Flea bites

I know the title is pretty stupid, but I’m not kidding around here. I just honestly have no clue what to call this that sounds smart while actually explaining what's going on... 🙄

So, basically, I think I've got some kind of flea problem or something. My legs are absolutely covered in bites. They feel a lot like mosquito bites, I guess, except there are way more of them and they're everywhere. I really don't think it's mosquitoes because they never used to itch or hurt this bad, and I've never had this many bites at once. Sometimes I even see these tiny little black fleas just crawling around on my leg, and then I have to flick them off.
I seriously have no idea where these things came from or how I'm supposed to get rid of them. Does anyone have any ideas? This is driving me insane. 😠

You're being paranoid. You probably just scratched yourself and convinced yourself there are bugs crawling all over you.

(Just kidding, I was watching a horror movie about infestations so now I'm a bit spooked myself)

Look, I don't know how to get rid of the bugs for good, but for those bites, try some aloe vera. And whatever you do, stop scratching... for prevention, just spray yourself down with some bug repellent. 👍

So, tell me, you got a cat or a dog keeping you company at home?

I’m guessing you’ve got a pet at home. I ran into this exact same headache a while back, so here is my (hopefully successful) game plan—I think I actually stumbled upon this advice right here on the forum once upon a time.

So, here’s how I handled it.

1. Grab the vacuum and go absolutely ham on the cleaning. You need to hit everything—the couches, the gaps behind the cabinets, any little cracks in the floorboards, the works.

2. Head over to Petco (I usually hit the one on Broadway) and pick up an insect spray. Honestly, the cheapest option is perfectly fine; I used Biokill, and it did the trick for me. Once you get home, shut all the windows tight. Right after you finish vacuuming, give the whole place a good spray, making sure to really focus on the spots where your pet likes to nap. Just a heads-up: maybe throw on a mask or hold a cloth over your mouth just to be safe while you're doing it. Let the house sit for a bit—I left mine for an entire day—and then when you come back, just air the place out and you're good to go.

3. While you're at the same store, grab a flea collar. Just pop it on your pet and you're halfway there.

Hope that helps you out.

If the itching becomes truly unbearable, I would suggest picking up some Synopen cream or perhaps another antihistamine ointment to apply a few times a day...

We've got two dogs at home... It’s kind of weird though, because they just headed off on vacation a week ago (they live the high life while I'm stuck working 😬), but this whole thing just started happening to me a few days ago..
Anyway, I'll try to get that done as soon as I find a spare moment..
By the way, have you tried using any kind of cream or anything to soothe those bites?

Rebecca Harris12 said:We've got two dogs at home... It’s kind of weird though, because they just headed off on vacation a week ago (they live the high life while I'm stuck working 😬), but this whole thing just started happening to me a few days ago..
Anyway, I'll try to get that done as soon as I find a spare moment..
By the way, have you tried using any kind of cream or anything to soothe those bites?

I think someone got hungry and decided to help themselves to whatever was left in the pantry 😁

shadowraven96 said:I think someone got hungry and decided to help themselves to whatever was left in the pantry 😁

Yeah, I heard that too—once they run out of their main food supply, those fleas just start biting anything that moves, including people. Honestly, hunger makes them desperate. Personally, I can't stand kale, but when I'm starving? It actually tastes pretty decent.

My brother is absolutely convinced that the fleas from our dog have migrated into the room, and he’s claiming they actually attacked him! I mean, I know they can bite humans, but how on earth do we get rid of them once they've taken over?
If anyone out there has any actual advice or knows a solution, please help me out... thanks.

http://www.petco.com/content/view/1564/43/

If they've already started breeding in your apartment, good luck—you could be looking at thousands in just a week. My battle with them lasted about a month!

Dog fleas aren't even the worst part; it's the cat fleas that go absolutely ballistic when there aren't any cats around to feed on. If you’ve got them in your house, just know they own the place now—it's a full-blown invasion. These little monsters hide in every crack in your hardwood floors, tucked away in corners, buried deep in the carpet, laying eggs like it's their job. Their survival instinct is terrifying; those dormant stages can hang around for up to 15 years. Your only real move is heavy-duty vacuuming and blasting everything with Biokill twice a month. Biokill kills the ones running around, but the real headache is that it doesn't touch the eggs.
You have to stay on top of treating your dog or cat with Fipronil, like using Frontline, to gradually wipe out the population.
Honestly, trying to totally eradicate fleas from an American home is an uphill battle because there's always some stray egg lurking somewhere, waiting to hatch into a new generation later on.

People should realize that while Frontline works, the active ingredient Permethrin is actually what does the heavy lifting here. But here's the kicker: Big Pharma is basically robbing you blind. Permethrin is used in much higher concentrations in Regent, which is an insecticide meant for controlling Colorado potato beetles. That stuff is classified as a Category 2 toxin, and if you head down to a local farm supply store, you can get a whole $3.75 gram 🙂 bottle for next to nothing, whereas a single pipette for a 40+ kg dog costs $18

Biokill works wonders, but if you’re dealing with a floor that isn't made of flammable junk, I’d suggest following up with some flame therapy.
I dealt with a nightmare scenario in my garage once. It had those cracked concrete floors—a total disaster zone. We’re talking a full-blown invasion. I threw serious money at all sorts of chemical sprays, but nothing seemed to actually move the needle.
So, here was my game plan: I sprayed the pets first to wipe out the pests hitching a ride on them, then applied fipronil to their necks after two days so they wouldn't have a place to hang out. In the meantime, I went over the entire floor with a long-range propane torch. Every single square inch. Just dragging the tank along, sweeping left to right, back and forth.
It fried both the bugs and the eggs. Before I started the burning, I’d see about 50 fleas jumping at my feet in seconds—honestly, it was a horrific sight—but now? I see maybe one flea every ten minutes. Though, frankly, I have no clue where that last one even teleported from. 😬

I repeated the whole process over a two-day period.
Just make sure you don't have anything combustible lying around. You don't want to burn the house down.

