Donna Thomas asked 8 years ago
My cat had fleas I took her to the vet and she told me to give her a bath with dawn dish soap and gave me medicine for her and spray for the carpet and furniture I got rid of the fleas on my cat and I have been spraying and vacuuming but I still see fleas around when I see them I kill them and I have water with dawn in containers and it’s catching some of the fleas, I have clothes in plastic bags and clothes in baskets on the floor if the clothes that are in the plastic bags have fleas on them will the fleas die in the plastic bags and the clothes that are in the baskets are there fleas on them and should I wash them and I have stuffed animals should I throw them away because I am afraid that there are fleas in them I was told to throw them away because fleas like furry things they are on the back of my bed on top of something high can fleas jump real high I’m afraid that I will have to get rid of everything that has fur on it, can you please tell me what I should get rid of and where to spray the most and how often do I have to wash my bedding I washed it twice already my cat has not been in my bed she was in the bed right after I gave her a bath and gave her medicine and the fleas were dropping off her there were a lot of dead fleas and I saw a few live fleas on the bed but I killed them she has not been in the bed since I have a fuzzy blanket on my bed do you think that there are any fleas in the blanket, I’m really freaking out about the fleas in the house can you please tell me what to do to get rid of them faster or any other ideas any help you can give me please, thank you so much.
Adam Retzer Staff answered 8 years ago
It’ll take up to 8 weeks for the fleas to completely disappear, even after taking all the correct measures. In some cases, the traces of the infestation can persist for up to 6 months.
You’ll see them here and there, because the immature stages are still developing into adults. But eventually they will go extinct, as adult fleas won’t be able to reproduce and lay eggs after your pets are treated.
Fleas aren’t attracted to clothes or stuffed animals. These items don’t have warmth that fleas are drawn to. Fleas are attracted to the thermal cues of warm-blooded animals.
Fleas will die eventually in plastic bags. They’ll starve to death, in two weeks at the latest. Washing and drying the garments will kill any fleas on them. So washing the items is probably the more logical option. This shouldn’t need to be done too often, as fleas shouldn’t be found on these things. Almost all fleas develop in carpeting. And adult fleas live on their host.
Fleas can jump to the height of your ankle. Rarely will they be found on beds, unless an infested pet sleeps there. Further, fleas don’t prefer feeding on humans. Bites one humans are incidental to the infestation on a dog or cat.
Along with the flea spray, vacuuming the carpets often. Vacuuming will speed up the eradication process significantly. The best place to spray and vacuum are areas where your pets spend a lot of time resting, namely carpets, rugs and pet beds. Places on the carpet to focus on are often besides further and beds, in living rooms and bedrooms.
