Hello. Sorry to hear about your cat passing.
There probably aren’t many fleas left in your home. You should be in the clear soon. Especially, if you don’t have any pets.
Usually there are 100 immature fleas for every adult you see. However, this isn’t true in your case. The few fleas you are finding are likely to be pre-emerged adults that are emerging. After pupating, the adults can remain within their cocoons for up to 5 months in a dormant-like state. They emerge once they detect a nearby host. The host cues are heat and physical pressure (usually from walking or pets laying on carpet).
Vacuuming will cause heat and pressure, triggering these pre-emerged adults to emerge. Keep up the vacuuming to force them to emerge and eliminate them. There are few other things you can do to speed up the kill of these stages. They are the most resistant stage to chemicals.
Fleas can’t reproduce on human blood alone in a home setting. So without pets, there will be no new eggs or offspring, even if you see adult fleas. Treating your home with chemicals isn’t necessary at this point. The fleas will disappear soon. Just keep up the vacuuming.
Washing bedding every other day isn’t necessary. Typically, it’s pet bedding that needs to be washed frequently. Human bedding isn’t usually a problem unless a pet owner allows their animal to sleep with them.
I don’t know your exact situation, but from what you’ve told me you’re extremely close to being flea-free!
Thank you for the response. I’ve just been keeping up with vaccuuming, seeing 1-4 jumping around in the canister each time. Today I had one on my sock but caught him and flushed him! What a nightmare this has been. I’m really hoping to end this all ASAP. I have 3 small children who are hard to keep off the floor. I wouldn’t wish this on my worst enemy!