Yes, I will admit that I have made MANY mistakes along the way, but I have been battling
fleas for roughly 4 years and I'm extremely depressed. They have followed me from 5 moves.
I don't know if I
should tell me whole story, because it VERY long, but I will try to provide some basic details. At this point I am a single mom, and am the primary host of these
fleas. I just want my life back. I want to be able to spend more time with my daughter and less time vacuuming and stressing about when this will end. I'm desperate for someone to thoroughly help me, but I have no one.
My story begins in Mexico with my daughter's father, a few years before she was born. I helped him move to a "nicer" place, close to the beach. It turned out to be disgusting, full of roaches, and eventually I discovered fleas. I didn't know about exterminators in Mexico and he didn't either, so I looked
online and found this site. We tried using
DE. We put it everywhere and even slept on it, because I was certain the fleas were in the
mattress and his couch. He had no rugs, only tile floors and no baseboards. I was only visiting on the weekends from San Diego, but we discussed my moving in. I thought maybe the DE had worked. We also vacuumed it up, put more down and repeated, but that was probably the extend of the vacuuming. We didn't have a good vacuum either. He found a different place to move to, and wanted to throw out his couch and mattress, but I thought the problem was solved.
The second place was very cold and he was only there a month before finding a nicer place. It was still cold outside, and I started moving in during November. It was just a studio, and there was no place for 2 mattresses. Instead of throwing his away, we just put mine on top of his.
A larger Apt across the hall became available and we moved once more. This apartment was not well-ventilated in terms of the W/D, so it got VERY humid quite easily. It was also hotter because it faced the sunset. This is when we started getting bit again, but mostly me. Fleas have always loved me, but never in my life have I dealt with a situation that wouldn't go away. Even in previous experiences, the fleas went away with one shot from an exterminator or in Seattle it was just weekly basic vacuuming. I wasn't prepared for this. They were now obviously in my mattress, in the couch and probably the rugs. We used DE on everything again and I bought a very expensive canister vacuum from Costco. But still, we didn't vacuum regularly because we thought the issue was gone and only vacuumed once or twice and emptied the canister outside. The fleas would be gone for a month and then they'd be right back, attacking me in my sleep. In case you're wondering, we checked several times to verify it wasn't bedbugs and caught fleas on at least 3 separate occasions. I started panicking. So I bought a a fogger from a pet store, thinking that all my problems would be gone. It had the same result as the DE.... one month flea free, then they'd be back. We did this at least twice, with one fogger in each room. Again, minimal vacuuming. Prior to this flea problem, I was a very infrequent vacuumer. My place was very clean, but I vacuumed maybe once a month, if that. Since nothing was working, we finally agreed to throw out the couch and his mattress. We took my mattress and the area rugs to a place to have them all steam cleaned. We got the mattress back, but they stole the carpets. Good riddance I guess. I forgot to mention that I had a blow up bed that we slept on periodically as well. That definitely helped prevent bites. These things primarily only wanted to
feed at dusk or night time. Although Other times were fair game as well. When my ex's kids came, he wrapped one in a blanket that had been on his couch (prior to tossing) and put him in my car. I realized shortly thereafter that my car has fleas. I would occasionally get bit on my feet, or if a jacket got left on the ground and I put it on, I'd end up with bites on my arms. I was horrified.
We found a much nicer, larger home to move to. I didn't yet have the money for a new bed, so when we got the mattress back from the steam cleaning, I ensured it was wrapped in thick painter's plastic and sealed off with duct tape. We put DE in my car and vacuumed it up once or twice, but it didn't work. We also threw out all our pillows and blankets. I felt like our
dryer wasn't doing a very good job and we suspected that one of the blenders had fleas in it. My ex always wore cuffed jeans and had a bad habit of wearing his shoes in bed, despite how much I yelled. Eventually we experienced fleas in the bed again. Either from the blankets we brought before tossing them, or from him transferring them from my car. It could have been my fault too I suppose. This time we were able to contact an exterminator and set up a once a month service. I suspected they may have gotten into my clothes and shoes from the last place because they were in the same room as the w/d when I kept hauling stuff in there to treat it. The exterminator said everything was natural and we didn't even have to leave the house. We peeled back the mattress and he treated that too. He was certain our problem would be gone. He said not to clean the floors, just let the spray do its work. Well, for those 3 months of treatment we were flea free. But as soon as we stopped, they came back. In Mexico there was no heat and the buildings are
concrete, so they get very cold. I think this
led to the idea that the fleas were finally gone. I got pregnant during the end of winter, but when spring started to warm up, one morning I woke up with an absurd amount of flea bites and I wasn't going to risk it with my baby coming. It was time to toss the bed. We used the blow up mattress until I bought a new mattress, and kept it in its original plastic. This seemed to work, plus I had a different exterminator come out who once again said his product would kill everything, but that we needed to be out of the house for several hours. Again, minimal vacuuming because I had to rely on my ex since it was too heavy for me to lift while prgnent, and also because I didn't realize the importance of vacuuming. I was also fairly certain that my ex had spread the fleas around the house from sleeping in so many different spots. But the exterminators sprayed everything and I was moderately hopeful. When my daughter was born, we started having personal issues and I slept down on the new couch near the kitchen, with my baby close by. One morning I woke up with about 3 or 4 bites and panicked. I washed all of my and my daughter's stuff and moved us back upstairs. I was pumping around the clock, and doing everything on my own, so my opportunity to vacuum was nil. I was primarily practicing avoidance. My ex came back every once in awhile and I had purchased a carpet steam cleaner and made him steam the downstairs carpet and couch. I can't be certain he did it correctly.
