My first rental infestation! FLEAS!

[Roy Gutierrez]

Hi guys,

I'm not sure how many of you guys have gone thru a flea infestation but it's NASTY! One of my renter's lease was ending, 3 years never missed a payment, 3 young adults, one of the people leaving the house had a tough time finding a place and I had short term rented my own home so I thought I can kill 2 birds with one stone, move to the rental and save money because I don't have to rent another place and I also can start fixing the rental house to sell it.  I negotiated with this renter if he let me go in the house a couple of days before the last day of the lease then I will let him stay for free for a month while he looks for another place. 

Once I moved in (along with 2 relatives that are visiting) I realized that they had 2 cats instead of 1, ok fine, we are living together now no problem it's about to end. After a couple of days I start noticing the cats scratching themselves, I start to wonder if they have something, day 3, I have some bites on my ankles but I thought somehow I got those things working in the yard. Got tired of all the cat hair so I mentioned to the renter that the cats have to go so I can start cleaning to start showing the house, so he sends them off, the next day my cousin says that he's seen 2 fleas, so I start realizing that I have a flea problem, tell the renter that I'm calling Orkin to get rid of the fleas, Orkin comes out and sprays, 2 weeks later and scores of vacuuming I still have the devils, I'm not sure if the Orkin stuff is killing them because the only time I see them dead is when I kill them, I'm getting bit every day, everyday I'm worried that I will transport a flea or the eggs to my house or another of my properties, so I stopped going to my properties, I stopped going to friends, refuse to share rides or give rides, have bombed my car 2 times already as a precaution, I'm probably full of pesticide by now!

 A couple of days ago my cousin couldn't take it anymore and went back to Florida, he was supposed to stay for a couple of months and see the job market here, can't blame him, sleeping on a couch on the floor in a flea infested house. Today the renter finally moved most of his stuff (he found a place last week), he won't have to worry about the mess he's leaving behind (unless he's taking some fleas/eggs with him, which might be very possible because he doesn't seem to be to careful) but he's leaving me a heck of a mess, of course he's losing the deposit, sad thing is that I allowed them to use part of the deposit as part of the last month payment, so I could help the renter find a place quickly, trying to help the guy is probably going to bite me in the a**.  

I realize getting rid of the fleas is not going to be a short battle, I have ordered so many products and gadgets to try to put this to rest (preparing to put diatomaceous earth all around the house this morning plus spraying the backyard, plus fogging the garage) and eventually I will but I'm already losing time and money because this is consuming most of my time, I don't know how anyone can stand me because I'm in such a bad mood because of all this! My only consolation is that eventually it will be over! 

Thank you for listening and if you have a flea story do share!

[Julie Haveman]

We had a terrible case of fleas in one of our rental units. We did the treatments in the bombs and it helped but it didn't take care of the tough ones. I read a little home remedy online and thought I would try it. It worked like a charm. If you put a lamp on the floor and put about five or six pie tins around it with water in it then squirt some dish soap in it and turn the light on. We put these in each room of the house. I think the first day we did it we had over 50 fleas in the tins. We did this for about a week, and the problem was taken care of. When walking through the house we wore rubber boots at all times. I hope this helps!