John Doe asked 5 years ago
Hello there! I have a big flea problem in my flat. I was dumb enough to bring a stray kitten home without decontaminating it by a proffesional first. I gave it water, food, shelter washed it, and although seeing blood in the water while washing it I was dumb enough not to put two and two together (it was probably severely bitten). In a couple of days, I had a full-blown flea infestation, wasnt able to walk around the flat normaly or actually doing a thorough cleanup of the place. I saw hundreds of them, flea-poo all over, and everything. It was a zoo. Gave the kitten Frontline Combo (kills of all stages I was told) and left the cat on my lawn (place where I am building my new house, but no body lives there). The cat actually left the place probably out of curiosity but at least it had Frontline. Later on, I had to sleep in the car while the professionals nuked my flat with insecticides. When I returned, I have thrown away 80% of the stuff I owned, most of the pillows, blankets and clothing. The rest i washed and dried and ironed. It is four days now since the gas-bomb or whatever and I keep seeing small adult fleas running on walls, I have bites on ankles, and every here and there one pops out of my shirt. I change clothes daily and wash my self and vacuum clean. I think I even contaminated my work place because eggs kept falling from my shirt and I saw living fleas. My question: Can I contaminate my workplace and other people? What should I do right now? Besides it is a rented flat and as much as I would like to leave i cant leave the place knowing there are fleas around.
Adam Retzer Staff answered 5 years ago
John Doe,
It’s possible that you contaminated your work with fleas, but not likely. Fleas spread from eggs. Eggs are laid on host animals, but they aren’t sticky and soon fall off. Fleas don’t live on humans though, and don’t lay eggs on them. It’s possible that some adult fleas inadvertently hitch-hiked on you into the office. Still, there are probably no animals in the office to act as hosts and continue the infestation. So, it shouldn’t be a huge issue. Cat fleas can’t survive or reproduce on human blood.
It is going to take around 8 weeks for the fleas to go away in your home. All of the immature stages in the carpets need to mature, emerge as adults, and die. The fleas developing there now should be the last generation though. One of the best things you can do to speed up the process is regularly vacuum. Please see our page on How to get rid of fleas for comprehensive control information.
Adam
John Doe
replied 5 years ago Adam, thank you very much for the reply and the information! It’s been a month now, but I’m still tackling it. I made all those steps people usually do, even a bit more radical. I threw away most of my belongings, had the professionals treat the flat twice, I vacuum pretty thorougly at least once in every 48h but mostly every day. I vacuum the car and treat it with Biokill (expanded time), wash my clothes in high temperatures and wash myself every day, besides the cat is gone. At first I thought it’s just the immature stages developing in the environment, and biting me because of hunger. But yesterday I saw a flea egg, milky and round, I’m positive about it. It was on the couch i vacuumed the day before so I think I didn’t end the cycle somehow. The positive side of things is that I didn’t see na adult flea in fige days or so and the flea trap was empty. At least their numbers have declined and it should mean I’m winning this numbers war. Earlier there were many, even jumping from me at the ATM machine screen in the evening because of LED lighting. Anyway, I know I sound half-mad probably. The work place seems okay, but there are mice occasionaly (shopping centre). Thanks and wish you all the best.
John Doe answered 5 years ago
Adam, thank you very much for the reply and the information! It’s been a month now, but I’m still tackling it. I made all those steps people usually do, even a bit more radical. I threw away most of my belongings, had the professionals treat the flat twice, I vacuum pretty thorougly at least once in every 48h but mostly every day. I vacuum the car and treat it with Biokill (expanded time), wash my clothes in high temperatures and wash myself every day, besides the cat is gone. At first I thought it’s just the immature stages developing in the environment, and biting me because of hunger. But yesterday I saw a flea egg, milky and round, I’m positive about it. It was on the couch i vacuumed the day before so I think I didn’t end the cycle somehow. The positive side of things is that I didn’t see an adult flea in five days or so and the flea trap was empty. At least their numbers have declined and it should mean I’m winning this numbers war. Earlier there were many, even jumping from me at the ATM machine screen in the evening because of LED lighting. Anyway, I know I sound half-mad probably. The work place seems okay, but there are mice occasionaly (shopping centre). Thanks and wish you all the best.
