BillandBob.com

It’s July, it’s hot, and it’s rained a lot recently, which means the fleas are in bloom. We first noticed Tibbs scratching 4-6 weeks ago, and it’s always a surprise when our indoor cat manifests fleas. We were slow to go to battle against the fleas, given what we were up to at the time. But when the little ankle-biters start going after me, it’s war.

There was a time when we’d have glibly used flea powder, flea collars, bug spray, or foggers to eradicate the pests promptly. But now that we know most pesticides are endocrine disruptors, especially organophosphates, we avoid exposing ourselves to them. We’re instead striving to give the fleas a natural death, and it’s proving to take some work:

1. Get fleas off of the cat. In earlier years, we’d just dose Tibbs with Revolution or Capstar. But that seems hard on his system, and topical pesticides skeeve me out. So we’re combing Tibbs with a special flea comb every day, and multiple times most days. It’s essential to kill every flea and egg the comb catches. One can simply dip the comb in soapy water to drown each flea, but I prefer to crush them. And the near-permanent bruise on my index fingernail is recovering now that I’ve discovered rolling them to death with a hard plastic vitamin bottle. The crunching sound is surprisingly satisfying.

Several sources also advocate bathing the cat weekly. I’m pleased to learn that no scary “flea dips” are required; again, gentle soapy water is sufficient to dissolve the waxy coating around their spiracles and suffocate the fleas. But bathing Tibbs is beyond my pay grade. When Bill thought I intended to try, he wrote:

Be sure to film your bathing of the cat. I’ll be sad that I’m not there (to claim the remains).

Heh. No baths for Tibbs.

2. Get fleas out of the house. Pretty much anywhere we’ve walked after being outdoors, and any surface where the kitty has been, could be fair game for nearly-invisible flea eggs, larvae, or pupae. We’re therefore supposed to vacuum everything, daily. (Note that one must dispose of the flea-filled vacuum bag immediately.) But it took me 3 hours Sunday to vacuum most every nook and cranny in the house, so it will be a few days before that happens again. I’m again grateful that our bedroom is a Cat Free Zone.

I’m also testing an internet remedy. Fleas are ostensibly attracted to white/light colors. They say you can fill a plate with soapy water and fleas will be drawn to it and drown. I filled a plate with Ivory soap and water and placed it next to the one crack we’ve identified where fleas are breaching the house from outside. Within an hour, one flea had met his end and the next day there were two dozen dead fleas. But given that at least that many jumped past the dish (to meet death-by-crushing on the bathroom floor), I suspect the dish is merely catching unlucky/stupid fleas, without actually attracting them. We may need a bigger dish.

3. Get fleas out of the yard. The main way fleas reach our indoor cat is by hitching a ride on our socks/ankles/pants as we pass through the yard into the house. So to reclaim Flea Free Status indoors, we have to achieve Flea Free Status outdoors. But our yard is home to myriad birds and squirrels, and stormwater from our yard flows directly to the bayou, so I’d prefer not to use chemicals out there either.

If we had more time to prepare, we could plant mint and lavendar in the yard to repel fleas. A scorching drought would kill a bunch of the little buggers, too. Citronella repels fleas, and apparently cats as well. In the short term, I chose a spray called Orange Guard that uses essential citrus oils to repel fleas. Having sprayed half a bottle on the porch, walk, and grass nearby, we can now get to/from the car without collecting fleas. (One clear-cut victory! Woo-hoo!)

Orange Guard is safe for indoor use around pets and children, and it claims to kill ants/roaches/fleas on contact, so I also brought it inside to combat the breach in the bathroom. This turned out to be a bad idea. First, instead of killing the fleas, it only spurred them to jump away across the floor (where I had to crush them). Second, citrus oil leaves a vaguely oily residue on the floor. Third, it prompted Tibbs to abandon his bathroom/litter box for 2-3 days in favor of other areas in the house he found more suitable. Yuck, yuck, and yuck. Getting him to do his business where it belongs again required cleaning the bathroom thoroughly.

All of this has been a real pain in the @ss. Killing fleas naturally turns out to require real effort. But even after all that, I’m still sure I don’t want toxins in our house or on our pet. I’ll just be glad when flea season is over.