Happy Friday!
Oh, it’s been a long long long week, at the beginning of the summer I stopped doing a lot of our ‘activities’ so that life could slow down just a bit…and for about a week, yes. Lovely.
Now, we are in the vortex of a whirlwind of park days, beach days, free movies, Shakespeare in the parks, and get this, next week TWO mother-in-laws in a row. Back to Back. God love ‘em.
We’ve also been barely sleeping because of some strange bitey things that itch like crazy (on the youngest of us) and that I’ve been tearing apart the house looking for and VOILA! this morning 6 black dots on my ankle. Yay! fleas. And we have no pets (except despereaux and pi-rat, the rats that don’t get fleas. Oh wait! Wasn’t that what the whole bubonic plague was based on? yeesh.) Okay, today will be spent on the beach and then vacuuming, and steam-cleaning and trying to decide how deep into the world of chemicals we really want to go.
But still, today is better than Wednesday was, because on Wednesday I had NO IDEA what was biting us. I had only about 4 hours of sleep, baby had less. and THEN, we went to go see a movie I’ve seen too many times before (Open Season) and so because I was bored and grumpy and overly tired, I picked a text-message based political argument with my brother. Not a good idea. So anyway, Today the whole family slept in to almost 8! holy crap! and the day is wondrous, awesome, fabalicious, even with the black specks of itchy-psychosis on our ankles.
How’s your Friday?
Love,
Heather
Aditi said,
July 18, 2008 @ 9:06 am
the important thing to remember is that fleas cannot live on people, they can only lie on animals (even though they don’t really care who they bite) so treating the rats for fleas should help alot. hope that helps.
MilkyMama07 said,
July 18, 2008 @ 9:40 am
Yeah, I agree, treat the rats with flea baths. The steam cleaning should do the trick for the carpet, because they CAN hide there!
Aditi said,
July 18, 2008 @ 9:41 am
oh, and this might interest you. please help the poor misguided women who think hospitals are better (for you have the power of citations and a larger library of knowledge than myself): http://www.destinationmaternity.com/messageboards/destinationmessageboardshowthread.asp?ForumId=16&ThreadId=197&Page=
wiffersnapper said,
July 18, 2008 @ 11:37 am
You can try making a paste of baking soda & water and putting it on the bites… the base of the baking soda cancels out the acid of the bites. (Which is what’s making them itch.) It works great on bee stings, too- better than anything I’ve ever bought in a store.
momof3 said,
July 18, 2008 @ 12:35 pm
Just wanted to mention you can use diatomaceous earth (Lowe’s has it) to kill em, just sprinkle it around. It is completely nontoxic (except to fish and bugs). If you use it in the carpet, just get the kids out of the house when you vacuum and wear a mask ( or use a professional carpet cleaning service), it’s not nice if it gets into the air, the particles are really fine and can get through most vacuum bags. Fleas have a 2 - 6 week life cycle, so you need to repeat controls at least every 2 weeks for a total of 6 weeks to actually wipe em out. (we just got rid of ours, in case you were wondering lol) Good luck!
julie said,
July 18, 2008 @ 1:21 pm
The thing I like about the flee treatment on my dog is that if there are any flees in the house, my dog picks them up like a magnet, they bite him, and then they are doomed.
But I’ve heard of putting vinegar in the animal’s water to control flees. Only that’s not going to get them out of the home.
My Friday was spent babysitting someone’s toddler and just as I’m about to get him to sleep, someone stops in to pick up her produce (we sell stuff out of the garden) and then he’s about to go down again and my brother (it’s best to avoid politics with that one too) from out of state drops in for a visit with his.. er… energetic… six year old. Wll eventually the little guy did get some rest but he still looked tired when his daddy came to get him.
I think I did too.
queenmommy911 said,
July 18, 2008 @ 2:52 pm
First, I have to say that I *so* love that your rat’s name is Despereaux! One of my very favoritest books ever.
Next, there are two minor chemicals that can help you in your fight against the fleas. Dawn dish detergent mixed in baby shampoo with plenty of rinsing will help kill them off of the rats and Pinesol mixed half and half with water can be sprayed to kill any insect on floors, furniture, etc. Not a perfect non-chemical solution, but better by far than some of the nasty stuff on the market for killing fleas.
Last, my Friday mostly consisted of a trip to the thrift store. Oh, how I love a bargain on great books, games, and other stuff for entertaining the kiddos during the heat of the day! Woohoo!
rish80 said,
July 18, 2008 @ 6:20 pm
We had fleas before (brought over from my in-laws, yuck) and managed to kill them safely and frugally with salt and baking soda. Apparently it dehydrates them or something? Anyway, I liberally sprinkled salt and baking soda all over the carpet, scuffed it in with my feet, left it for a few hours, then vacuumed it up. Just my two cents.
sapphire_chan said,
July 19, 2008 @ 4:38 am
Re: cookies, those bins of little cookies are generally pretty bad, but, plus side, they’ve often got samples so you can try a bit and realize they aren’t so great without buying.
crunchymama said,
July 19, 2008 @ 8:19 am
We have had great results with boric acid. It has the wonderful side effect of killing roaches as well, and one treatment lasts about a year. Relatively non-toxic (it used to be common to use it for diaper rashes and as an eye wash) and cheap.The downside is that you do have to evacuate the house for a few hours after treating everything as it does hang in the air, and your hardwood floors/tile/linoleum will be super slippery for a few days. IME it takes about a week to reduce the flea population and 2 weeks to wipe them out. YMMV
mamaof5 said,
July 19, 2008 @ 8:44 pm
Sorry to hear about the fleas… BUT at least you know what you are up against! And YEAH for sleep. I recently had a fight with my brother about SAHM and social security. LOL That was FUN!
Have a wonderful summer!
heather in tucson
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July 25, 2008 @ 9:30 am
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mammal said,
July 28, 2008 @ 4:45 am
try lavender oil, diluted with luke warm water and sprayed on carpets, sofas, matresses.
Julinda said,
July 28, 2008 @ 5:46 am
Can fleas be caught via the internet? Because apparently we have them now too!
Okay, it’s probably because I didn’t replace one cat’s flea collar after it was removed at the vet’s office, and I didn’t do the other cat’s monthly flea & tick treatment on time. But still, this is the first time in 15 years of having indoor cats that I’ve had a noticeable flea problem, so I want to blame the internet and say I got the fleas here.
Julinda (wearing a flea collar at the computer just in case)
Hathor said,
July 28, 2008 @ 8:08 am
Hi Julinda,
then I don’t even wanna tell you about the cockroaches! Better put a hotel in your lap, lest they jump out!
Yeesh, I went from loving the bug-free life in California to having swarms of bugs! Fleas! Roaches! Lice! (that was earlier this year so no worries ;o) and then my god the billions of flies on the beach the other day in the sea weed. Ewwwwwwww. and last but not least, my middle daughter Fiona swears this is the worst, swarms of LADYBuGS on the beach. She was hysterical over it. Millions. Crawling on us. In our hair. Terrifying (to her) …. But the good news is that the fleas are gone, maybe they’re at your house now!
xox,
Heather