i see mentioned frequently.

good luck!

If you treated the cats and keep up with it the problem should get better as long as you've used one of the current topicals (Frontline Revolution, advantage etc).  By keeping the cats on flea preventatives you are breaking the life cycle of the fleas.  They can last in the environment for about a month, so if you don't give them hosts to reinfest you can make sure they go away for good.  This won't work if you used something like capstar or a product like a dip that just clears up the current infestation.  They need prevantatives. This is especially the case for outside cats.

For your house, after you treat with insecticide and give it time to settle, you will probably see fleas in 2 weeks as they emerge from the pupal stage.  If you keep vaccuming and keep your kitties on preventative they should dwindle and go away.  You might also want to try spraying the shady parts of your yard to keep the cats that go out from coming into contact with so many fleas.

Best of luck!  Fleas are are a nightmare

We used frontline on all 3 of our brat cats. I think it is only a matter of time before we get them under control, I am just concerned because I found some in my 2 year olds hair. Of course, I bathed her and got rid of them, but they sure are awful things.

Use Frontline Plus (works better than the other products in my opinion and experience).  You will continue to see baby fleas every 10 days for a while as eggs hatch out.  It can literally take months to get rid of all of them.  The only problem with topicals like frontline is that they take 24 hours to kill adult fleas which gives them a chance to lay eggs.  But Frontline will get rid of all the fleas eventually.  In the meantime you can vacuum daily and immediately take the vaccum bag outside the house to the trash every time. Fleas will crawl out of vaccum bags and the problem with putting a flea collar in the bag is that the flea actually has to crawl over the collar to get the pesticide to kill it.  That has been the traditional problem with flea collars (flea has to physically cross for it to kill the flea).  Make sure you vaccum everywhere: under furniture, under cushions, everywhere you can reach.  Fleas like to hide in dark, quiet places when not hopping to an animal.  If you can't throw the vaccum bag out everyday, treat the vaccum bag (inside the vaccum) with a flea killing pesticide to kill the fleas you vaccum up.  You will need to keep Frontline on your animals year round if any go outside to prevent them from picking up fleas from outside even after your indoor flea problem is gone.

Hope that helps!

Vet Tech Tory

I found Frontline Plus did not work. I use Advantage on the cat and rabbit.  I also bought food grade diatomaceous earth. We have ants now as well.  We sprinkle it on the ants upstairs in my sons room and continued to watch them walk around. Later we saw ants downstairs with white powder on them.  The stuff I bought is also a very fine powder. My vaccuum did not handle it very well. Although I now know I bought the wrong vaccuum for anyone who lives on a dirt road.  I wonder if the type of diatomaceous earth you can purchase at a home improvement store works?

Use Revolution: Frontline actually attracts fleas.  Ask the veterinarian.  Revolution is the only product safe for cats and it works.  Put the vacuum cleaner bag INTO THE FREEZER in a garbage bag (twisted closed).  Wash everything: bedding, sheets, etc., vacuum every other day as if you were doing a spring cleaning, including your mattress and box spring.  Be CAREFUL what you use indoors: all flea products are deadly to birds, not to mention the baby.  Borax with salt sprinkled on rugs, left for two hours, then vacuumed will kill eggs.  To get all fleas takes about three months of constant cleaning and monthly application of Revolution.  If you want to treat the outdoors, wait until spring and buy nematodes (online).  These are soluble and can be sprayed on your property; they turn into tiny creatures that eat all larvae so no fleas will return outdoors.  Getting rid of fleas is a horror: tons of hard house work.  Flea comb all your cats or dogs every single day at least once.  Do it in the sink running hot water and wash any fleas you find down the drain, then follow with clorox.  good luck.

There is a product called Knockout and is a flea spray that is safer than other spray's, you can use it on bedding, furniture, carpets, pet bedding, etc. that works great.  I have used it and would highly rec. it.  Ask your vet, if they don't carry it they may be able to order it for you.  Then use Frontline, Advantage, or Revolution on cat's every month for at least 3-4 months to break the flea cycle.

Salt is good for drying out flea eggs.  Adams is a good spray that you can spray on carpet for fleas.  Dawn Dish detergent is the best (and is safe) for flea removal on cats and dogs.

I know this post was started awhile ago, but I'm glad I saw it. I'm going to copy the information I read here down and pass it along to my sister. She's recently been battling a flea problem. There is no carpeting in her house. The furniture is all leather and wood.

I'm a pet-owner myself. We only keep our one dog outside. Several years back my baby did have a flea problem. We didn't bomb the house, but we had to buy a yard spray, wash and spray his bedding and I put revolution on him every month. It was agony as I found that I was being plagued by the critters despite him never setting foot in our house. We have no carpeting either.

Anyway, I had a question for anyone who can tell me. I'm going to sound idiotic probably, but I wanted to ask other people who know pets.

My sister made a comment to me about "cat fleas" and "dog fleas". I kind of scratched my head, because I didn't think there was a difference. So can anyone tell me if this is true? My sister claimed that she found "different" kind of fleas on the cat as opposed to the ones she found on the dog. I'm visually disabled, so I just shrugged and said nothing since I couldn't have her show me a comparison.