Insect chemicals in a green house
user-1091878
| Posted in Green Products and Materials on
Our cat has fleas and the vet said we need to “bomb” the house to prevent an infestation. Our house is tight (745 CFM50) and IAQ compatible (we followed the checklist but didn’t pursue certification) so the last thing I want is to spray a bunch of chemicals inside. Considering the house, are there any good options to eliminate the fleas?
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If you can leave the place for a week, heating the interior to 100Ffor an extended period will kill any remaining flea larvae. If you can't leave for a week, mechanically dehumidifiying (or air conditioning) the house to below 40% RH for a week or so will kill off larvae too.
The lifespan of adult cat fleas is only about a week to 10 days even with a host-animal to feed on, and the larvae need to feed on the adult-flea scat, which means the adult fleas need to be feeding. Removing the flea-food (cat) and week of either low RH or high temperature will stop the infestation, and it may not take that long in all cases.
Keeping the interior RH below 50% while you're living there can interfere with the rates of flea proliferation (and will stop dust-mite reproduction entirely) , since most of the larvae will die, which is why flea infestations in houses are more common during the humid summer months than in the dry dead of winter. In very tight houses higher-RH is common. In winter you can lower the RH by bumping up the ventilation rate, but in summer in most US locations it takes a dehumidifier, and low ventilation rates.
Human & mammal-pet health is not negatively affected between 30-50% RH (it's the range most recommended by health professionals). It takes a bit of electrical power use to maintain 35% RH during a torrid week of 70F outdoor dew points, but it's a lower impact way of dealing with it in an occupied space.
Normally I try to be the soul of courtesy, but this time not. Your vet is crazy. Or stupid. Or totally incompetent. You do not need to "bomb" your house to get rid of the fleas on your cat. It won't work anyway. Take it from somebody who's tried many times. Instead get Program or any of the readily available flea treatments for cats and dogs that are ingested with their food. They stop the immature fleas from developing. They're available on the Internet, at Costco, and at pet stores. They've been used for decades, and they work. Your vet's principal practice must involve horses and cows.
Your vet is totally retro, but not in a good way. Use the advice from Gordon, and possibly use a pill like Capstar first. When you give the Capstar, you can watch the fleas drop off. Talk about satisfying. DIE fleas! Your animal may scratch and act nutty for a few minutes while the pill works. After that, they will experience complete relief.
Diatomaceous earth works well after you treat the animal, if you sprinkle it in affected areas.
The bomb approach is designed to get rid of all the fleas in the carpeting & furniture of a heavily infested house (which can persist for months, feeding on less-favored human hosts if the place is literally hopping with fleas), and NOT to purge them from the cat. Keeping the RH down or running the house super-hot for several days can rapidly hasten the tapering off of a house-infestation, but does nothing for the population of fleas on the cat, for which presumably other measures have been taken.
It's been awhile since I've been in a house with a heavy flea infestation, but I assure you, the motivation to do something radical and QUICK is definitely there if find yourself constantly being bitten! (DDT, anyone? :-) ) But if you can be patient it's not hard to kill off the house population with non-toxic methods. If the house population is small or confined to the cat's favorite quarters, just treating the cat should be enough.
The upside of superheating the house for several days is that it kills off dust mites and bedbug infestations too, if that ever becomes an issue. Dust mites can be controlled with lower RH, but bedbugs would need the super-heat. For bed bugs the professionals typically put up insulation over the windows and give the house a 24 hr "heat soak" at 120F interior temps, but it can also be done at somewhat lower temps over longer periods.
We always use the diatomaceous dust to prevent pest and insects infestation as suggested by the Pest Inspection people as this is very effective.