Ugh. D and her roommate have been in an apt that has carpet for a couple of months. Roommate recently noticed lots of little bites on her lower legs, ankles, feet. Claims she might have seen some fleas recently. They have no pets and the apt landlord doesn’t allow pets but that doesn’t mean the previous occupants didn’t have a pet.
D put out bowls of dawn soap last night and they caught a few of something mainly in the roommates’ room. Nothing in D’s room which is on the second level of the apt. Roommate is freaking out and wants to have flea treatment. They are conversing with landlord but of course at this point (which I understand) it’s hard to say if they are there how long they have been there. The estimates they got this morning are about $250 - seems high to me? This is a midwest city.
Anyway, any guidance - votes for or against professional treatment based on the info, experience with the flea bombs you can buy yourself… roommate did do baking soda on the carpet and vacuuming today (cleaning out vacuum afterwards).
I got rid of ours using flea traps. Lowe’s or Home Depot sell them. They are made of sticky paper and small light bulbs. It’s kinda disgusting to see how many are trapped but they are effective.
For what it’s worth we did not have any indoor/outdoor pets at the time and a friend who had a flea infestation had no pets. All you need to do is walk through a yard and get one or two that had hopped off of a rabbit or other wildlife -one pregnant female flea in an apartment can infest the whole place.
You can also put a pet flea collar in the vacuum bag to kill the ones vacuumed up. And behind sofa cushions and under mattresses.
If they don’t have pets, the burden is on the landlord to treat their apartment. Fleas can linger in the grass and get a ride into the apartment on a person. How do I know? We had the same problem in our first apartment here near Seattle when we moved here for Mr.'s job. The landlord took care of it pronto.
Good point BB. They are still in conversations with the landlord who definitely asked them to get some estimates for treatment. I think they will have the treatment Monday - safe than sorry.
My daughter had the same issue, although she does have an indoor cat. Her apartment is mostly flooring, and the halls leading to her unit are wood. It is incredible how the fleas get in- but they do. She bombed and did the baking soda thing, but had to go a couple of rounds to get rid of them.
Could be worse I guess…bedbugs, lice, rodents… We are not a carpet family and I think my D was like “ah! It’s this darn carpet!!!” - but I guess they hang even without carpeting!
OMG this brings back horrible memories of the first apt W and I had. Lots of bites and then noticed the fleas, all about 2-3 weeks after moving in. This was an apt complex, and we had them treat the fleas professionally even though initially they tried to tell us to go buy some flea bombs from HD.
We followed the advice to vacuum daily, but the fleas came back again a few weeks later. Likely it was eggs that survived the initial treatment, hatching later. So again insisted on a second round of treatment and that finally did the trick.
^^Yes, I guess the benefit of getting a treatment by a company is they will (hopefully) stand behind their work and get those little suckers outta there!
At one point, we lived in a condo where the previous tenant had kept pet raccoons. We had to do several “flea bomb” treatments that involved us leaving the apartment for several hours while toxic chemicals were released. In retrospect, we should have just pulled up the hideous shag carpeting (for multiple reasons). But the bombs did eventually get rid of the little demons.
Are they absolutely sure they don’t have bedbugs? Also, $250 for treatment doesn’t seem that bad. We have spent tens of thousands for bedbug treatments in our apartments.
Years ago while apartment hunting when I first moved to the Midwest, we looked at a place with parquet floors. My ankles were itching while looking at the place, and the rental agent noticed hers were as well. After leaving, I mentioned that this is probably a sign of fleas. Her look of horror was priceless. In California years ago the dog would roll in the seaweed at the beach and then bring the fleas inside. They can hide in the little cracks between floor boards and then jump to bite ankles. I would vote for professional treatment.
Because they “caught” some critters in their soap bowls they feel fleas is more likely. The bites on her roommate are in line with fleas. They do have gas and I have read that about pilot lights - this is another reason why they will have a company who knows what they are doing do the treatment.
We will see what happens tomorrow - I think there is something scheduled!
When our dog brings fleas in the house, we’ve been successful sprinkling the carpet & furniture with diatomaceous earth and vacuuming — often and well past the “I think we got them all” stage.
My daughter just went through the same thing this week at her rental home in Texas. The bugs were seen around the tub faucet and from her research and the bites on her legs, it seemed to fleas. He husband didn’t have any bite, so she assumed it was because she had taken a bath in the guest bathroom and she would dry her hair there. The home has no carpet, and pets aren’t allowed. After fighting with the landlord, an exterminator arrived to spray. He is coming back in two weeks to check the area and maybe retreat. He also sprayed the yard and perimeter of the house.
My worried is my daughter is 36 weeks pregnant, but she was not in the house while he treated, and is not using that bathroom for a while. He did spray the baseboards of the remainder of the house, but she was assured the spray was not a problem for either her or her unborn baby; worried mom hopes they are correct! The exterminator said they were cat fleas; had no idea cat and dog fleas were different
Thanks for mentioning that they sprayed the perimeter - I’ll share that with D as well. I guess I"m glad to be a novice at this - meaning I haven’t experienced it…but I have learned a lot!
We are not a carpet family and I think my D was like “ah! It’s this darn carpet!!!” - but I guess they hang even without carpeting!