really need your advice if you have ever had an insect infestation !!!

[MossRoad]

If s she continued having flea issues, they are not finding the origin of fleas. When a house has a bad flea problem, I spray my self down with mosquito spray that has deet so they will always die if they jump in me

DEET does NOT kill fleas (or mosquitos). It's a repellant, not an insecticide.

 

[ljjhouser]

Thank you everyone and thanks F-dud

She has the light you stated and an 8x11 white flea sticky trap. this is how they determined if there were activity and how many.. They have gone thru about 4-5 different sets of traps [8/set all over the house and rooms].

I did send the landlord a pretty scathing note that basically got her a months of rent knocked off. If this crap does not end, I am going to go from exterminator or atty. Each girl also had to put down a $2000 deposit, so we need to make sure they all get their money back too.

Interesting mess. I hate flees. But killing the flea will not end it. It is the eggs that continue to hatch and lay more eggs. You must kill the flea and eggs.

Many years ago, our dog had fleas and we gave her a flea bath. Then we all (including the dog) left town for about three weeks. Much to our surprise, when we walked in, fleas were jumping out of the carpet.

There used to be a flea treatment by Adams in a blue bottle. We sprayed the carpet, furniture and most everything with it. Then came back the next day. That apparently killed the fleas and eggs.
But I know you cannot buy that anymore. It was found to be a hazardous chemical.

Seems like they are still getting in somewhere or the eggs are not being dealt with. Wonder why all that treatment did not stop them.
I hope they either find a better place or get it stopped.

Aren't the girls being plagued with flea bites?

 

[vanatic2]

Although I second and third the notions of "move" if staying is their choice, I found a fogger spray that seriously kills everything I've thrown it at! Had a double infestation of bees and wasps in our hot tub because it was out of commission for a year and idle. Nothing was getting rid of them both. Bought this fogger called Dymon 'The End' and they were dead in days. Fogged our back garage, no more spiders and greatly reduced the stink bugs I've seen. Same with house garage. Stuff ain't cheap, but it worked for me. I paid $30 for two cans, only used half of one so far! Most places want to sell by the case, so I Googled until I found places that would sell individual cans at 'reasonable' price. Good luck!

 

[RandyRob]

I'm posting this here bc you guys have never failed me and I [my daughter] has a huge problem....

My daughter and her 3 roommates [all 1 yr just out of college] have rented an older pier & beam home that had an addition w a solid foundation to make it 4 bedrooms. Because the crawl-space to the pier & beam was not secured, an animal entered and climbed up into the walls of my daughters bathroom closet. She heard it scratching in the walls so she reported it to the landlord.

It was discovered that there was a sm water leak in the wall and the animal was seeking both water and prob shelter. This was the during a drought in austin tx this summer, w 30 days of straight 100+ temps and no rain. Once the wall was opened, the leak was found and fixed. The repair person said to leave the wall open until it dried out. This is when a massive flea infestation took place. If you went into the house, your white socks turned black in a matter of seconds.

I called their landlord and told him the house was uninhabitable and you needed to find a place for them to stay. He begrudgingly ok'ed a rented an ABnB for a week, whicg turned to 3 weeks and 3 diff places. An extermination company came and did 2 diff flea treatments 2 wks apart. After spraying/laying powders, using growth reg hormones, inside and out. Then 2 weeks later, the fleas were still there. My daughter and her roommates came 2-4 times per day to vacuum up any and all eggs, larvae, etc. I am going to skip forward bc this would take too long. They collectively logged over 130 hrs of vacuuming.

After hiring another company bc the first one did not cut it, 82 days later my daughter found another flea on the flea trap in her room. She has not been able to sleep in her room in over 3+ months. The handyman, when trying to work on closing crawlspace and other, was bitten countless times on his back, neck, legs, etc. My daughter had to buy a hazmat suit to go inside the house to vacuum each time, they all did, She's spent over $600 on supplies, recleaning her things, which are all in black plastic bags. This is the second time of cleaning.

