Mindy asked 8 years ago
Hello,
we are currently living in a home with two animals. We have had a minor flea problem for about 3 weeks. We had an exterminator come about 3 days ago, and are hoping for the best.
I have a few questions for you.
1-he told us not to vacuum. But how will we encourage the pupae to hatch if we don’t?
2-what about our toted belongings in the basement? Could fleas survive in them? Can they break in if the lids are attached?
3- we are moving soon. What can we do to assure we won’t bring fleas with us if they are still here in a few months? The animals are not ours and won’t be coming along!
4- I hear animals in our walls at night. The house is old and has lots of cracks between the walls and floors. Could fleas come into our house that way? What is the best way to seal the floors up if they can?
Thanks!
Adam Retzer Staff answered 8 years ago
Hello Mindy,
1
How long did he tell you not to vacuum for? This is common advice exterminators give. However, there have been studies done showing that vacuuming doesn’t reduce the activity of insecticides against fleas (wet carpet cleaning does). There may be discrepancies depending upon what type of compound was sprayed. Regardless, it should be fine to vacuum a few days after treatment.
Insecticide treatments are useful for killing emerged and emerging adults in the carpets. But multiple studies show that traditional insecticides aren’t effective at killing immature stages (the bulk of the infestation), because they live deep within the carpet matrix where sprays can’t penetrate. Insect growth regulators are most effective against the pre-adult stages, and these compounds remain residually active for up to 7 months, even with vacuuming.
Vacuuming is an important part of flea control. It forces cocooned adults to emerge, as you’ve mentioned. It also removes new eggs from the carpets before they have a chance to hatch. Plus, it removes a portion of existing eggs, larvae, pupae, and larval food.
2
Your toted belongings should be fine. Adult fleas don’t break into these types of areas. Young fleas develop in protected areas on the ground, most often carpeting. Upon emerging, the adults seek out a host and stay on it once acquired. The adults don’t go wandering in places where there isn’t a host.
The only exception would be if a flea-infested animal was resting on top of the totes. Then eggs may have fallen off the animal, and onto the totes. Flea eggs are laid on the host, but fall off into the environment within a few hours.
3
To ensure you aren’t bringing fleas with you, make sure you thoroughly clean or dispose of any items that the infested animals may have rested on. These items may be harboring immature fleas. Area rugs and sofa cushions are the primary examples I can think of. If you aren’t bringing any animals with you, you shouldn’t have much of an issue.
4
It is possible for urban wildlife to bring fleas into a home. The prime culprits are raccoons, opossums, and feral cats. Rodents aren’t an issue, as they don’t carry cat fleas (or other fleas of domestic importance).
As far as sealing the cracks, it’s probably best to take that question somewhere else. It lies outside my expertise.
Hope this helps!
Adam
mindy
replied 8 years ago ADam, thanks so much for your timely answer! We were told not to vacuum for two weeks. But I want that pupae to jump out into an adult so it will die. They applied an IGR and adulticide onto the floors. Our entire house is hardwood, and we only have a few area rugs (three of which we washed, dried, and sealed away into dark contractor bags and zip tied. My daughter has a larger area rug in her room. Which we vacuumed, steam cleaned, sprinkled DE underneath, and have vacuumed like crazy. We have only seen 3 dead fleas in her room and that was about 3 weeks ago. So I think her room is OK. We will prob have her rug cleaned professionally when we move b/c it has some stains. 🙂
Since we don’t have carpet, do you think that is why the exterminator suggested not vacuuming for 2 weeks?
The company has been around for 100yrs, and they have a 6 month guarantee. They said they will come back every two weeks if they need to for 6 months (and even a bit longer if the fleas have not gone). So we have some peace of mind.
We have only seen one live one since Friday (I caught it and killed it!), and have brushed a few dead ones off the cat and dog (about one a day each). This is supposed to be common after extermination.
But I think that I will vacuum the house tomorrow and try to get the pupae to pop out and either get sucked up in the vacuum or hit the adulticide and die!
We have a bag less vacuum which we sprinkled DE into and then put flea collar pieces into it. We are leaving it on the porch. Is that OK? We try to empty it after each vacuum, but sometimes we don’t. Its supposed to get COLD here next week(Massachusetts) at night (low 30s) so we hope the outdoors kills the outdoor ones.
Adam RetzerIt sounds like the steps you’ve taken should eradicate the fleas. The fleas will not have survived on the rugs after those procedures.
I don’t think the hardwood floors are the reason for the exterminators recommending you not vacuum for 2 weeks, but I could be wrong. From what I can tell, it’s just common advice they give in fear that vacuuming will lower the efficacy of the treatments.
It’s common to see fleas here or there after proper treatment is in place. It usually takes around 8 weeks before all the fleas are completely extinct inside the home. Their numbers should continue to decrease as time goes on.
If you don’t want to vacuum (as per the exterminators instructions), you can alternatively wear socks and pants. Tuck the pant legs into the socks. Then slowly walk around the home, especially in areas where you’ve noticed the most fleas or where the animals frequently rest. The two stimuli that trigger cocoon emergence are heat and physical pressure. These are host cues, and they that can be simulated by both walking and vacuuming.
There was a study done on fleas getting killed as they get sucked up by a vacuum. The brushes, air currents, and other mechanical actions kill the fleas (or damage them to the point they can’t move) as they enter the vacuum. No life stage survives. So there’s no need to further sanitize the bag/container, unless you want to be extra cautious.
That low of temperature will kill the fleas developing outdoors. Wow, winter is coming fast!
