Last week we were at an area home. During the course of the conversation on the front porch with the homeowner I notice she had lots of what looked like mosquito bite on her legs and arms. I asked her if there were a lot of mosquitoes at night. She said she didn’t think so.

Then I asked her if she had animals in her home. She said she had several cats. I politely asked her if I could lay a white sheet on her living room floor to check and see if she had a flea infestation.

At first she acted shocked and hurt but gracefully relented. Sure enough those little buggers started hopping onto that sheet.

It wasn’t long before we had captured at least fifty or 20 of those little monsters. To make a long story short, I took care of that problem quickly.

In this week’s article I thought I would explore fleas and how to effectively deal with them.

Fleas have been around for millions of years, sucking the blood of the animals and humans they come across.

Fleas live on pets, mammals, in carpets, on furniture and other household and farm equipment. In a typical room, 5 to 8 percent will be found on pets, 10 to 15 percent will be cocoons in carpets, 35 to 40 percent flea larvae, with the balance remaining in flea eggs, again found in carpets.

The life cycle of a flea is very similar to that of a butterfly. The female lays the eggs that turn in to grub like larvae. The larvae then develop into pupae and settle inside a cocoon. They wait for a host to come along which starts their life cycle sucking blood. When something warm moves by the pupae, they unzip their little sacks and jump onto the host. All this happens in one to three seconds.

Fleas can live for 100 days without a meal; however, the female has to have blood before she can lay eggs. A female can lay more than 2,000 eggs in her life time. A female flea can lay up to 50 eggs a day.

When I was a kid my mother would always spread Borate Diatomaceous Earth (flea powder) all over her carpets to get rid of fleas. That stuff always made me sneeze and it made the carpets feel very rough.

With modern technology there are easier ways to get rid of fleas. Here are a few suggestions which you may find helpful:

n Vacuum your carpet and furniture every day especially if you have pets, making sure you throw away the bag or dump the canister.

n Steam clean your carpets and furniture annually.

n Buy an insecticide from one of our local stores. I always buy one that will kill a bunch of pests, i.e. spiders, fleas, etc.

Before you buy one, thoroughly read the instructions and contents.  After you understand how to effectively use it make sure it has Mithoprene and Pyriproxyfen in it. I personally like foggers; they generally do a good job in eliminating the problem. This may take several applications over several weeks to kill all of them.

n If you use a fogger, allow the chemical to work for several hours before you clean up the area. I highly recommend you thoroughly vacuum after its use.

If your pet has fleas, give them a bath using Dawn lemon scented liquid soap. It’s a good flea killer and repellant. Once the animal is dry, put a flea collar around their neck. There are many different brands, and I personally use either “Advantage or Front-line” flea collar, both work well and my dogs really don’t mind wearing them.

Over the years I’ve tried a lot of different things to get rid of fleas. To be honest I tried using eucalyptus oil on my dogs Kaikee and Peewee; both hated it, they both immediately found the biggest mud hole they could find and flopped in to it to scrub that stuff off.

For around the house, you can try planting some “Pennyroyal.” They work great; however, Kaikee hates them. Cedar chips mixed in the animals bedding seems to work well.

When cleaning with any cleaning product, always wear eye protection and rubber gloves to protect your hands.

If you would like to share a cleaning idea or concept with the reading audience, call Ed at NWES (255-2266), e-mail them to nwees@hughes.net or send them to Bonner County Daily Bee, 310 Church St., Sandpoint, ID 83864, Attn: What Would Ed do?  For more information about Ed, go online to www.nwees.com.

n Copy written by Edmond E. Madan, certified indoor environmental professional, forensic, fire, flood, mold Inspection and remediation/restoration contractor. Ed is the president of Northwest Environmental Services, Inc.