rahamda20 asked 6 years ago
Hello,
I apologize for the long message, I just need an expert’s advice. I Searched in a lot of places and this site seems the most suficient.
Ok, so I moved in to a house last week in August 14 and the previous tenants had 4 cats.
After two days of my staying there, all of the cats were (fortunately) gone with the tenants and I stayed alone in the house.
I started to itch during the night and after obsorving the bites on my feet, I discovered that theres a flea infisticatiin in the house.
I thought its a minor problem and tried to handle the situation on my own, put salt, vacummed etc etc but the situation got worse.
So, after being bitten really hard in my feet throughout cleaning and sleeping, I ordered a flea control.
The flea control company arrived on August 20 and treated the whole house.
After the flea control, the situation was still unbareable and I decided to leave this house also cause I realized that the infistication is basically from the yard which wasnt treated.
On August 21, I left the house but before doing that sprayed all of my belongins, washed all of my cloths and sent some of them to the laundry mat too.
Then, stayed in a hotel for couple of days. Haven’t been bitten throughout my staying in the hotel.
In August 24, I entered a new house without any pets that had flea control couple of months ago.
Before entering the new house، I sprayed all of the new house’s floors and furniture with Raid against fleas and another spray I got from pet store.
I also treated the cloths and stuff that couldnt be washed (for example- suitcases and shoes) outside with the two Sprays. Then, I let everything dry outside for couple of hours. Afterwards I sealed the suitcases (cause they were my biggest concern) in double plastic bags and rapped them with masking tape and put them on a top of a cabinet in the laundry room.
So far, I haven’t seen fleas and wasn’t bitten by any fleas in the new house.
Now my questions are:
-Do you think I am protected and done with the flea now that I washed and sprayed everything and after leaving the house one day after the flea control?
-And, do you think there might be eggs somewhere even though the cats didnt sit on my stuff?
Please take in mind that:
-The infested house had a flea control treatment while my stuff were still there (most of them were still inside the boxes and suitcases)
– I do not think that the cats sat on my stuff cause they left one day after I arrived
-I didnt have to move any furniture, had to move only my cloths and personal belongings which I washed and sprayed and my bike that I sprayed as well.
It was a traumatic experience for me and I do not want them to infest the new house.
Thank you!
Adam Retzer Staff answered 6 years ago
rahamda20,
It sounds like you were dealing with a fairly severe infestation in the previous home. If the previous tenant had 4 cats with fleas, there was likely a very large number of immature stages living in the environment. Eggs, larvae, and pupae account for 95-99% of infestations. These young stages live in protected microhabitats where treatments can’t penetrate well. So, it’s common to see new adults emerge for around 8 weeks (and get bites). However, after treatment, there should be no new generation of fleas.
1) It’s unlikely that the fleas will be brought with you into the new house, especially if it was treated prior to moving in.
2) There is slim chance of bringing eggs with you if the cats didn’t lay on your belongings, especially because you aren’t bringing higher risk items like floor rugs, furniture, etc.
I am sorry you had this experience, but I think you should be in the clear at this point. It sounds like problem is mainly limited to the previous home, where the previous tenant was negligent about treating their cats for fleas.
Warm regards,
Adam
