It can be tough to get free of fleas
- Laura Moore: Housebroken
- October 24, 2023
- 375
Has your house ever been invaded by fleas? Ours has. If discovered quickly, a couple of strong doses of insecticide will free us of that hopping plague.
But fleas are very sneaky. They get into a house hiding under pet flea collars and infiltrate it. Once inside a house, those tiny, teeming masses become aggressive. They want a place to spend the winter with both pets and humans around to provide them food.
Once inside, those blood-thirsty hordes reproduce like mad and begin to attack. The result is full-scale guerilla war. They are everywhere and launch vicious attacks on exposed human and pet parts.
Behind a bulwark of bug repellent, the defending humans counterattacked with deadly cans of flea killer. This noxious spray makes a house smell awful, but it does kill fleas. It does not, however, kill flea eggs. Within a few days, “they’re baaacck!"
During the last invasion, our house became a battlefield, littered with flea carcasses and reeking of chemicals. At one point our dogs were taken hostage. Only a timely flea dip saved them from being eaten alive. We were winning some battles but were losing the war.
In desperation we tried other tactics. Someone told us fleas would leap into an open fire. So we lit a can of liquid fire and put it in the middle of the den. Those fleas loved it. They gathered around it and watched the flames. Our house reacted by setting off the shrieking smoke alarms.
We tried salt on the carpet. Our house was a mess, and so were we. It was time to call in the “top guns” — the exterminators. After weeks of professional spraying, fogging and bombing — indignities suffered stoically by house and occupants alike — we were liberated of the flea scourge. Our freedom was dearly bought: The tally for the last flea war came to about $300, not counting pain and suffering.
There is still salt in the carpets, a faint chemical odor clings to the walls and we think our house shudders when anything hops. If this happens again, we won’t fight. We’re older, wiser and poorer. If the fleas invade our house, they can have it!