Flea Control And Cats

Flea Control And Cats

Here is a copy of an article I have recently written about flea control and cats.

Together with keeping cats (or any household pet) can sometimes come a constant battle with fleas, depending on the climate in which you live. Getting rid of fleas in a house can become an ongoing battle. Home remedies for fleas are helpful, especially when you are determined to only use natural pest control. But you need to make sure you have a systematic approach to flea control if you want long lasting, flea-free home.

I live in a warm and humid sub-tropical climate, which is the ideal environment for fleas to thrive in. A single flea can morph into many thousands in a very short period of time. Because my cats have access to an outdoor cat enclosure, they are constantly exposed to fleas that are dropped by passing native animals, and also from other people’s free-ranging cats. Fleas also carry cat tapeworms, so it is in your kitty’s best interests to maintain a good level of flea control.

For more info on fleas and flea control, visit this site: GetRidFleas.com

My approach to flea control is simply by making a constant and systemic effort to control the fleas in house. I used to let off a regular flea bomb in the house, because I had not been able to find an natural flea control product that was effective or even particularly helpful in getting rid of fleas.

I bathe my cats regularly in a natural, highly alkaline soap that appears to kill fleas, while at the same time actually even being therapeutic for the cats. The soap I use is Miracle II soap, and you should be able to find a distributor close to you to buy some by googling it, as it is available worldwide. Or, if you are in the US you can order it online here: Miracle II Soap.

Miracle II Soap is a product that people actually drink for it’s health benefits – although they use the one without the sudsing component, which is called  Miracle II Neutralizer …  so it is perfectly safe to suds up the cats and leave it on them. Leaving it on seems to provide much better flea control on the cat, and works a lot better than rinsing it off straight away.

However, you also need to get rid of fleas from the home itself. Because they live in the carpet, soft furnishings and little specks of dust in corners and teeny cracks, fleas can be extremely difficult to get rid of, once and for all. Constant vacuuming helps to keep any flea infestation down, but it is not the total answer.

To my extreme delight, I have just found the Victor M230 Ultimate Flea Trap that you can see pictured on the right. Currently, they won’t ship this product to Oz, but I am trying to work around that and I will keep you all updated on just how well (or if) they control fleas in my home.

These flea traps have a number of convincing rave reviews from real users on Amazon. So, I think from what I can see, that they will go a long way towards keeping the flea population under control, if not help me totally get rid of fleas in the home once and for all.

Click on the picture and check them out (including the reviews) for yourself at Amazon. Considering what they cost at about $14 – they are incredibly cheap when compared to any other form of flea control. And of course the very best thing is that they are totally non-toxic!

Here are a couple of the customer reviews at Amazon: Victor M230 Ultimate Flea Trap

 

I bought one of these on Tuesday, it arrived on Wednesday. It worked so well I just ordered six refills and a second unit.

I don’t have a very serious flea problem, but it was bad enough that I was willing to try a new product. We have very thick carpet in most of our house, and while spraying and vacuuming gets rid of most of them, enough survive to restart the problem a few months later. I chose this one because another reviewer had put a photo of the sticky-pad covered with fleas. I considered it unlikely that someone had just caught a bunch of fleas and then thrown them onto the trap just to make the product look good. Also, it wasn’t terribly expensive so, I gave it a shot…

It is fascinating and disturbing how this thing works. Fleas from all corners of the room (within 30 feet or so) move close to it and just gather around it like it’s some kind of shrine to their glorious Flea-God. Eventually, they hop into the glow, thinking they are going to Fleahalla or wherever flea-warriors go when they die…and that’s when they land on the sticky pad. They struggle for a few seconds, but every move buries them deeper in the muck and soon they stop, frozen in pain and panic as the dark curtain of death slowly descends. So, in a way, I guess they were right: jumping into the light WILL take you to Fleahalla, but instead of flea-valkaries you get agonizing death on a big sticky-disc.

 

Here is the link to this flea control product at Amazon: Victor M230 Ultimate Flea Trap

 

I must admit I was very skeptical about this, but decided to give it a try out of sheer desperation, and based on the favorable reviews on Amazon. I’ve got a flea issue with my bedroom carpet, and have tried sprays, continuous vacuuming, boric acid treatments, and dosing my pet with Frontline & Advantage products. While the Advantage works pretty darn well ON the pet, the carpet was still infested no matter what I tried. I plugged in this little contraption on the floor next to my bed, and within TWO HOURS I’ve already captured 18 fleas, and can actually SEE them hopping across the carpet to get to the trap! I think this is a brilliant, safe, pesticide-free solution to dealing with those pesky little ankle-biting devils that hide in the carpet! I’ll continue to vacuum, but I intend to keep this thing plugged in at all times to grab the ones that get away or are newly hatched. Don’t hesitate to buy this product!