Tuesday, April 7, 2009

CAUTION: This Story is About Fleas!--EEWWW!

We have, in the eternally precious words of Miss Brooklyn Beth Hiester, "bugs". That is to say fleas, which the sweet kitty we brought home six months ago is now apparently sharing with the rest of the house. We used Frontline on the cat and the dog at first, but after the fleas appeared to be gone, we stopped. Big Mistake. Ko-Ko showed up with them first, and no matter how many bath-and-tweezers sessions I had with her she just got worse. I finally had to take her to a groomer in shame, apologizing for the nature of my visit and avoiding eye contact at all costs. We got her cleaned up and Frontlined, so now she is happy and flea free. The cat has been Frontlined too, but unfortunately for Chad, you cannot Frontline husbands! For some reason that defies explanation, fleas love Chad, and so far seem to abhor the taste of me and my girls. This is not new knowledge, for we have had a run in with these little blood suckers before.
When my brother and sister in law went to Italy for their honeymoon, the five of us went and stayed at their house with the kids. We slept in their room (before Todd laid the new wood floor), and every night Chad would get eaten alive by these vile creatures. I of course believed none of it, since I had not one bite, not one, and we were sleeping right next to each other. He would get flustered trying to convince me, but after night four I had to concede because he WAS waking up with more bites than he was going to sleep with. I left that house with nary a bite to call my own. The man was tortured for days until they cleared up.
Now back to our present situation. I have not one bite, and the girls are clear too, but of course poor Chad is covered. I swear they lie in wait for him, and as soon as they hear him snore they unleash their masses upon his sleeping form!! He encounters fleas on the job occasionally, and the man reacts badly to them each time, but this is bad. The groomer said they wouldn't stay on us because our body temperature is too high, and Chad is a furnace as I have said, but the little buggers must love the taste of him to risk being seared alive during the meal! I fogged our room today, and tonight after he gets home, we will fog the house and leave for the recommended three hours, and then maybe he can get some sleep. The pest guy is coming Monday to spray the yard, so hopefully we can clear up the problem before I wake up one morning and Chad is just gone, eaten right out of his jammies! I have washed all of the bedding multiple times, and again today, but since we are renting this house we cannot just tear up the carpet, which is what we would like to do. Why can't every floor just be hardwood? That would solve so many of my cleaning problems, and I vow never to own a house with wall to wall carpet! I am sorry if the subject matter today has given you the willies, I would probably be more weirded out except that I never see any of them, just the devastation they leave in their tiny little wake!

3 comments:

  1. Yep, it flea season and I got bitten up last year by fleas on my JOBS! I raised holy hell and told management they had to spray the precor with insect growth inhibitor. I was fine after that, then spring came back around and now they are in my office again. I was smart enough to continue wearing boots and long sleeves when the season was coming around, so I only got 1 or two bites on my hand. Last summer I had like 20 bites on one leg. I told them I was not going to continue working under these conditions and moved to another area in the office where they were not "active". They don't seem to be biting anybody but ME! Fleas are hell to get rid of -- you may need to rip out all of the carpet, call a professional to spray precor, use Diatomaceous Earth on all the hall and bedroom floors and leave it down for 4 days, then wipe down all the floor, and wash every freakin thing in the house and wipe everything down. If not you will never get rid of them, hidden eggs will hatch next season. You have a serious task ahead of you but you have to be very aggressive to get rid of them.

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  2. ....also try putting down white paper, they are drawn to that, then you will see them. They are quick, they bite like hell and take off. If you have a real infestation which sounds like thats what happening, evidently you will see them. I feel so bad for your husband because they bite me up too and people who are not bite, don't understand what it like to be eaten alive. If my job does not take care of this problem permanently this year...I'm quitting!

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  3. I am so sorry you too are afflicted with fleas! I truly do not understand the torture....but I feel for you. Thank you so much for all of your helpful suggestions! We have given it into the hands of our pest control guy, and so far he has done a lovely job. Chad hasn't been being attacked lately. We have had to keep the house and the yard sprayed on a certain schedule, and the animals frontlined, but it seems to be getting better and better! You are so mysterious and anonymous :) I hope you enjoyed some of my other stories as well!

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