House Hacking - My Flea Problem Diary

[Kamran Rahman]

The purpose of this post is to share my ongoing experience with dealing with fleas in a condo I am househacking. 

There are two things I am looking for from this thread. 

1. A documentation of my experiences so that others in similar situation can benefit. 

2. An open opportunity for people in this forum to chime in and provide any feedback. 

Now, let’s move on to the background of this story. 

I had a couple tenants sharing a bedroom from November 2018 - April 20, 2019. During that time, they had a cat from December 2018 - until they left on April 20, 2019. During this time, neither I or the other roommate ever noticed a flea problem. They left the room in decent condition  

On April 27, a steam cleaner came to steam clean the vacated room.

On May 19, my other roommate surfaced that he was getting flea bites. He said that after the steam cleaner cleaned the vacated room on April 27, he started seeing fleas. It isn’t clear to me as to when the fleas started showing up. At this point, a new tenant has already signed a lease to move into the room where the previous tenants lived  

The new tenant spent one night in the room, but has been staying with a friend while I get the flea issue addressed  

On June 6, I had professional exterminators come and treat the place. So now I am occasionally vacuuming, and waiting to see if the fleas come back.

The exterminator provided a 60 day guarantee. I am also considering getting on a subscription plan with them for a few months until I know the issue is gone. 

There can be many causes for why I have fleas. It could be the previous tenant/roommates, it could be that the steam cleaner carried them in, it could be from a neighboring unit, etc.  Since the origin isn’t clear, I am steering towards a subscription plan so that my roomies/tenants can live in a flea free place ASAP  

[Marc Winter]

Sad but too true; many folks don't know there is a flea problem until after the host animal vacates.  Then without food, the fleas will either hibernate or some will die after laying eggs.  Those little critters are very sensitive to vibrations, and when someone walks nearby, or your steam cleaner was there, the eggs hatched, the sleeping fleas woke up, and they were hungry!

You are doing the correct thing by vacuuming the carpeting after the professional treatment.  That will allow the eggs to fully hatch and once they do, they will come in contact with the lingering chemicals and go off and die.  That is the cycle you need to repeat every 5 to 7 days until there just aint no more lil buggers.

Spray on OFF or rubbing alcohol on your pants legs before going into the affected areas.  Tip:  I inspect a LOT of property, and I have learned to always wear white socks on inspections.  I've had my ankles literally covered in fleas, but because I was able to spot them quickly, I got out to the car, pulled out my trusty flea spray, and shot them down--not ONE bite!!  (It was so bad I had to strip down in the street, but that's a story for another post.)