What do I do if it is fleas?

You don’t have to have an animal to bring home fleas. They can hitch a ride on you and your belongings from somewhere else or they can come from wildlife like Squirrels or feral cats in your neighborhood. If you are concerned about some sort of flea/insect infestation then you need to contact a pest control co. or bomb your house. Otherwise just chalk it up to a few random bug bites of unknown origin and don’t panic, a few bug bites won’t ruin your wedding experience.

Thanks for the info but it’s not just a few random bug bites – it’s about a hundred and has lasted more than a week.

@janbb Well..first step is to identify them. Try to capture a couple and see if your local pest control or nursery can ID them. It may just be a hatch of some sort that will fade away soon.

Yup – plan to.

I did so much googling when I first got fleas in my house ten years ago. I tried every remedy – powders, sprays, flea dips for the cats, flea bomb which included me spending a night in a hotel so that the bomb could really take effect. I had a baby that was just born at the time so it was a very stressful period for me. I put plastic covers on the bed, had the carpets ripped up, tried home remedies like dish soap on a plate with a light on it, you name it.

It was once I saw a flea on the baby’s scalp that I decided to go with a professional. One spraying in the house and we spent the day out (cats out for the day, too, ditto with the bomb ). After the professional spraying, I didn’t see one live bug for almost a month. Had him come one more time and that was it. I’d paid for the year contract so he would have returned once a month for free if necessary.

Is it possible you have bed bugs? Have you purchased any new furniture recently?

For me, 90% of the flea bites were on the bottom half of my legs.

I also recommend a professional spray your yard.

I’m telling you, I spent hundreds of dollars and put a lot of energy into these over the counter things that didn’t work. If I’d have known I’d end up with a professional exterminator, I’d have saved all that money and time and just done it in the first place.

I’m sure you’ve heard me say “fleas are what brought me to Fluther.” In my googling, learning about the flea life cycle, flea eradication and all that fun, I came upon Fluther.

Thanks. I’m thinking of calling a professional on Tuesday.

they can come from wildlife like Squirrels or feral cats in your neighborhood

We have all those in my neighborhood, plus rats. I will be scratching at imaginary fleas all weekend now, thank you.

@Call_Me_Jay Sorry Charlie!

I just called an exterminator so we’ll see what they say if they’ll come over the weekend. Will report back.

You have to take care of your office, too, or you will be bringing them back into your home everyday and the whole bloody cycle will begin again. If getting the university to do this is a problem, then ask your pest control person what to do—once they confirm exactly what has infested your environments.

I sailed a boat for three days awhile back. The first night at sea, I was attacked by bed bugs. Holy shit, I’d never seen one before and I was completely enveloped in nearly microscopic young within minutes after hitting my berth. I was nearly driven mad and I couldn’t escape the little bastards even by sleeping on deck in the weather. They are remarkably resilient and hide in your clothes and hair. My first mate nearly quit on me when we finally made our destination. What a fucking nightmare.

At @snowberry’s advice, I now inspect every boat I am charged to deliver with a hand-held black light. Vermin show up white under the UV rays.

@Espiritus_Corvus Thanks. My office is only in my home; I retired in May.

The exterminator may give you traps so that you can figure out what kind of bugs are there. In my case, I saw them so I knew what I was dealing with.

The extermination company told me don’t rip up the rugs. I ripped them up anyway because I knew that one day the baby would be crawling on the floor and I didn’t want her crawling on carpeting that had been sprayed with bug spray.

I remember when I made the first call to the extermination company, the lady on the phone asked me for the people who lived in the house and their ages and what animals lived there too. I told her there was a baby, 11 weeks old. She said “that’s nice. That’s such a wonderful age.” I said “it might be wonderful if I didn’t have fleas in the house. ” I started crying. I was so stressed out. Not stressed from the baby, stressed from the fleas.

What everyone else said!

Unless, of course, it’s penguin mites!

The exterminator may say the infected animal must be put down. Nice knowing you.

Aack! I’m glad that’s from you @Call_Me_Jay and not from loli. With him, I wouldn’t be sure it was a joke!

@Strauss Penguin mites! That’s it!

Well..for birds you can dust them with Sevin Dust or just spray your roost with malathion. LOL

@janbb No kidding? In May? I’m sorry I missed that party. Congratulations, penguin. I hope you have as interesting a retirement as I have had so far. It took a little adjusting to not feeling necessary anymore, but I soon learned the joys of freedom from the halter.

