Fleas
 

I moved into a new apartment about a month ago and the girl who lived in it before I did had a cat so of course she's left me the fleas. I bought flea bombs at Home Depot last week and bombed the entire apartment. It seemed to work and the fleas werent around for a few days but I just started getting bit again! I'm going to bomb the apartment again this week but since I have never dealt with a situation like this does anyone have any suggestions on what else I can do to be rid of the fleas once and for all!

Yes: Tell your landlord there are fleas and that he needs to call an exterminator immediately.

Yes. If you're renting, it shouldn't be your responsibility to get rid of pests. It is the apartment complex's duty to make sure your home is bug-free. You need to tell them to have an exterminator come out immediately.

we ran into a similar problem. my cats had never had fleas until we moved into a row house. as soon as we turned on the heat for the winter, out they came.
if you have pets, treat them with advantage flea killer.
for the apartment, i use zodiac carpet spray.
using these once a month should hopefully do the trick.

Where do I buy that? Would walmart have it or do I need to go to Home Depot?

I'd try a pet supply store before Home Depot. Maybe Petsmart?

And you need to get your landlord to call an exterminator. Just use the spray until they can get someone in to you.

You're disgusting. Take a shower.

-Rudey

Zodiac is horrible and doesn't work. Plus, it is dangerous if you do have pets in the house. We've seen so many pets coming in poisoned from their owners trying to erradicate fleas.

fullertongreek: You really should let your landlord take care of this professionally.

It was my general understanding that all apartment complexes clean out the carpets, and have apartments treated for those kinds of pests with the portion (usually half) of the pet deposit that was non refundable?

Around here, pet deposits (doesn't matter if it's a cat, dog, bird, whatever) are about $500 per PET and half of that is non-refundable. At both complexes I've lived with my dog, they told me that the non-refundable portion is to cover the costs of all of that treatment regardless of whether you reported a flea issue or not while you were staying there.

Thanks everyone! I called the leasing office on Tuesday morning and they scheduled an exterminator to come in this upcoming Tuesday. Apparently the exterminator only comes by the complex on Tuesdays so had I called even a day earlier I could have taken care of it this week! I'm spending the wkend at my parents so I wont have to deal with getting bit every night.

Buy a flea collar and cut it up. Put a few pieces in the bag inside your vacuum. When you vacuum the floor, all the fleas will die in the bag so you won't be "reinfecting" your carpet each time you use your vacuum.

Vacuum often, several time a week. I would not use zodiac products-have seen too many reactions in cats.

Also, good old "Mule Team Borax" (it is a laundry booster...you can find it at WalMart and the like with the laundry supplies) sprinkled onto the carpet will keep them at bay. We lived in a very nice complex near a golf course but got infested with these nasty black fleas. I've never seen anything like them before. I swear they were on steroids. Anyway, the exterminator explained since it never fully froze in the winter the fleas were never totally snuffed out. And, being on a golf course, the constant watering and wet drove them inside even more than usual. This was when the twins were babies and it was impossible to keep them off the floor. NASTY. Good luck getting rid of the little buggars!!

AGH!

Now Vi is the one with the flea issues!!!

She's on Frontline Plus, but somewhere between the groomer's, & dog park she picked them up because I saw one!! yucky!!

So my questions are:

1) If I have a bagless vaccume cleaner, can I still cut up a flea collar and put it in the air tunnel... or???

2) Should I bomb the apartment? I have this SCARY VISION that they are EVERYWHERE even though I am not getting bites or haven't seen them anywhere around my apartment

Try "Adam's" spray. I believe they have a kind that you can spray around your house. It stinks to high-heaven but it usually works. We went through this once. Our dog came back from the kennel with fleas .... even though he was on frontline :eek:

The Adam's worked quickly.