Flea spraying your house with fish tanks

[Kiamose]

Dear all, firstly I hope I'm allowed to write this and that I've put it in the correct area, secondly I'm sorry if this has been wrote before, and thirdly this is just my success, I'm not saying it is a garentee, so please don't moan at me if you try and it doesn't work for you, and lastly, I'm sorry as its a long thread.

I have 4 marine fish tanks, large ones, a fancy goldfish tank, 2 dogs, 2 guina pigs, 2 baby bunnies and a cat, called KAT lol, all these pets are indoor pets, I flea control my pets often, but in the spring and summer months my cat is awful in catching mice and birds etc, so sometimes it was hard to keep the fleas under control, then he would come in after his feast, sprawl all over the sofa and boom FLEAS, we treated the pets again, chucked the cat out to a shed for a while and tried many products to rid the fleas from the house by hoovering twice daily, and using various house flea control sprays and powders to no affect, all that did happen was more and more fleas, please don't think we are dirty people, we are not, I have three young children so cleanliness is important (I'm not a bleach freak as I want the children to build up an immune system)

we thought we would try one last result before we had to do the awful task of rehousing all fish and tanks for a while so we could get the professionals in, and it's worked amazingly, NO FLEAS, and more importantly all our fish and other live stock are happy and healthy and no new cycles in the tanks, and it didnt cost hundreds of £££ and our fish stayed in there homes, here is what we did.

Firstly we bought some INDOREX, it is a vet product for treating your house, you can buy it from Amazon, eBay etc, we then totally hoovered our whole house, furniture, beds etc, everywhere, added an extra air stone to each tank, then we clingfimed the tanks really concentrating over all the openings, then used black bin liners over the tanks using tape, then covered in blankets, we did leave a small area open (glass NOT air hole) at the bottom for some daylight as the clown fish and puffer get scared, then we put all our hairy animals outside, and kids went to school. We then sprayed the house from top to bottom, with the windows all open, luckily it was a nice day, a few hours later we resprayed, really concentrating on the sofas, corners of the room, nooks and crannies, pet beds after they'd been washed, and left the house like that for around 8 hours. After the 8hours we took off the blankets etc off the tanks, keeping the lights low and leaving in the air stones till the morning, we fed as usual and all fish ate and where fine after there ordeal. We re treated the pets as well. We then hoovered everywhere the following day, and our usual daily since. This was done two weeks ago and I've noticed not one flea as this product kills the adults and eggs, and is meant to for the following 12 months, which is what we needed, I've also noticed not one fly in our house since, and as its summer time we where always having these unwelcomed guests in our house, everyday all day, this spray INDOREX, also kills bed mites etc and as we sprayed all beds and bedding, we killed two pests with one spray.

Now today, just incase (well because I'm paranoyed) we are retreating the house, doing the exact same again, INDOREX only costs between £9-£12 and is a wonderful product, and I've only noticed good reviews.

I do have a puffer, so I'm pleased to say this worked for her aswell, as I was most worried about her being that she is scaleless and has no covering to her gills.

Once again, please remember this worked for me, I'm not an expert, and I'm not saying it will always work, but I just wanted to write my success as while I was looking on the net I couldn't find anything saying what can work regarding flea spraying your house with fish tanks, all I saw was people saying you can use BOREX and SALT, I tried this and it didn't work. I hope I'm allowed to write this and I'm sorry if Im not allowed.

Kind regards.

[bertie 83]

Thankyou for sharing. I don't see why you would not be allowed to write this. It could be valuable advise for many members if they should get an out break of pests.

[J-P]

It could be valuable advise for many members if they should get an out break of pests.

I don't suppose it could be used on parents. No, I'd assume not. That would be murder

[bertie 83]

Lmao, the bin bags would be handy lol

[Kiamose]

It could be valuable advise for many members if they should get an out break of pests.

I don't suppose it could be used on parents. No, I'd assume not. That would be murder

Oh I have a very good tip for ridding parents, but I do not want to share incase my own children read it one day.

[Kiamose]

Just an update to what else I have done, please note as of now I don't know how effective they are.

After my first complete spray two weeks ago, and my re spray yesterday, I have also purchased two Gotcha electric heat flea trapers, they use a small halogen bulb and a sticky pad, which mimics a host by producing heat, once a flea gets into the trap the flea gets stuck, this gadget uses no chemicals or poisons, just heat. This wouldn't work on its own as it only kills adult fleas not the eggs, so the only reason I'm using them (one upstairs and one down stairs) is to monitor if I have another infestation of fleas, my view is if the trap catches any fleas I then will know I have to retreat my whole house again.

Yesterday's retreat, was once again successful, and all fish are happy and no sign yet of a mini cycle, which I'm monitoring bi-daily, I will be doing my usual weekly water change on all tanks today. This is a few days early but just incase.

I do hope none of you reading this will ever need to go down this road, but if any off you reading this do indeed have fleas and have to treat your home with fish tanks, I hope you have all the success I have luckily had.

Kind regards

[J-P]

Have you tried the soapy water and a light method? It may or may not work as most of the fleas will be in or near the high traffic areas.
I had tried it and it did work but not to the extent I was hoping for.. maybe 10 a day or so.

[Kiamose]

Hiya J-P, I don't know the soapy water method, could you let me know just incase, at the moment I've not seen anything since the first spray we did, but you never know with those little buggers, so just incase I do find one I'll do that as well, when I've done the spraying I've sprayed from top to bottom moving all furniture etc as they get everywhere and love corners and cracks for there nest, I did a course on the little horrors when I did my vet nursing course but that was a while a go but I know there cycle.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Kind regards

Ps my parents have been gone for a while now, see my method does work lol

[J-P]

=)

What we did was get a tinfoil plate, fill it with some water and a few drops of dish soap (to change the surface tension) and put a spot light on it. In our case, it was a reading light.

The fleas go to the heat and light source and jump into the water. The lamp head has to be close to the tray for it to work. It is not the best method, but you'll get some. Experiment a bit and you'll find your problem spots.

[Kiamose]

=)

What we did was get a tinfoil plate, fill it with some water and a few drops of dish soap (to change the surface tension) and put a spot light on it. In our case, it was a reading light.

The fleas go to the heat and light source and jump into the water. The lamp head has to be close to the tray for it to work. It is not the best method, but you'll get some. Experiment a bit and you'll find your problem spots.

Brilliant thank you,I'll try that one as I don't want to buy those traps for each room, I suppose it's the heat and the smell that attracts them then, as if I used some flea spray in the dish they'd hop and jump a mile away as they don't like the smell, luckily with the spray I've dealt (hopefully) with the nest, but the adults are the hardest to kill (die die DIE) so I'll set up some of those today in other rooms to see if I'm getting rid of them to know if I need to respray, I've bought 2 more bottles of INDOREX just incase so if and then I need them I don't need to wait a few days for the cans to arrive.

Kind regards
p.s I hope I'm making sence, it's early my end.