I think the hardest lesson I had to learn was, that even if you have enough fuck you money, you can’t go around telling all those types that gave you a hard time during all those years, I can’t just tell them to fuck off like I thought I could. It still doesn’t work out all that well. But you won’t have that problem because you’re a pretty nice person to begin with.

Thank you Crow!

Not sure it will be quite as interesting as yours but I have my little waddles of fun.

^^Yeah. Well, I always remember what happened to Boxer in Animal Farm.

You made it, Penguin! Now enjoy it!

I spent two years fighting off bed bugs after my brother brought them in during a short visit. By the time I realized the rash I had was from bug bites and not an exotic wood allergy (I work with wood as a hobby) they’d gotten pretty well settled in to my sofa. By the time I threw away my sofa they’d apparently found their way into the walls. Eventually, painting the walls and replacing the sofa for a third (fourth?) time got rid of them for good.

I say that to say, if you’ve had any visitors lately, or visited with someone for any length of time, or spent a night in a hotel, there’s a chance it’s bed bugs. They’re resilient little fuckers and I swear they’re born pregnant.

Yeah the good news about fleas is the exterminator only has to spray where the fleas will be which is basically on the paths where they can jump onto a host. No ceilings no walls.

@Muad_Dib I did a fair bit of research on bed bugs when my son had them and this is not presenting like them – thank god!

It sounds like it could be bed bugs. That would explain the large number of bites, and also why you might not see many, if any, bugs. They get down deep into mattresses, and can also get into the padding of furniture.

Check your bed by pulling up the bedding, and any mattress covers or pads, and look at the frame of the bed and the mattress under the pad, down the sides, and underneath. Also check your pillows inside the case, and unzip them.

If you have bedbugs you might be able to see brown or red spots, which is rhe blood left behind. Even if there are bedbugs, you might not see them, because they hide in the light.

It’s much harder to get rid of bedbugs than fleas.

Shit. Now you guys got me scratching.

Here is some info on Bedbug Infestation

@Kardamom As I said above, I’ve done a lot of research on bed bug infestation.

Yeah, but maybe it could be bedbugs! LOL

Maybe they are baby bedbugs. Like this nymph.

Nymphs of the night.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=qzyl9o3fLwE

But are you CERTAIN they aren’t bed bugs??!!?!??!11ONE!?

/sarcasm

Ya know, maybe your got something there. ~ (And now I’ll never tell if the exterminator comes and it is bedbugs.. lol)

@jca That must have been a horrible time. I’m really sorry that happened to you.

I was lying in bed the other night when, all of a sudden, two eensy weensy spiders the size of a pinhead came drifting down from the ceiling on their twin webs, side by side and just hovered in front of my computer screen. It was like a miniature acrobat show. haha
I tried to scoop the web strings and take them outside but they were so minute that I think they just drifted into my bedding. No sign of any more on the ceiling but who knows what I may be sleeping with right now. LOL

@janbb: I was also thinking it sounds like it mi ght be bedbugs, just because you said the bites are all over your body.

I still think it might be…oh, never mind!

I haven’t had time to read all the answers on this thread yet, but, off hand, I would say you have bedbugs.

I remember @rooeytoo (I think that is how you spell her name) saying if you put a bowl of water on the floor in front of your TV and leave the TV on, if you have fleas you’ll find them in the bowl in the morning. Never tried it, but it’s worth a shot.

@Earthbound_Misfit: I tried it and it didn’t work. Maybe one or two might jump in there (not in my case but it’s a possibility) but not fleas from all over.

@janbb: What you can do now and it will be helpful no matter what kind of bug it is, is get some plastic covers for your mattress and pillows, (covers that go under the sheets and pillowcases) and first wash the pillows in hot water, wash all the bedding in hot water and put it in the dryer.

If you have a deck and it’s fleas, if you sit on the deck and watch, you’ll see the fleas jump onto your legs.

If you read about the flea life cycle, you’ll learn that the flea eggs take a few weeks to hatch (and the female flea is dropping eggs throughout the day). If an exterminator comes, he’ll spray with something that kills the eggs but for good measure, it might be a good idea for him to come a few weeks later just in case any hatched.

Flea eggs will lay dormant outside until threat of frost has passed. When I did my research on them (all from having them and trying to eradicate them), I really gained a new respect for how resilient they’ve become throughout evolution. They don’ tlike human blood, but they’ll jump on, bite and then jump off. On an animal (cat, dog, etc.), they jump on and stay on. They position themselves in an area where the host will walk past (like a path) and they leap on. Really amazing how a tiny little thi ng like that can be so good at surviving.