Honestly, it would be great if they just sold some kind of canister where you could just pop the top and get the fuck out of there while some poison mist crawls across the floor and nukes every flea and egg in its path. I actually toyed with the idea of rigging something up to spray chlorine, but that would’ve just corroded all my gear.

The bottom line is you have to hit them from two sides: kill the ones that are there and starve the rest. If you’re cleaning and spraying, but the pets are sleeping around without any protection on them, they’ll just gorge themselves on blood all night and reset the whole cycle.

You made a solid point there, though you can't exactly go laying down new hardwood or rugs if you're dealing with this inside your house🙂
Those little eggs hiding in the cracks and under the floorboards are a total nightmare to fully wipe out. Plus, if you've got a cat running around the place, you've gotta be super consistent with their Fipronil treatments to keep things under control.

Actually, I misspoke earlier. Regent definitely uses active fipronil, while Biokill relies on Permethrin. Honestly, if you aren't someone who actually understands chemistry, don't try to DIY your own "Frontline" substitute—you're just asking to poison your pet.

Isn't Permethrin actually dangerous for cats and dogs? I've heard horror stories about people spraying their cats with it, only to end up at the emergency vet or, worse, burying them in the backyard...

The real issue here is deciding whether you want a cat that stays indoors or a cat that spends its time outside. You can't really have both. If you rely solely on Fipronil, they’re just going to bring those fleas inside during flea season, and then the pets start biting people.
What does pest control typically do for situations like this? Look, setting a literal fire on your floor isn't exactly a practical solution. Personally, what worked for me was being obsessive with Biokill, mopping everything down with a bleach solution (which kills them almost instantly and leaves them stuck to the rag), and vacuuming constantly. Just thinking about it again... it was a nightmare for about a week, but after that, they were gone for good.
A smart move is making sure they don't get a chance to bite you under the sheets while you're sleeping at night. The whole goal is to stop them from feeding. Once they feed, the entire cycle restarts, and you're right back to the endless cleaning grind.

placidjackal36 said:Isn't Permethrin actually dangerous for cats and dogs? I've heard horror stories about people spraying their cats with it, only to end up at the emergency vet or, worse, burying them in the backyard...

The real issue here is deciding whether you want a cat that stays indoors or a cat that spends its time outside. You can't really have both. If you rely solely on Fipronil, they’re just going to bring those fleas inside during flea season, and then the pets start biting people.
What does pest control typically do for situations like this? Look, setting a literal fire on your floor isn't exactly a practical solution. Personally, what worked for me was being obsessive with Biokill, mopping everything down with a bleach solution (which kills them almost instantly and leaves them stuck to the rag), and vacuuming constantly. Just thinking about it again... it was a nightmare for about a week, but after that, they were gone for good.
A smart move is making sure they don't get a chance to bite you under the sheets while you're sleeping at night. The whole goal is to stop them from feeding. Once they feed, the entire cycle restarts, and you're right back to the endless cleaning grind.

hey there😁
Just wanted to jump in here. Yesterday, our vet gave my kitty an applicator ($19) that he claims works for both internal and external parasites, but he said it only lasts a couple of months.

I think I saw this in a movie or maybe a show—Breaking Bad, I believe? That’s how they do it in America, right? They just wrap the whole house in plastic sheeting, pump gas inside, and let it sit there for a week. Honestly, I wouldn't even mind doing that during the summer. You could just pitch a tent out in the backyard and hang out there for the week. It seems easy enough. Still, it makes me wonder... why don't we ever see people doing stuff like that here???

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There’s really just one way this ends: you gotta pay up.

I wouldn't mess around with fleas and flies if I were you. You have to wipe them out completely because they can carry all sorts of nasty diseases. http://www.kakolijeciti.com/muhe-pre...aznih-bolesti/

I've got a parrot at home, so every time I look at the cage, I swear I see little bugs crawling around the wire mesh... 🐔

It seems to me that there is a significantly higher infestation of bed bugs this year than usual. I haven't dealt with this level of trouble in quite some time. They were small, tiny little things; I suspect the eggs have migrated into the hardwood flooring or perhaps tucked themselves away inside the furniture. My comb became practically useless.
I took the area rug to the cleaners, laundered every single cloth—including the bedding and towels used during that period—anything where eggs might have been hiding. I even gave Otto—the pup—a bath with an anti-bed bug shampoo and washed all of his plush toys (and he has plenty). While everything was drying, I sprayed Biokill on the furniture, the mattress, and the floors. For the first three days, I focused my spraying on the specific spots where Otto spends most of his time. He still scratches here and there occasionally, so I respray everything once a week.
I’ve been getting mosquito bites, as per usual every year. I haven't noticed any difference in the bites themselves, so I assume, most likely, they aren't from the bed bugs.

I don't even know how many times this has happened now, but I am back to square one with these bed bug bites. I just got back from a ten-day trip to the coast, everything was going perfectly fine, and then suddenly I wake up to my legs looking absolutely horrific from all the biting...
Since this thread is getting a bit old, does anyone have any recent experiences or specific products and techniques they’d recommend? I’ve been vacuuming like crazy, of course, and I even sprayed the bedroom with some Orkin, leaving the windows open for two days to air it out, but I honestly can't tell if it did anything at all. It feels like they're just waiting for me to fall asleep before they start feeding. My cat spends most of his day napping on the balcony and I don't really let him wander in much anymore, but clearly, these little monsters have already claimed the whole apartment for themselves...