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Hope everyone is well and winning your wars! This is a followup to my post of 6/21, and I’m sorry in advcance for how long this is, but I’m very nervous about this flea problem.

I’m having questionable results with the methods I’m using, and I’m very nervous about this flea problem getting worse, and in fact since they don’t seem to be bothering the dog at all, I’m wondering if they’re even fleas. How can I know for sure? They’re so small I can’t see detail. All I can say is that they appear to be longer than wide, some skinny like a tiny piece of thread, almost black in color, and the shell seems to be slightly shiny when held to the light, and they jump, although tonight for the first time, I swear they were flying, but I think I also saw a tiny insect of another type as well, so I may be confused.

There are two areas of the house plus one bathroom that the fleas seem to be concentrated: My bedroom w/wall-to-wall carpeting(where the dog used to sleep but now I’m keeping him in the kitchen), and the kitchen, which has some large thick-pile carpet runners, but I can throw them all out if that will take care of this problem. Here’s what’s happened so far:

DAY 1 of war: I vacuumed and then used Sentry Natural Defense powder on the bedroom carpet, but it had a citrus smell I couldn’t take and made a horrible dusty mess so I only used it the once. The next day I saw few fleas around. I let it stay on 48 hours, but noticed more fleas by the 2nd day, and vacuumed it up along with whatever fleas the vacuum sucked up–my bagless vacuum has a clear canister which I could see the things jumping around in after vacuuming, so I know they were on the floors. I immediately disposed of the canister contents in a sealed bag each time I’ve vacuumed.

DAY 2: After vacuuming, I put down a pretty good sprinkling of only salt and worked it into the carpets with a broom. I did this in the bedroom and the kitchen and some surrounding flooring. For overnight, I set up one white plate in the kitchen with water and Dawn detergent, and one in the bedroom as well, both with a small light next to them. In the morning, I had about a dozen dead fleas in each bowl.

DAY 3: I vacuumed and repeated the salt spreading in the bedroom and kitchen, although put it on heavier this time, and in the bedroom I also worked a pretty heavy coat of baking soda into the carpet too, and put a fresh plate of water and Dawn in the kitchen, and two plates of it in the bedroom this time. I also put two bowls of Pine Sol with apple cider vinegar in the living room out in the open, and one under my bed which would be rather difficult for me to move to vacuum under it. I also have been pouring Pine Sol in the toilet bowl and swishing it around and leaving the seat up to let the aroma permeate the air, and misting apple cider vinegar in the shower, where I’d seen a few fleas, and also on the bathroom carpet. This morning, I awoke to about 40 or 50 dead fleas in the two bowls, which alarmed me as I thought it would be less. And, until last night, they had been mostly staying on the floors–only saw a few in the bed which probably were on my socks. But last night they were climbing and jumping up the walls and the curtains, and some were even on the ceiling. This really freaked me out because I feel like the problem is getting worse instead of better. I spent a lot of time running around slapping duct tape on them and spraying them with the Sentry Natural Defense spray I bought. I then noticed a number of them in the bed so sprayed around the perimiter of the bed with the cider vinegar, including the wall behind the bad.

I also washed the dog with Dawn and then worked vinegar into his coat–I may have seen one or two fleas on him, but not the mass of carcases I expected I might see. I have also been giving him about 2tsp of vinegar in his food twice a day (he won’t drink the water with the vinegar), and spritzing him all over with the vinegar before he goes outside, and myself and the bottom of my pants a few times a day too, though I still find them jumping on me and around me. I haven’t treated the yard yet, but am likely going to be spraying it today, probably with a Pine Sol and lemon concoction I’ve read about here (or was it vinegar?). I’m not so worried about hurting vegetation, but do have to be concerned about the dog, who sometimes eats and rolls around in the grass out there.

After the incident with them on the walls and the ceiling, and in pretty good numbers too, maybe around 15 or so, I couldn’t sleep all night and am still up now at 6am. I’m sure this is not an infestation like some I’ve read about here, but I’m almost to the point where I don’t want to stay in the house any more. I constan tly feel like things are crawling on me or biting me, and most often, I see nothing there. I wanted to avoid the flea bombs as I don’t know I would protect all the mamy things that are on shelves such as collectibles and books and such from being coated with the poison, but I’m beginning to feel desperate. I come home and get into bed and stay put as much as possible as I’ve grown anxious to just put my feet on the floor. This is getting ridiculous!

Thanks for reading this insanely long post. If anyone has any suggestions or comments, I’ll be very appreciative because I’m living with constant anxiety over this.

Bless you,

Dan

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