In order not to make this a novel, I am seeking advice for anyone that has experienced a really bad flea infestation, what you did to rectify? More so if you were in a rental house or a pier & beam house. It's really taken a toll on her especially, bc her room has had the most and continued issues. Pls let me know what questions you have and sorry for the long post. I thank you in earnest for any & all advice...nothing is more personal than when it comes to your immediate family. thank you very much.

Sorry to hear about your Daughters demise. I know first hand what a Flea infestation is all about.

Since this is not your building I would suggest running away as fast as you can. You can't beat the fleas... period!

In 2006 when I was remodeling a rental home for a very prominent Doctor in a nearby town, we ran into the Flea Bugs from Hell. His renters had many pets in the home and they allowed the animals free run of the house as they pleased.

As for the Fleas, well it's long 5 week story about how we lost the Flea War. I gave up when my Construction Crew refused to work at that location because the fleas were attacking them.

On my worst day I counted 70+ flea bites. All my cuffs were taped and I was wearing Off bug spray... lots of it. I had hundreds of bites, mostly on my legs but all over my body.

I know all about Fleas. Did you know the eggs can lay dormant for years even during frozen winter weather, and when they feel vibrations the eggs will hatch.

We used about 50 Flea bombs over a 30 day period on this little 2 bedroom home and it still had a bad flea problem.

 

[Bobrown14]

I'm posting this here bc you guys have never failed me and I [my daughter] has a huge problem....

My daughter and her 3 roommates [all 1 yr just out of college] have rented an older pier & beam home that had an addition w a solid foundation to make it 4 bedrooms. Because the crawl-space to the pier & beam was not secured, an animal entered and climbed up into the walls of my daughters bathroom closet. She heard it scratching in the walls so she reported it to the landlord.

It was discovered that there was a sm water leak in the wall and the animal was seeking both water and prob shelter. This was the during a drought in austin tx this summer, w 30 days of straight 100+ temps and no rain. Once the wall was opened, the leak was found and fixed. The repair person said to leave the wall open until it dried out. This is when a massive flea infestation took place. If you went into the house, your white socks turned black in a matter of seconds.

I called their landlord and told him the house was uninhabitable and you needed to find a place for them to stay. He begrudgingly ok'ed a rented an ABnB for a week, whicg turned to 3 weeks and 3 diff places. An extermination company came and did 2 diff flea treatments 2 wks apart. After spraying/laying powders, using growth reg hormones, inside and out. Then 2 weeks later, the fleas were still there. My daughter and her roommates came 2-4 times per day to vacuum up any and all eggs, larvae, etc. I am going to skip forward bc this would take too long. They collectively logged over 130 hrs of vacuuming.

After hiring another company bc the first one did not cut it, 82 days later my daughter found another flea on the flea trap in her room. She has not been able to sleep in her room in over 3+ months. The handyman, when trying to work on closing crawlspace and other, was bitten countless times on his back, neck, legs, etc. My daughter had to buy a hazmat suit to go inside the house to vacuum each time, they all did, She's spent over $600 on supplies, recleaning her things, which are all in black plastic bags. This is the second time of cleaning.

In order not to make this a novel, I am seeking advice for anyone that has experienced a really bad flea infestation, what you did to rectify? More so if you were in a rental house or a pier & beam house. It's really taken a toll on her especially, bc her room has had the most and continued issues. Pls let me know what questions you have and sorry for the long post. I thank you in earnest for any & all advice...nothing is more personal than when it comes to your immediate family. thank you very much.

spinosad will kill the fleas - Look at Moterey garden Insect spray - its spinosad. You will need a small 1 gal or 2 gal sprayer and dilute 3 tbs with 1 gal water and spray the floors - it will sorta look like water but all the fleas have to do is walk on the residue from the spray and gone also kills on contact.

