Oh, not literally, but dealing with the flea infestation is really taking it out of me. This week was supposed to be a relaxing vacation. Tam is away most of the time dog-sitting, and all I had to do was sleep, eat, and breathe (etc.)
Instead, I'm not getting good sleep, I've got laundry running most of the time, and I need to hang multiple new curtains -- after I take down and bag up the old ones. Which will happen after I have stripped the bed, bagged the bedding and pillows and treated the mattress. I've bought curtains, a pillow, and various flea treatments.
I've been through worse; when Tommy the cat and his sisters were little, well over thirty years ago, my well-carpeted duplex was swarmed with fleas; my next-door neighbor was just short of being an animal hoarder and the little black cat who was Tommy's mother had been feral (and ran away to that life as soon as the kittens were weaned). Back then, I slept with flea collars on my ankles for a month (don't do this now, they've changed the chemicals), while cycling everything washable through the laundromat at least twice. But it's no fun to deal with, even with my very own washer and dryer and no next-door source of replacement fleas.
On the other hand, if flea problems are your worst, you can count yourself in good shape.
ReplyDeleteWhen, shortly after moving into an apartment in the Bay Area of California, I reported fleas in the carpeting, they immediately had it all ripped out and replaced. Supposedly, tenants could not have pets, but the previous tenant had obviously fudged on that. Carpet replacement solved the problem for me. I was so much luckier than you, my not having had to go through all you have done. It sounds exhausting.
ReplyDeleteI once somehow brought in a flea with eggs. (My cats were strictly indoors.) I had to repeatedly treat them with flea meds and "bomb" my apartment twice. Loaded the cats up in their carriers, put them in the car, opened the closets and then sprayed the living crap out of my apartment and left for the weekend. I used that stuff at maybe twice the recommended coverage.
ReplyDeleteI did get rid of them. Eventually.