Also, if you choose an exterminator, pick a local one instead of a national company like Orkin.

In my case, one of my neighbors worked for a local company and he told me to use his name and get a discount. I think I paid about $500 for the year contract with the discount (10% off). When I was at my wit’s end, I gladly paid it. I realized there was going to be no getting rid of them any other way.

I had them a second time a few years ago but a friend worked with an exterminator and got the chemicals and sprayed my house for the cost of the chemicals, which was a blessing because it only took one time and I paid about 30 bucks.

I think everyone on Fluther is very curious about what kind of bugs you have, @janbb!

I don’t think it was meant to rid the place of fleas @jca. It was to determine if you have a flea infestation.

It’s cooties for sure.

I TOLD YOU ALL IT WASN’T BED BUGS!!!

It’s fleas from mice that have pooped in the crawl space. Carpet was treated today, mouse baits refilled, outside sprayed. I have to vacuum every day for a week. Not the best outcome but not a terrible one.

But is it bed bugs?

@Muad_Dib I’m looking at that mouse in your avatar! And stay safe!

Well..there’s also the worry of Hanta virus if there is a lot of dehydrated poop dust.
https://www.livescience.com/23029-hantavirus.html
Symptoms arise 1–5 weeks after exposure. probably no cause for serious alarm but…it happens.

Wow, @janbb. I was thinking “where could she have gotten fleas from if she has no pets?” Good reminder for us all, why having a rodent infestation is not good in a multitude of ways.

Thanks for the update! :)

Or you could get the bubonic plague. Feeling a bit feverish? Cold sweat? Are you a little sore under your jaw and armpits? Headachy? Maybe you should lie down. take it easy. Drink some water. Feel better. Are you sure. You better take it easy, just in case. You never know, right? Am I right, or am I right? Or am I right?

How’s that headache? With the bubonic plague, headaches kinda sneak up on you, then BAM! A pounding headache like you wouldn’t believe. And the buboes. Oh, god, it’s painful. You can’t even move or speak after Day 1. Sometimes you don’t get a headache. Sometimes you remain asymptomatic, then all of a sudden you get dizzy, fall down and turn black, and start puking blood. Not sweating yet? But you’re feeling a bit queasy, right? That’s a sign, too. It’s happening.

How’s your skin color? Your tongue turns black first. Check your tongue. Hands mottled? It’s starting. If you haven’t called a doctor by now, you better start making calls and say goodbye before you start seating blood. Blood comes out of every orifice.

The pain is horrendous. In the end, they beg to be taken. It’s a horrible death. Nostradamus advised hard liquor, if you’re not too occupied puking your guts out it didn’t do much for them. But they died happy. I read it in his journals. Or it could be the Hyderabad stain. Oh man, that’s bad. It’s so bad that that’s how they got named Hydera-bad. Hydera for the rabies. They thought it was rabies at first. But they were wrong, and it was too late. It was bad. Hyderabad.

Or it could be BEDBUGS!

It’s either bedbugs disguised as fleas or bugs that have infested mice beds. ;-o

Any chance you recently had a bouquet of flowers in the house? My sister thinks her bug problem was from flowers given to her, and I swear today she was given flowers, and we were going to bring them to my aunt. Once I was in the light three bugs that look like flees to me crawled out of the bouquet. I threw them in the trash.

@JLeslie, it was already established it was fleas, from mice in the crawl space.

So you got Flea bites, can you post a picture of your flea bites?! I do’t know know if i have bed bugs or fleas… thought I squashed a bed bug on the sofa but squashed it so fast I didn’t’ get to see the bug properly. I’m getting eaten all over and it’s driving me nuts, I think i’m going to lose the plot soon!

@tan253: You should save the bug by putting clear tape on it and bringing it to an extermination place. They’ll take a look, under a microscope if necessary, and tell you what it is. IF you squish it, they can’t identify it.

Post pictures of your if you like and I’ll see if they looked like mine. Mine are mostly healed now.

UPDATE: They were not fleas and they were not bed BUGS – they were SANDFLIES!
Apparently I’d brought some home from the beach and then they died, I did squash a couple of sandflies now that I think about it – but how weird!
The exterminator said definitely no sign of bed bugs or fleas (not sure about that one) but i had been to the beach when the bites started so that must have been it!
Flip side – I have a tidy house!

I“m glad I didn’t see some of the responses above -I had a pounding headache for two days @Espiritus_Corvus!!!!!! Bloody hell! Trying to get a hypochondriac’s heart rate up!