Caturday Saturday! The Flea Edition

As a pet owner, at one point or at many points you are going to deal with fleas.  It happens.  You are not dirty.  You are not a bad owner.  This is life.

 No one likes fleas, and they are difficult to get rid of.

Life Cycle of a Flea- the Rachel Version.

Within 48 hours of landing on a host an adult flea lays eggs.  And that's up to 50 eggs a day!  Imagine if chickens did that!!  Those eggs can hatch any time between two days and two weeks.  Once these guys hatch their goal is to make a cocoon, and this happens between five and twenty days.  They stay in this cocoon until they have matured into adult fleas.  They'll stay in the cocoon until conditions are favorable, meaning until a host is near.  The scary part is that they can stay in the cocoon stage for months, years.  Once they're adults they hop on an adult and the whole horrible process starts again. 

My approach to killing the fleas was to attack the environment, both the Kitties and my home.  I got foggers, Capstar (for the kittens) and comfortis (for the adults).  I have read a bunch of reviews about how foggers don't actually work.  But, they make me feel proactive and until I see otherwise I will think that they work.  The other benefit to foggers is that they kill all sorts of bugs!  So that means less creepy crawlies around my house!!

The Man and I prepped the house the night before.  I stuffed as much food into the fridge as possible.  And the rest went into boxes in my trunk.  I put set up all the foggers so all I had to do was set them off, I got the kennels ready to go, and the flea medication set up.  I put some things to keep me entertained in the car and set out my clothes (Thanks FlyLady!).

I started off Operation Kill all the Fleas with an early morning breakfast for the Felines of the house.  Comfortis can cause vomiting so its suggested to be taken with food.  After everyone had had breakfast I worked my way through the 7 mouths and giving pills.  Phase One complete.

I got them all in their proper kennels and in the car.  Then I set off the foggers.  The foggers take two hours to run their course, then another two hours to "air out".  I meandered about town for those four hours, making a few stops and blasting the air in between to keep the car nice and cool.  Phase Two complete.

When it was all cleared I brought the cats straight into bathroom and went to town with the flea combs.  I already had a small flea comb, but I picked up another one during the morning meanderings- this one was basically the same but had a handle.  They both worked the same, but the different handles changed the angle of my combing which picked up different things.  After an hour and a half, several bowls full of soapy waters, and several disgruntled cats. It was done.  Phase Three complete.

Its too soon to tell if Operation Kill all the Fleas was a success or not.  But I think we're off to a good start.  In the mean time I'm going to keep up a regular vacuum and comb routine to catch any late bloomers.