Holy crap. What a day.
Over the last week, I've been being bitten by something in bed at night. I'll wake up with small itchy bites on my arms, but strangely, Steve was never being bitten, cruely, it was just ME (as if I needed something else to add to the miserable sleeping patterns I've been enjoying, courtesy of baby, for the last 4 weeks). Anyway, I mentioned it in passing to my friend Lisa at volleyball practice this week and she oh-so-calmly informed me it was probably fleas.
WHAT??!?
Thank you, Lisa, for 2 sleepless nights in which I wore long sleeves, long pants, and socks pulled up over my pant legs to alleviate the anxiety I had at the thought of being attacked by fleas in my bed.
Enter in a HUGE case of paranoia and constant heebie-jeebies whenever I'm in my house or bed now and you have my life for the last 3 days. I turned my suspecting eyes on Cooper, that pee-and-poop-nonstop-in-my-house adorable birthday gift of a puppy and declare war. And hey...he sure IS scratching a lot more, now that I'm noticing that he may be infested with a flesh-biting insect. *shudder*
So this morning, I get up at 7:00 and start to work on finishing up my "little" project on the crib....which took about 3 hours. My back is hurting, I'm sweating from the blazing inferno that is summertime in south Georgia, but Cooper (and my house) MUST be completely sterilized or I will not be able to relax at all until it's done.
I break out the kiddie pool and wrestle Cooper in there and lather him up with flea-killing shampoo that I picked up at the store at midnight last night ( I told you, this is war). The directions said to let it set on there for 5-10 minutes - I set the timer for 11 (better safe than sorry). After I hosed him off and he seemed to be squeaky clean, I dried him and put him in his crate (with fresh bedding) and set off to tackle the house.
1. )I started off in our room, with our bed. Pulled the mattress and the box spring off the frame and sprayed it down with flea/tick killer (also purchased at midnight last night).
2) Then I vacummed under the bed and cleaned the wood with furniture polish.
3) Decide that while I'm at it, I should rearrange the furniture in the bedroom, so I moved the bed around....about 4 different ways until I decided I just liked it the way it was, only moved over to the left by about 6 inches, just to make myself feel like I accomplished *something* after all that manual labor.
4) Put the mattress and box spring back on the bed, and then put all our sheets, blankets, pillowcases, etc (and the boys') in the washing machine on the hottest setting.
5) Spray down all the carpet (with the flea spray) in the bedrooms and the hallway.
6) Curse loudly at all fleas in general, in existence, in the entire world.
7) THEN I steam clean all the carpet in the whole house.
8) Put up the baby gate to block off the hallway so Cooper can't go back there and (a) pee or poop on the clean carpet or (b) get any fleas on the now flea-less carpet
9) To the living room: Spray down all the furniture in the living room with flea killer, which by now is getting alarmingly low.
10) Wonder if all this hard work could make the baby come early. Decide that that wouldn't be a bad thing and return to work with gusto
11) Let Cooper out of his crate to go outside and adminster monster dosage of doggie flea killer to his fur. Chase down cat, (who, by the way, has become rather cranky since Cooper's arrival) and give her a flea treatment as well, just to be safe (also purchased at midnight last night).
12) Sit down and watch tv for 30 minutes. Eat cereal. Start to feel the effects of the day on my back and decide to lay down in bed for a nap.
13) Cooper jumps over baby gate and brings his sorry butt over to the bed. No way doggie...outta my room flea bag.
14) Put Cooper back in his crate and drive to Target. Pick up powder flea-treatment for carpet and upholstery.
15) Come home..sprinkle said powder all over carpet and furniture in the entire house.
16) Wait an hour, vacuum it up.
17) Revel in incredibly clean (and fresh-smelling!) house.
18) Notice Cooper scratching at himself in the corner.
19) Consider crying. Curse instead.
What does this mean?? How long does it take for the fleas to die??
Somebody shoot me.
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5 comments:
Ok, um... that really sucks for you. But on your behalf, I did a little research and found out a couple things that might be helpful.
1) You need to treat the pets, inside of your house, and your yard to completely get rid of fleas.
2) Even after you have treated your pets, there will probably still be fleas until they absorb the shampoo completely.
Here is a website I found that talks about how to completely get rid of those pests!!
http://www.peteducation.com/article.cfm?cls=1&cat=1333&articleid=590
Fleas! Hate the little varmints. Had a bad case in FL and, unfortunately, in warm climates (like GA), they never die.
We had to buy a flea bomb that you set off in your house; you have to find something to do for about four hours and have to cover all your food w/plastic or newspaper.
I think it would be easier to cover than what you did today? Little too late w/that advice.
I tried flea spray--yeah, all I can say is "sucker". The eggs will hatch in about ten days and then you'll have to start all over again.
More later--Gerald's staring at me 'cuz were childless and suppposed to be going to a movie.
Ah, he's leaving...gotta go.
amy lynn-thanks for the info. I'll probably be a freak about vacuuming and spraying the house with flea-killer for the next week or so just to be safe.
amyp-I wondered how effective the sprays really were, and I DID pick up one of those flea bomb things today and consider that, but the idea of having to be out of the house for 4 hours wasn't very appealing. I'm hoping between the spray, the powder, the vacuum, hot-washing all the linens, and steam cleaning the carpets that I got them all. Blasted fleas.
ohhhh hate them, hate them...
and only a nesting pregnant woman would have the strength to do what you did today. i really should pick up a bottle of prenatal vitamins and see if they help me to not be such a wuss.
Amy is right...the flea eggs will hatch in about ten days. That would be a great time to set off the bomb...much faster and more effective. Nothing can kill the eggs, so you have to break their life cycle.
One other helpful thing, I give Sid brewers' yeast pills. They have tons of garlic in them, which flavors her blood so that the fleas don't find her an attractive host. Been using them for about a year and we've had no flea problems. It's a pretty cheap alternative to some of those prescription things.
Good luck!
What about Sentinal? Flee and heart worm med from the vet! That's what we give Dex and we have never had any problems...
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