Alyssa asked 8 years ago
Hello, first of all this site has been very informative and helpful. Long story short: we had a cat that we had to get rid of because she was causing problems after our baby was born (our baby is 3 months old now). When we got rid of her, we started seeing fleas in the house, which are now obviously jumping on us because the cat is gone. I do not like the thought of using chemicals on the carpets and around the house because of my 3 year old and 3 month old. We have been vacuuming every other day to daily and setting out dish soap traps under lamps. We are still consistently getting about 30 fleas per trap in a 24 hour period and we are into the third week of control measures. It is pretty disgusting when I lay my baby down for a diaper change and find a flea in her hair!! We invested in a new vacuum which has seemed to help some, but still no decrease in the amount of fleas. Could there still be hundreds of fleas that have yet to emerge?! We are on the verge of tearing up our carpets if this doesn’t end. We can’t really afford many more control measures. I have lost sleep trying to figure out how to end all of this. Please help! Thank you!
Adam Retzer Staff answered 8 years ago
Hello Alyssa, you should start seeing a decline very soon.
It sounds the fleas on your cat went undetected for a while, which means they had a decent amount of time to reproduce unhindered. There were likely a large number of immature stages in your carpets, since the eggs fall into environment and develop there.
The flea life cycle, from egg to adult, usually completes in 17-26 days in homes. So the last eggs to fall from your cat 3 weeks ago should be maturing into adults and emerging soon. When all the adults have emerged and have been killed, then the infestation will be over. Fleas can’t reproduce without a cat or dog in the home, so no new eggs will be laid.
There is one problem stage that makes estimating time to extinction difficult. After the larvae pupate into adults, the cocooned adults can stay quiescent (a dormant-like state) for up 5 months while they wait for a host. Heat and physical pressure, which are cues of a host resting on the cocoons, trigger the pre-emerged adults to wake up and emerge within seconds. Vacuuming is the best ways to simulate these host cues and force emergence.
Since there are no pets in your home, you shouldn’t need to use any chemical treatments. Continue vacuuming regularly and the problem should resolve itself soon. You should be seeing a decline in the numbers within a short time. And then they will continue to taper off until the fleas are extinct within your home.
Warm regards,
Adam
Alyssa
replied 8 years ago Awesome thank you for your response. I’m glad to hear we won’t need to use chemicals! Hopefully this all ends sooner than later.
Alyssa
replied 8 years ago Hello again, I have a new development and therefore a new question. We are still catching quite a few fleas in our dishsoap traps, and for weeks they have been very tiny. Now all of the sudden we have found several in the different rooms that appear to be large females full of eggs…! We do not have any animals in the house, but my 3 year old and 12 year old have so many bites. Is the blood that the fleas get from biting them repeatedly enough to allow females to produce and lay eggs? And if they are laying more eggs, are they viable? This concerns me because we have found several larger fleas and if they are all laying multiple eggs daily I feel like we will never get rid of this infestation. 🙁
Adam RetzerAlyssa, sorry to hear you are still dealing with the fleas.
It usually takes around 8 weeks for the fleas to be completely eradicated in a home. From what you’ve described, it sounds like you’ve been without the cat and treating the home for around 4 weeks now? If so, it make sense that you are still seeing some fleas emerge.
Cat fleas can’t reproduce on human blood. You can read our page about it here:
Can fleas survive and reproduce on human blood
The problem should be ending soon. It will just take a bit more patience. In the meantime, to help prevent flea bites on your family, you can have them wear pants and socks, and tuck the pant legs into the socks. Flea can’t bite through most fabrics.
Alyssa
replied 8 years ago Thanks for the information. So the larger ones that we have recently noticed that appear to be swollen with eggs would be non viable eggs? I guess i thought they couldn’t lay ANY eggs without a proper host.
The larger fleas you saw had likely fed, and were engorged with blood. Fleas nearly double in size and weight once fully engorged. If they only had human blood to feed on, they likely weren’t producing eggs and weren’t swollen with eggs.
Cat fleas can lay eggs when feeding upon a variety of small mammals. However, with human blood, they aren’t able to feed for long enough periods. When they bite people, they feed and then leave immediately. Studies have shown they must be able to feed freely on a person for around 12 hours before they can lay eggs (done in a laboratory setting, because fleas don’t stay on people this long normally). And even then, they only laid 3 to 4 eggs a day, while normally they lay around 25 eggs a day.
Alyssa
replied 8 years ago OK thank you so much for all the helpful information!
Oh I forgot to mention we have been hitting it hard for 3 weeks. I was hoping to see at least some kind of a decline by now.