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Sorry, I have to disagree Rufus. I'm the Manager of a Pest Control Company and a flea cannot jump 15 feet. They can jump 200-300 times their body length, but that hardly equals 15 feet.
Here is an excerpt from an article I wrote that was recently published on alternative flea control. DISCLAIMER: I wrote this article to a reader inquiring about fleas in their home and on their cat. This advice was NOT written with chickens in mind! If readers take the following advice, please remove your chickens from the coop during this process and use caution around pets and children! For example, I would not use Frontline on a chicken, this was written with dogs and cats in mind. So please take some of the advice but leave what doesn't apply with chickens.
Here is my article:
1.VERY FIRST thing to do is get Frontline from your vet (or online, as long as it is a reputable site and you are sure it's really brand name Frontline). Advantage and other professional brands from a vet are okay too, but do NOT waste your money on Hartz from your local
walmart. Fleas have been immune to it for many years now, it no longer works. You must do this first, to get them dying and/or jumping off your animals. Blood is their food, so they cannot be on your cats. This way they can't thrive.
2. This may be the most under-estimated yet most effective thing you can do: Vacuum, vacuum, vacuum! I cannot stress this enough. Vacuum obsessively all over your house, carpets and floors and furniture. Whichever you have, canister or bag, change it at the end of each day or they WILL find their way out of the vacuum. Hoover's official website says that 7 back and forth passes over each strip is an effective vacuum. That means: "forward and back = one pass", etc. Seven times before moving on to a new strip. So you need to really vacuum the heck out of all possible areas. This will do several things: 1. It will suck up fleas and eggs, 2. It will suck up dead skin from people and pets that are food for them, and 3. It will cause the larvae in the cacoon stage to hatch from the vibrations, making them easier to kill and shortening this whole process.
3. Next. Either A. Hire and exterminator at this point to treat the home(best option), or B. try do it yourself methods, as follows:
To treat yourself: Buy Borax, available in your local grocery and department stores in the laundry detergent section. It's usually called "Twenty Mule Team Borax", or any brand clearly labeled Borax will do. Buy several boxes. It's cheap. Borax dries up eggs and larvae, preventing them from hatching. Go home and find a coffee can with lid, or Pringles can, etc, and poke holes in it to make a shaker can. Fill it with Borax and sprinkle heavily on carpeting and pet bedding, and in cracks and crevices of hard flooring. CAUTION: Borax is strong! You should wear a dust mask while doing this, or be in a well ventilated area, but it will make you choke if you breathe it in, so be careful. Don't touch your hands to your eyes until you are done sprinkling, then wash hands well.
Ok, so do this at least once a day. I'm a bit obsessive so I do it twice a day. But leave it for about 6 or more hours at a time, then vacuum it all up, VERY thoroughly. Again, I cannot stress enough the importance of vacuuming a TON. So after you vacuum up the borax, do it all over again. Sprinkle new borax, leave for 6 or so hours, vacuum up and repeat. Do this for at least several days to a week.
It is important that your cats be already treated with Frontline at the beginning of this process or the fleas will just jump onto them for safety, where they will have a food supply and reproduce, and you will have a never ending cycle.
A side note: Be sure to vacuum the borax up very well in the pet bed areas, so they will not breathe it in when they lie down.
An exterminator can use chemicals that will make the process quick and easy, so you need to decide if you have the money to opt for a professional, or would rather take the time to do this yourself.
If you follow the above directions and vacuum thoroughly at least twice a day, but really as often as possible, this should solve your problem. I have been sticking with the borax/vacuum method for years, and it has never failed.
Obviously, throughout this process, continue to inspect your pets and keep a close eye out at your ankles, etc, for any signs of fleas. You should notice them diminish, but it will take several cycles until they disappear. This can take a couple of weeks.
