If you do not have a pet and you have a dirty house, can you still get fleas?
Crystal from Da Veg
Yes. Your house does not even have to be dirty! A clean house can get them as well. Fleas also can be found in the grass and ground as well. You can walk across a yard, get them on your feet and easily bring them inside.
During 1993 when the midwest had so much rain and flooding, it was impossible to find flea foggers. The fleas were thriving and everyone had them-even those without pets. (04/10/2008)
Fleas can live for YEARS without a blood meal so if you've moved into a house where there were fleas you can expect them to "revive" and begin to feed on YOU! (04/10/2008)
By Judi
Yes, those nasty critters hitchhike in on your pant legs etc. Nasty critters indeed! But the good news is you can sprinkle LOTS and LOTS of salt (3 for $1 at the dollar store) over your carpeting (which you can mix with a bit of cream of tarter or Borax laundry additive NOT borax soap) then sweep in into your carpet with a broom. Leave this on several weeks, then vacuum the salt up and make sure you have a flea collar in your vacuum bag! Then do it again one more time leaving it on for another 2 weeks. This dehydrates the fleas and kills them and their eggs.
Do not use salt, use only Borax if you live in high humidity areas, this is an alternative. Since salt absorbs water, salt in carpet in an un-airconditioned house in Florida (for example) would mean a damp carpet and later rotted or mildewed.
Here are 2 URLs for getting rid of fleas without chemicals:
http://stason.org/TULARC/animals/pet-fleas-ticks/15-Fleas-Borax-And-Salt.html
http://www.stretcher.com/stories/980716c.cfm (04/10/2008)
By Cyinda
You can have a perfectly spotless house and no animals and still get invaded by fleas!
It doesn't matter how clean or how dirty your house is. Fleas get in by jumping on people and/or animals, especially if they've walked through the grass before coming inside. The only time you don't have to worry about fleas is if you live somewhere it freezes for most of the winter (like Minnesota, etc). The long term freezing kills the fleas temporarily (just for the winter), but in the springtime when it starts warming up again, they come back as strong as ever! But here in Seattle, the fleas never go away because it never freezes for long enough.
But if you do have animals that go out and back in you'll have much more of a chance of having your home invaded by fleas. That means if someone has an indoor only cat, they have much less a chance of having fleas invade their home as someone who has an indoor-outdoor cat or a dog. Sometime the previous owner can leave a place infested with fleas, especially if they didn't de-flea their animals. I know what I speak of, my youngest son and I are EXTREMELY ALLERGIC to fleas. Whenever or where ever there is a flea, it will attack and bite us, and we'll swell up as big as you please! (04/11/2008)
By Cyinda
First, clean your house regardless of whether or not you have (or want to avoid) fleas. But yes, fleas can jump on you from outdoors, then you will carry them in and they will lay eggs in your house. They can also come in through window screens. We had this problem last summer when a shelter cat arrived with flea eggs.
Oh you sure can! Fleas live in the grass in your yard. You walk in your yard they hop on you and you carry them into your house. You can have your yard treated or treat it yourself. Hope this helps. Janette (04/14/2008)
By Janette
Fleas-Ugh! I have vinyl flooring in the kitchen, living room and bath, and carpet in the bedroom. I had to resort to bombs and found that if I repeated bombing in two days and then again a week later they really were gone. Of course I vacuumed and mopped every day. They came back, but not as fierce and I found that mopping and twice daily vacuuming helped a lot and then only had to bomb one day.
I don't like using the bombs. but sometimes have no other choice. I also used carpet cleaner on all the furniture and now I spray it on at night before bedtime and let it dry. Then in the morning when I vacuum I get the furniture too.
I am not a clean nut, but this is working well for me. (04/15/2008)
By octoberbabye
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