h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Going out with a grecian Six.... how could you !

Seriously though good for you pal!

I can only say that if a certain Baggie can get his face on television every week as a football pundit, you'll probably be buying Taunton before long.

Well, I have no cat (the chap moving out decided he couldn't part with her in the end) but I *do* have a legacy of fleas to contend with. Dammit! Apparently if I keep hoovering twice a day it will solve the problem, because they can't breed while they're living on human blood.

All I can say is that it's bloody annoyingly itchy in the meantime.

Hello six

Have you thought of flea powder? I inherited fleas in a room I rented in Cardiff many years ago and did the vacuuming thing for days and days, until I was fed up of still itching and getting red bits all over my legs Then I resorted to sprinkling powder on the carpet and soft furnishings just before I went out for the day. It worked like magic. Only 2 applications needed and I was flea free

Just hoovering won't solve this I'm afraid, unless you get in all the nooks and crannies every single time and your hoover is a really good powerful one, and you throw the bag away every single time, especially if you've got the central heating on, and you're also hoovering curtains, cushions, sofas etc. They will move from the carpet into other soft furnishings.

You do need to treat your carpet with some sort of flea treatment, otherwise you are unlikely to win this one, sorry!

Hmmm. My hoover's a Dyson, so it's pretty good, and I'm emptying the cylinder straight into the bin after vacuuming, and I've got a spray to get at all the nooks and crannies where you can't normally hoover.

I've put down Bob Martin's 'Flea Kill' which is kind of shake and vac type stuff on the main carpet and things seem to be improving, and I've got a spray to go round the skirting boards with.

It doesn't help that my front room is currently empty due to being painted (with the bed in the middle of it under a dustsheet) and everything I own is stacked up in the back room and I'm sleeping on the sofa in there at the moment.

But I gave the front room a good going over with the anti-flea stuff before I started painting. Hopefully that might work. The carpets aren't that nice and are pretty worn anyway - and my bed needs replacing - but what worries me is that I'll replace everything and the fleas will stay.

The man from the council pest control said the main thing is, as well as hoovering, to make sure you spray around the skirting boards and leave the stuff down to do its work for 14 days...

The crumb of comfort I'm hanging on to is that the pest control man said that fleas can't lay eggs while they're living on human blood - so the number of fleas that were in the flat when I bought it isn't going to grow, and hopefully I can eliminate them over time.

I hope he was right. I mean, surely a pest control man from the Council would know what he was talking about?

A trick we used several years ago is to put a shallow pan of water on the floor. The fleas need to drink, but they can't swim so they drown. It might not solve your problem entirely, but it should help.

"My hoover's a Dyson"
Anyone else see the irony in that statement?

Yep.

I wonder if this might help: A1112211

Meanwhile, A840728 makes slightly unnerving reading.

Have you considered that this may be something you can get compensation from the previous owners for? I know they are supposed to declare things like dodgy neighbours, but surely a flea infestation also counts?

It's a bit tricky, that. The flat came to be for sale because the woman who owned it died, and when I came to view it her partner was living in it - but she hadn't left it to him, or at least not entirely, the official vendors of the flat were 'the estate of Mrs V Wood'. I think, from having talked to the neighbours, it was left half to him and half to her son.

Anyway, the woman's partner was looking after the cat, and when I talked to him he didn't want to take it into sheltered accommodation with him because he was worried it'd outlive him - so as part of the offer for the flat, I agreed to look after it. Because, well, I like cats. And there was another buyer sniffing around and I thought it might clinch the deal.

But I think in the end he couldn't bear to part with it.

The thing is, seeing as I'd agreed to look after the cat and it's all there in legally binding paperwork, I'm not sure I've got a leg to stand on about the fleas... I mean, presumably if the cat had stayed as expected then I'd have had an even worse flea problem, because they'd be able to breed while living on feline blood.

That follows I suppose.....

hmm, I can see your trouble. I suppose the answer would be that if you felt strongly enough it may be worth looking into, but as it's the death of someone it's always difficult.

Personally I'd rip up all the carpets and make do, but if you're treating as well as vaccumming regularly then hopefully they will die off sooner rather than later.

Garlic is something that can be used as preventative flea treatment for dogs, try eating a clove of garlic a day, they may stop biting you while you wait for them to die. No idea if it works for humans, but you can let us know.

I've been living in the back room for the last few days while I'm painting the front room, and things seem to be improving on the bites front.

I flea powdered the back room before moving everything in here, and did the same to the front after I emptied it before I started painting.

I suspect more of them were in the front room than the back, so we'll see what happens when I move back in there and start working on the back room.

I've seen things in the big pet shop in Taunton called 'Flea Bombs'. They sound very impressive looking at the side of the pack, and if they work as advertised they could be the answer to everything.

Anyone got any experience of them?

Do you really want to be deploying that kind of ordanance in your new home?

Flea bombs are used a lot here. And yes, everybody swears by them for times of infestation.

Have you considered consulting an exterminator? They may be willing to give you suggestions. Actually, getting a contract with an exterminator was one of the wisest decisions I've made

My brother is an exterminator. They are thinking of sending him on a course and giving him a gun but I'm not sure that's the wisest decision anyone's ever made!

The exrerminator? Surely he cannot put off his quest for John Connor long enough to deal with fleas?