Linda Bryant

So I have spent the last two days spreading DE everywhere. There isn't an inch of my home that isn't covered in it. I'm going to leave it on for a couple of days, but I'm not looking forward to vacuuming it up. DE can be murder on your vacuum cleaner if you aren't warned that you need to constantly clean the filter. Last time I laid down DE I had to clean the filter on my vacuum every three swipes across the floor. The dust is so fine, it never actually makes it to the canister (I own a bagless vacuum), and collects in the filter. I also purchased a Shark hand vac, which needed to be shaken out every 5 or 6 swipes. I certainly don't want to burn up a brand new vacuum.

Some would say that it means I laid down too much DE. And yet if you could see my floors right now, you might question whether I laid enough down. I followed the directions in the permies article, which says a paper thin layer. Easier said than done. DE is heavy enough that it doesn't want to coat evenly, so I have some thick sections and some thin sections. I ran a broom over it after I spread it, but you should do this slowly and not vigorously, or it will kick up dust and you'll have a cloud in the room.

I also read that since I don't have any pets (but the last tenant had a cat), that eventually the fleas will go past their life cycle, because they can't live on my husband and I forever, that they need an animal to feast on. Which is a good thing, because I read you're supposed to do this every week for four weeks, and I'm certain I don't have the energy to do that.

I used the DE yesterday and think I may have put it on too thick, because I had to clean my filter on my vacuum cleaner about 20 times. I had this fantasy that I was going to lay down the DE at night and then get up the next morning and vacuum it (another site said I only needed to have it on my carpet for 12 hours). Well, I started vacuuming at 9 a.m. and didn't finish until 1 p.m. I live in a small one bedroom apartment, and my upstairs loft bedroom is mostly hardwood floor.

So after all that, this morning I wasn't up 5 minutes and I had a flea on me! I quickly drowned it in soapy water. But I was so discouraged over all the work I had put into it, that I told my husband that I give up, we're calling an exterminator. I fed into the fear that because I saw one flea, that must mean we missed more, and that they would multiply by the thousands, and they'd never go away.

Then I happened upon your article. It gave me new hope. I am ready to keep trying. I'm going to lay down the DE and leave it on a few days instead of 12 hours. I will leave it in the crevices. I will put it in the crevices on my hardwood floors. I will put it on my couch (I will just not be able to sit on it for a couple of days). I've not yet seen fleas in my bed. We don't have any pets, so at least we don't have to worry about that. I'm going to spread it on the path between my car and my house, and I saw a flea in my car last week, so I will give my car a good vacuuming, and then put some DE down. However that will have to be vacuumed up within 24 hours, as I use my car to transport clients, and I can't have them sitting in white powder.

I do have some questions though. Can fleas live on vertical surfaces? I mean, I can coat the horizontal surfaces of my couch but not the back, front or sides (because obviously it's a powder and it'll just fall off). So I can give it a good vacuuming when I remove the DE from the rest of it, should that be enough? And my bed sits on a hardwood floor, but there is a lot of crap under it, and I don't know, should I dig all the stuff out from under it to put the DE in the crevices? It sounds like a real pain in the butt to do, but I'd do it to get rid of fleas.

Thank you for the thoroughly informative and entertaining article. I've never dealt with fleas before, and I am learning more than I ever wanted to know about getting rid of them. I just hope I never have to research how to get rid of a rat infestation (knock on wood).