Spinosad is the same stuff vets give to dogs and cats for fleas. This is completely safe for hoo-man too as its a bacteria that not harmful.

https://www.amazon.com/Monterey-LG6...lpcontext&ref_=fplfs&psc=1&smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER

 

[Little Red Tractor]

Maybe your health department can help. This will depend on state and local laws

 

[whitehair]

I'm posting this here bc you guys have never failed me and I [my daughter] has a huge problem....

My daughter and her 3 roommates [all 1 yr just out of college] have rented an older pier & beam home that had an addition w a solid foundation to make it 4 bedrooms. Because the crawl-space to the pier & beam was not secured, an animal entered and climbed up into the walls of my daughters bathroom closet. She heard it scratching in the walls so she reported it to the landlord.

It was discovered that there was a sm water leak in the wall and the animal was seeking both water and prob shelter. This was the during a drought in austin tx this summer, w 30 days of straight 100+ temps and no rain. Once the wall was opened, the leak was found and fixed. The repair person said to leave the wall open until it dried out. This is when a massive flea infestation took place. If you went into the house, your white socks turned black in a matter of seconds.

I called their landlord and told him the house was uninhabitable and you needed to find a place for them to stay. He begrudgingly ok'ed a rented an ABnB for a week, whicg turned to 3 weeks and 3 diff places. An extermination company came and did 2 diff flea treatments 2 wks apart. After spraying/laying powders, using growth reg hormones, inside and out. Then 2 weeks later, the fleas were still there. My daughter and her roommates came 2-4 times per day to vacuum up any and all eggs, larvae, etc. I am going to skip forward bc this would take too long. They collectively logged over 130 hrs of vacuuming.

After hiring another company bc the first one did not cut it, 82 days later my daughter found another flea on the flea trap in her room. She has not been able to sleep in her room in over 3+ months. The handyman, when trying to work on closing crawlspace and other, was bitten countless times on his back, neck, legs, etc. My daughter had to buy a hazmat suit to go inside the house to vacuum each time, they all did, She's spent over $600 on supplies, recleaning her things, which are all in black plastic bags. This is the second time of cleaning.

In order not to make this a novel, I am seeking advice for anyone that has experienced a really bad flea infestation, what you did to rectify? More so if you were in a rental house or a pier & beam house. It's really taken a toll on her especially, bc her room has had the most and continued issues. Pls let me know what questions you have and sorry for the long post. I thank you in earnest for any & all advice...nothing is more personal than when it comes to your immediate family. thank you very much.

I’ve been in your daughters situation and resolved my problem with my 1 gallon sprayer and a chemical called FLEA FLIP, and yes that’s the correct name . I bought it at my local hardware stores for about $20 for the concentrate of about 16 ounces. As I recall 2 ounces made 1 gallon. Just spray the home 2 additional times to kill the hatchlings. Good luck

 

[sunandsand]

Your daughter and her friends need another place to live. Second the idea of fumigating their possessions so they don't bring the problem along with them. Had a tenant who had a completely feral "rescue" dog despite "no pets" policy. Damn dog tore up a door, attacked a neighbor, infested the house with fleas. Evicted them and their %$*&^%$$ mutt, luckily the neighbor wasn't hurt ("I'd a shot the damn dog but didn't have my gun handy."), two treatments from a local pest control company, no more fleas.

Scram - get their deposits AND their expenses back, it isn't small claims any more because if the deposits were $2K each and with the expenses (plus 130 hours of free labor), we're over $10K. Time to call the health department and make the slumlord's life miserable.

Start talking to legal aid if they can't or don't want to pay a lawyer. Landlord's obligation is to provide a livable, sanitary place, and he hasn't.

 

[Fuddyduddy1952]

Wrap a bunch of live ones like a Christmas present and mail to the landlord. Then open a flea circus.

 

[2manyrocks]

Yeah, I'd be talking to an attorney instead of an exterminator.

Worth repeating.