I moved not too long after that and was concerned I would bring fleas with me in the area rugs I brought, but was confident that I would finally have an American company in San Diego take care of the issue once and for all. Months after moving back to San Diego with my daughter, I was sitting on the carpet and clearly got bit 2-3 times. I tried to treat it myself with salt and baking soda. I should also mention that I had a brand new bagged vacuum that I decided was better than using canisters. Again, I thought it would be a one shot deal. I left all of it down for 3 days, then vacuumed. Didn't work. I contacted my landlord and she had Dewey Pest Control come out. They gave me no instructions with their spraying except to say that I needed to vacuum more frequently than once a month. I bagged all of my clothes and shoes and dried them... which ruined all of my shoes. One of their techs actually recommended that. I started vacuuming once a week. The problem seemed to persist in that I'd get bit once a week at least. I was terrified of my baby getting bit, but luckily they seemed to only like me. I was fairly certain they were in my couch that I had brought, so I dumped it along with another couch. I bought a blow up and slept on that. The company treated my place about 3 times, but nothing was working. They actually started telling me that my place didn't have fleas and that they must be biting me from another location. I had a new car, donated my old one, and really wasn't leaving the house other than to go to work in an office. I felt like they just couldn't help me and my Manager was tired of hearing from me. I had both that pest control company and another one tell me I didn't have fleas. So I went to the dermatologist and got treated for folliculitis even though my intuition was telling me that was wrong. Sure
enough, months later of still getting little bites every so often, I found a flea in the act of biting me on my leg in my kitchen. I tried to grab it but it hopped away. I immediately contacted my manager and the pest control company and they said they would have someone treat right away. The problem was that I was leaving for 3 months for Seattle for work. I vacuumed before we left and that was it. I stayed with family in Seattle and all the bites went away. I had no issues while I was there. Of course, it was also very cold. I contacted the pest control company to have a plan of attack for when I returned. They said they would treat twice before I came back, and I asked for further clarification on the vacuuming and the manager said once every 3 days would be fine. I did this religiously even though the vacuum makes me daughter cry and it's so time consuming. I went around the baseboards and everywhere I could reach with the nozzle and main vacuum. I started getting bit 1-2 times a day in the evening or at night. I Yelped a company with a great rating and they said they had never heard of the product Dewey was using. I decided to just pay out of pocket. They said they were 99.9% sure they could get rid of my problem with Precor and 2 other things, one of which is an IGR and another an adulticide. They said the product alone would work for months, but they recommended vacuuming every day for 2 weeks, focusing on the main areas, since he said my flea issue was minimal. I do have a light trap from Home Depot, which can caught a flea right before he arrived. This was slightly more than 2 weeks ago that he thoroughly sprayed my place. It took 8 hours to dry, which is double what he told me, but his assistant said he wanted to really soak everything to make sure it works this time. I got bit once after that for sure, which they said to give it a few days. We have a follow up Appt on Monday for more spraying.
I don't know if it's my paranoia from dealing with this for so long, but I can't help feeling like they aren't gone. I have been daily vacuuming for more than 2 weeks. Tomorrow is supposed to be the last day, and then I'm going to once every 3 days until it's been a month and then i'm go to once a week. I have seen suspicious marks on both myself and my daughter. She had a tiny red pustule on her forehead the other day, but she sometimes gets those, so I tried to brush it off. She had a red mark on her arm, but it was gone by the next day. I have had a couple of red folicals that were slightly itchy or not itchy. Yesterday I had a somewhat large red dot that clearly looked like it could have been a bite, except it wasn't itchy. I usually think they're incredibly itchy.... but not always. Could it have been a mosquito? Doubtful. Mosquito bites tend to have a distinct shape.
I woke up at 12AM crying quietly so I wouldn't wake my daughter. I feel so alone in this battle. She hates the vacuuming. I hate it too. I want us to be able to play together after work, not torture her with the vacuum. I want to not be afraid of my Apt. I want to feel normal again instead of depressed.
I know I made A LOT of mistakes and now fear that I have created chemical-resistant fleas.
Even prayer has not seemed to help me. Please help me figure this out. I'' at the point where I would fly someone out here to take care of this for me just so my daughter and I can have a normal life!
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