Battle of the fleas

We have two cats, Angel and Spook. Sorry for the horrible pictures! I dont have many pictures of them on my computer. They are indoor cats, but this year, somehow they have got fleas. Now in all the searches I have done online, it says this is very easy to happen. Thankfully we have NOT had it happen in the past years. Neverless we are now having to deal with this issue. We did, I am ashamed to say try the Control brand of drops on them. I have since read that it is not very effective and pretty harmful. I have been combing the cats daily, that alone has seem to have done a lot. I had read that bathing them with a mild detergent, and letting them sit for a few mintues before rinsing them kills a lot of the fleas. We have an area in our basement that is in the reno stage that the cats "hang" out in, and we know it must have a fair amount down there! Eeek. Strangely enough, I have always been one that would get eatten alive if there were fleas around, and I am getting no bites now. So we will be looking into a flea bomb, or other alternative this weekend. I have certainly had my fill on flea information, doing these searches. Yuck they are ugly creatures and darn adaptable too. I learned that

• they can stay in the pupal stage from 5 days to 5 weeks, in the absence of a host.


• the adults emerge when vibrations let them know a host is near.


• a sand flea is just a common flea, breeding outdoors.


• the entire life cycle of flea can require two weeks, to two years!


• they can jump 7-8 inches vertically and 14-16 inches horizontally


• there are over 2000 species in the world

apparently while they like dry areas outside and will keep in the shaded area, a good rainfall will kill off a lot of larva. I am planning to purchase some Nematodes for next year. They eat the larva in the grass, among many other great benefits to the yard.

So I have a battle ahead and just thinking about it makes me want to scratch!!!!!!!!!