I live in Ireland, in a small flat with hardwood floors. In late July we suspected my son had chicken pox, as he had several painful, itchy red bumps on him. However, we soon discovered that they were flea bites, and our cat Thor (an INDOOR cat, I must mention, so we have no idea how the fleas came to live in our home and get so established) had a very bad infestation. So we went to work treating the problem, or at least trying to. Apparently the fleas were living and laying eggs in the cracks in between the floorboards.

Three treatments from Rentokil over a one-month period, countless vacuumings with insecticide sprayed on vacuum cannister, apartment-wide sprinkling of baking soda laced with lemongrass oil...later...We still have fleas. For several days after the last Rentokil treatment (which is a liquid that they treat the floor and cracks with) I saw a few dead fleas, or dying ones, and no living ones. And now today I saw two healthy fleas -- one an adult, and one a brand new baby! Healthily hopping around!

So I am losing my mind. I am a germophobe and an insectophobe and I have been weeping over this. I feel like my home is contaminated, and I feel like we have, after over a month, officially lost the battle. We are having another treatment from Rentokil on Friday, but honestly, I have given up hope that we can get rid of them.

Any tips, or condolences, are welcomed and very appreciated. I am seriously at the end of my rope. I am having nightmares about fleas living in my hair.

Thor is flea-free now. We treated him with ProMeris, and a month later at the vet's advice, Advocate. And yet there are still fleas thriving in our home.

Surprised nobody has replied.

Just a couple of thoughts:

1. You sure they are cat fleas? Does anybody visit you bringing a dog?

2. You want to make sure that your cat is treated with a medicine that will break the flea breeding cycle which I think Advocate does but am not sure. I would continue treating him every month for at least 6 months or you haven't seen any symptoms/signs of fleas for last 2 months.

3. I have heard that some fleas are now resistant to some flea medicines.

4. Don't buy supermarket flea preparations - go to your vet (or once you know the brand you could buy via the net).

5. Did you move into the flat around the time your boy came out in flea bites? The fleas might have been there from a previous pet.

6. Even though your cat is indoors only you, your family or visitors could have brought in fleas as they might have jumped onto you especially if a lot of cats in the neighbourhood.

This is what i would do, I did once have unkillable mutant fleas, and something similar to this worked for me.


1 - indorex household spray. Spray the whole (except one room where you have popped the cat/other pets for a few hours) house every morning without fail. Then hoover. Wait a while for the fumes to dissipate and then spray the room the cats were in. Remember to spray mattresses etc, and boil wash all bedding. Hoovering speeds up the lifecycle, so this is why you spray every day. Repeat for 2 weeks!


2 - Treat cats and all other animals in the house for fleas too. Prescription flea products are much much better than the current off the shelf preparations. Do not use frontline at the moment, fleas are becoming resistant and i find it useless in a real infestation.

If you have a steam cleaner this can also be useful at getting them hatched... so you can kill em! There is 2 schools of thought with steam cleaning. Some people think steam kills them outright, others think it works similar to hoovering and the warmth activates the eggs and so speeds up the lifecycle. Either way it helps and so is very useful.

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its possible that a neighbour has an animal with fleas, and when your walking to your flat you are picking them up (they may be jumping onto you or catching in your clothing) so when you go through your front door they are dropping off and infesting your place.

the house sprays are good, but get a good one from the vets, put Thor in a carrier, put him in the car, then spray every room, and go out for an hour, even if its just a drive around! come back and hoover everywhere.
we used to have 3 cats and had a flea problem, the spray we got was brilliant, it worked after one treatment!

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Thanks all of you for your advice. I really am at the end of my tether, feeling like I'm on my way to a nervous breakdown. The Rentokil treatments cost so much money, and I feel like if they can't kill the fleas, no one can. They treat the floor with a potent insecticide w/IGR. And yet a couple of days ago I saw a newly hatched flea. I didn't see any fleas yesterday or today so far, but my son has a huge bite on his side, so they are obviously still around.

Could it be that the very hot, humid weather (I'm in east Ireland) that is helping them stay established? They obviously live and hide in our floorboards...It's worse than having carpeting!

Have any of you had success using diatomaceous earth to dehydrate their eggs?

I've been brushing and checking Thor every day, and for the past month, no fleas and no flea poos. If Thor is not conducive to flea infestation, will that help them die out, or will they just start feeding on us more??

I just need to know that there is hope, because right now, I feel like we are going to be living with fleas forever and God forbid, when we move back to Canada in a few months, we'll be taking them with us.

I would get Rentokil back out as they haven`t done their job.....they shouldn`t keep charging you if the job hasn`t been finished.
Indorex spray and steam cleaning is fab as said.
You can buy Advocat prescription free from www.pets-megastore.au

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I've used Diatomaceous Earth on the rugs, on the pets, and in the pets. It's a great wormer, and it does kill them on the pets. It's just a pain getting them to sit still while you rub it in. I couldn't really tell if it did much in the rug, since that's not as obvious as checking the dog or cat. I did find borax worked really well on the rug, though, and it seems to be just as harmless. Apparently DE is slower acting but longer term effective, borax works quicker, but doesn't last as long. I also put both DE and borax in the litter boxes and it got rid of the fleas in there within 24 hours. Flea combing is great and the best thing I've found, hands down, is a spray that has peppermint and lemon oil and some other oils in it. It's supposed to kill and repel and it smells nice too.

I tried Bio-spot and Frontline on everyone since I was at the end of my rope, and neither worked and Bio-spot seemed make all of the cats sick. And we have a parrot, so we can't spray the house with anything.

I have d-earth and Borax coming in the mail from UK; neither are available in R of Ireland, at least according to my research! Thank you for your advice. I had no idea how tenacious fleas were, and how hard it was to get rid of them once established. I figured it would take us a couple of weeks to kick them out at the most, but I am sure we have pupae in our floorboards and it's going to take a lot more time, plus a few mos. of maintenance I am sure.

Bought a spray at the vet -- "Skoosh!" -- which is essentially silicone. It seems to have worked very well, at least in killing the living biting fleas themselves. We'll see if it works on the babies too. It is entirely nontoxic, no odour, environmentally friendly, everything. And it makes the hardwood floor VERY VERY VERY slippery, even after it dries.

I also have Virbac Indorex on order from the vet. A couple of people have recommended it to me and I'd like to try it.

Using ProMeris on Thor. The smell bugs him, and makes him mad at us, but it goes away after a day or so.

On your mention of spray, I made some for us -- it's water and oils of eucalyptus, lavender, lemongrass and peppermint. Not only does it smell great, but it repels fleas AND the wasps that are swarming Ireland right now.