I vant to be alone…
[Editor: This is a rerun because days of thunderstorms are keeping everycat in hiding. It has been a while since I’ve seen Ringo, which is normal for her after she was ‘imprisoned’ in the house for so long. She takes off somewhere, and then wanders back when she feels like it.]
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Established: 21 November 2004
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17 comments
i’ve been doing some more-than-usual vacuuming this weekend as part of my campaign to eradicate fleas. i would post some pictures of the looks on their faces for your entertainment, but they’ve all gone into hiding. some of them will come out in the next hour or so, but some of them i won’t see for days.
Turning on the vacuum cleaner is a sure way of having a cat-free house for hours. The reduction in the fleas from the traps and the Advantage II actually working has left two comatose cats who are making up for all of their disturbed naps in last few months. They are finally off all of the high, hard surfaces and back to trying to trip me as I walk.
yep, mine are doing more of that sprawling all over the floor now too, so maybe i’m getting there….
i got some advantage ii but gave up on the flea traps. i looked for glue boards when i went to get a new filter for the shop vac, but didn’t find any, though i admit to not trying very hard. if i get a reinfestation, i’ll try harder.
Usually the flea traps are with the garden supplies in hardware stores, or with the other insecticides in supermarkets.
i went to one of the big box hardware stores, walked in the garden supplies entrance, past all the flea sprays, and almost to the other end of the store to get the filter, and then retraced my path all the way back. nothing jumped out at me. next time i’ll hunt somebody down and ask.
If the filter was for a real Shop Vac, I got them at the orange one that carries Rigid vacs instead.
I’ll check at Publix tomorrow to see if they carry them.
real shop vac – srsly, there are others? i’m boycotting the orange one, but publix is where i get cat litter, and sometimes cat food, so i go there a LOT. also the ginger cookies with crystallized ginger in them, yummy!
Real seeded, unsliced, sour rye, and cinnamon buns with raisins, but that varies store to store.
I’m going for their store-brand strawberry jam which is better than any of the ‘names’, although I might accidentally wander by the bakery…
I might have to get some of that Advantage II, because I apparently forgot to latch the screen door and The Mighty Fang has figured out how to open it. When I came home from my afternoon hike both TMF and Mencken were outside watching the rain fall (rain in June in the Silicon Valley? Nuts!). And I know that there’s fleas out there, because they hop on my legs when I walk out there to do gardening, thanks to Fluffytail and Blaze liking to loll around on my patio. SIIIGH!
Fluffytail and Blaze are on the patio because hard surfaces reduce the flea attacks.
Get the six-pack and treat for three months. That will do the job if your house isn’t infested. Don’t wait until the cats start avoiding the floor, because they will also start avoiding the litter box 😉
No go at Publix, Hipparchia. If I find them somewhere other than the orange place I’ll let you know.
no rush, and don’t go out of your way. if I get desperate I can break my boycott.
I wonder if strips of double-sided tape on pieces of cardboard would work….
Actually, before I found the Real-Kill, I was thinking of trying those stick-on mylar sheets, or the whole sheet labels. They might not handle the big bugs, but I know that duct tape catches fleas, just not as well as the real sticky sheets.
If that didn’t work, I was considering test the spray adhesive that I used to put a new headliner in my Mother’s Saturn.
Just ideas.
I [heart] duct tape. I thought about trying that, but can’t bring myself to waste duct tape on fleas.
also, this is the first time I’ve had roaches in any appreciable quantity, so i’m in the market for roach motels. I’ve thought about cutting one open and laying it flat….
I wondered about diy adhesives, but i’m downright dangerous with anything in a spray can, so i’m going to try some other things first.
I handed out supremo organic catnip tonight. usually I just set little piles of it around on all the hard surfaces and on pieces of cardboard, but sometimes I let them lick it out of my hand. anybody who thinks that only dogs drool hasn’t tried this.
Winn-Dixie over here doesn’t carry Real-Kill either, alas.
Those glue boards will trap roaches, but so will boric acid in a flour and sugar paste in bottle caps, as long as you stick them in the back of cabinets where the cats can’t get to them.
The Ace Hardware site says they have Tomcat glue boards that are in the same price range. If the local store doesn’t have them you can order on-line with free shipping to your local store. Something to consider.
I did the boric acid thing back when I had only dogs. been afraid to do that with cats, especially since I always seem to have at least one destructocat.
curmudgeon cat was the most strong-willed, determined, persevering and analytical cat I have ever met – topped off with a large size, a fearless demeanor and a fair amount of physical strength. this was a cat who dared cars to run over him, who beat up the neighborhood rottweilers, and who once scared off someone who was trying to break into my house (the dog and I were both hiding under the furniture). I got rid of almost all my household chemicals shortly after he came to live with me.
In addition to the ‘child locks’ I run a steel rod through the handles of cabinets under the kitchen sink to keep the cats out of it. The rod came after Dot figured out the ‘child locks’.