Fleamageddon: DIY flea fumigation

Owning two collies means we often find things in the house that are meant to stay outside. Muddy pawprints, flat footballs, sticks to chew, and sometimes even fleas!

Our youngest dog, Harley, likes to take our little girl to bed and will lie with her until she’s fallen asleep. When Harley’s satisfied that her human is asleep, she jumps down off the bed and waits to be let down for cuddles on the sofa with the adults!

This worked perfectly fine until I was changing the bedding one day, and we found… a flea!

Just one, and I’m pretty sure it was already dead, but I wanted to avoid an infestation. So, I ordered flea bombs and checked to see if the dogs were due another dose of their pest treatments. I was willing to do anything to stop fleamageddon!

My chaotic day trying to fumigate my house

I know that fleas will happily lay their eggs anywhere and everywhere, especially in carpets and soft furnishings. Great… every room has carpet and every piece of furnishing is soft!

So, everything was stripped and washed and when the bombs arrived, I got ready to fumigate!

I collected all of my plants, not realising I had quite so many and hid them in the bathroom and kitchen so that they wouldn’t be killed by the smoke. I even went to the extreme of rolling a towel to block the bottom of the doors. I wasn’t taking any chances with my beloved houseplants.

Everything starts to go wrong

One bomb for each room. They tell you to close the windows and doors. I pulled the curtains so I wouldn’t panic the neighbours with rooms full of smoke! I’d planned on doing upstairs first, then moving to the rooms downstairs but as each bomb needed four hours to work, I’d left it a bit late and would need to get my daughter from school with only half the house done.

So, I’d decided to do it all at once. Working my way through the rooms, setting off bombs and closing the doors shut behind me. Obviously, I’d forgotten something in my bedroom so needed to work my way (safely) through thick grey smoke to grab it.

It’s not until I reach the hallway and stairs that I realised I hadn’t properly planned out my fumigation. Once I’d set off a bomb on the top landing the fire detectors started to go off. Yep. I’d forgotten to take out the batteries, obviously.

Thankfully, we were able to work our way in the smoke to disconnect them so that our neighbours didn’t think we’d burnt our lunch! (Don’t worry, we switched them straight back on once it was all done!)

Phew, once that was sorted we just had the living room to do. We spent the afternoon at my parents’ house, waiting for the pesticide to do its job so I could live knowing that my house was flea-free once more.

Top tips on fumigating your house for fleas:

• Be prepared, have some flea bombs handy. Just in case!
• Disconnect your smoke detectors but remember to reconnect them once you’re done!
  • Stay in the garden if you can, just in case!
• Treat your entire home in one day so that they can’t escape the fumes!
• Make sure you start treating your house early, as each bomb needs at least four hours to work!
• Collect all of your houseplants and hide them somewhere that’s not being fumigated!

And that’s it, really. We didn’t find another flea after that, but I have no doubt it won’t be our only experience with the ghastly pests, especially during the summer months! Oh, and don’t worry, Harley still gets to go up to bed with our little one.

Stay safe out there and if you ever need to fumigate, remember: learn from my mistakes!