I have 4 indoor cats. Last year we had a flea problem, I used Frontline Plus, and sprayed the house with Vets Best flea spray (which was recomended by the vet). The problem was quickly resolved.
Now as of 2 weeks ago, its back. I applied Front line Top spot (dont know if its any different from Frontline Plus) I tried Capstar pills, each cat got a dose a day for 2 days. And I sprayed my house down with Zodiac Arisol spray, Hartz home spray (which i know isnt the top of list when it comes to *safe sprays but my vet recomended the house spray only) I also bought 2 bottles of the Vets best spray since i had such good luck with it last time. All four cats got bathed in Original Blue Dawn dish detergent, and I did about 10 laps around my house with the vacuum, and emptied it in to a bag outside… The fleas inside of the vacuum canister was insane! After all was done, and my cats seem pretty flea free, i sat down to finally relax, and one of the little SH*Ts jumped on my leg. After haveing spent over 0 in the past week and a half, I am at my wits end. PLEASE HELP! If you have any tricks, tips, any product that worked great for you, ANYTHING. I need help and I do not want to put my cats through too much more stress.
Sounds like you’re doing all the right stuff. Perhaps some explanation of a flea life cycle will show what’s probably happening. They feed off the animal. They lay eggs on the animal. They drop off the animal, and so do the eggs. Those eggs can hatch a few days or so later, and it’s the "or so" part that might be responsible for their re-appearance in your house now. They form a pupa to wait around in. They can wait to hatch until conditions are right, and that can be up to a year. When it gets very warm, they hatch. If pressure is applied to them, they hatch. So, summer is here and it’s warm. Maybe some eggs from last time have hatched. It can happen when a person walks across a carpet. The vibration tells them a potential host might be around and that alerts them to hatch
I didn’t quite believe all this until I got a demonstration. I had a couch with a wooden frame. In a cleaning frenzy one day, I removed the cushions and was vacuuming dust from the frame. That didn’t seem to be quite doing the trick so I took a small brush to get into the corners. I scrubbed with the brush at the dirt in the corners and all of a sudden there were fleas hopping all over. I figure the pressure from the brush made the flea eggs hatch.
Insecticides don’t work well at all on the unhatched fleas because they have the pupa which protects them. You can usually only kill the fleas once they hatch and are adults. That’s why those topical products that are applied to the pet work so well. A flea feeds off the pet and it dies before it gets a chance to reproduce.
I’d say wait a bit and see how it goes. The only thing you didn’t mention doing was vacuuming or washing any place the cats might have slept. If your cats are like mine, that could have been anywhere. I’m always going around putting washable blankets or towels in any place the cats have chosen to sleep, so I can wash any eggs away that might have fallen off the cat. That has to be done in a timely way, before the flea eggs have had a chance to hatch. I try for once a week. But I rarely see a flea at all any more, since I started using Advantage and now Revolution. My cats go out, so they probably pick up a flea now and then from outdoors. You might want to switch to one of the other topicals instead of frontline. From what I’ve read, some people have different luck with different products. And pay attention to corners and crevices when you vacuum, because that’s where potential fleas will be hiding.
Go to feed store get powder for fleas its safe for all furn,carpet,anything its a red can forgot name but feed store will direct you right leaveon for 2 or 3 dsys will work I had a bad infestation myself but worked great no fleas aftter 2 days, trick is you have to shampoo your carpet furniture everyrhing the powder is called red devil for fleas try it you will see
The only problem with all of the products you’re using is that they kill the adult fleas but not the eggs and larvae that are already present in your home. So you’ll have a new crop of fleas within days. I would use an Insect Growth Regulator. It’s a safe chemical that will prevent the eggs/larvae from becoming adults so that the reproduction cycle is stopped in its tracks. It’s not terribly expensive and will last quite a while. One site below but many others online. Combine that product with a flea bomb treatment and you should be good all Summer. And keep using the Frontline, of course.