I, unfortunately, know quite a lot about carpets of crushed bugs. Maybe not exactly crushed to death though, more like dessicated to death, then trodden (is that a word?) to powder underfoot. They were already dead when they got crushed.
my trodden bugs
found meaning in life
by biting.
serves them right
How do I know this? That that is how a bug finds meaning? Experience, my friends, experience.
I'm an idiot. I have two cats and one dog, who all, until recently, went outside regularly. I put essential oils on the dog to repel insects, and let her roam in the woods. I put nothing, however, to repel fleas on my cats.
I've always let my animals out like this. I never had problems other than the occasional tick. Then I moved.
HA!
The house was infected. I would get bitten all over my body, and be unable to sleep for all the scratching.
I managed to get the fleas under control, first of all by poisoning all my pets. I vacuumed every single day, usually twice. I did laundry up the wazoo. This all helped quite a bit, but not enough. So, I sprayed the basement a couple times with toxic chemicals, in addition to vacuuming it, . Dusted my carpets with silicon or diatomateous earth many times, then vacuumed obsessively. This ruins your vacuum, for any of you who are tempted to try it. But is it worth not poisoning yourself along with the pets?
Maybe. Anyway, it worked, and now I have no fleas running around. I probably do, however, have dessicated and crushed bugs in my carpets.
This is my entry to @mariannewest's daily freewrite challenge. Today's prompt is carpet of crushed bugs. I haven't written a freewrite in a very long time. I used e.ggtimer set at five minutes, and spent a short time proofreading what I had written during those five minutes after the timer went off. It feels good to be back. Thank you for reading my sad story.
UGH! I have no carpets. No carpets at all. In fact I am anti-carpet. All of my floors are wood and if I could be at all arsed, I'd get them tiled.
Tiles are too hard! Although they stay nice and cold during hot weather, so I do like them in some places. This house has none at all.
I bought an Aunt's house in my hometown, and two rooms are wall to wall, grass green, medium-pile, carpeted. It's now polka dot, thanks to the puppy I got nearly three years ago. I don't love it, but my dog sure does. She can run and play on it easily, and more safely than hard wood floors. It might be time to get rid of it. I'm pretty sure there is very nice oak under it, maybe even chestnut.
This is a bloody long comment and it amuses me to give 100% upvotes on your really short ones but...fuck it, here you go anyway.
Hahaha, must keep comments shorter then:)
Lol...you'll get votes either way, just amuses me sometimes to give them to shorter comments.
Salt ... salt is what worked for me. Also if your dog can swim or bath in salt water ... that helps too. Just sprinkle salt on your carpet and let it sit there a few days before you vacuum up. It is more difficult with cats because they clean themselves with their tongue ... best to keep them indoors. DE is very hard on pets because they breathe it in. You can also clean with Murphy's Oil Soap because it contains cedar oil.
Salt it is then! Thanks! I've been using a cedar oil flea bath and spray on the dog, in addition to poisoning her regularly. It works. Oil soap for my floors sounds like a good idea. That's one I have never heard. I put so much DE in two of the rooms that I couldn't breathe, so I imagine it wasn't so good for any of us, but it did drastically reduce the population quickly. Cats are staying inside for the rest of their lives. They are not happy about it.
I had a mysterious infestation ... moved into a old place and we were getting bit galore ... I was at my wit's end ... then it hit me ... salt. That was it ... they were gone. I have heard ... it is good for haunting too ... lol. Salt is way better for the dog.
And probably for the vacuum. Fine? Coarse? Something in between? I'm definitely going to do it, just in case I missed a few. I'm considering pulling the carpets up.
I think I just used table salt
It could also be carpet wigs ... though it is not the right season for them. They usually cause problems in Spring.
No it's fleas. I am certain of that.
The salt will still work.
Oh wow !
I can empathize. Many years back I had dogs. Sure they got a couple of fleas once in a while, but a good flea bath and spraying the yard with whatever the vet recommended at the time made for a quick end to them..... until.... some folks moved next door to us and had hunting dogs. For whatever reason, they had a hoard of fleas and they seemed to just live with it, so once their yard became infested and they didn't do anything about it, it was impossible to stop them from infesting ours too. No matter what we used or how many times, it only managed to slow them down on our side for a while and then we were covered again. No way to win after that.
One other time, some family let us stay at their place at the beach and after we got there, we shortly found that we were getting bit by fleas while inside. Turns out one of the owners had a dog and had been there a few weeks before. With no one to bite for a few weeks, all the fleas were happy to see us! We had to go buy spray, just to stay there. I was not happy, even a free stay cannot be appreciated if you become a feast for fleas.
I'm glad you got it somewhat under control.
I wonder how many people just live with them?!
I got some yard spray but it's dead of winter here now, so I'll do it in the spring. I do have one neighbor with a lot of cats that go outside. If I have a problem, she has a problem. Her cats come in here all the time. Idk if it was my animals or hers, or someone else's that started it. It happens. But I sure wouldn't let anyone else stay in my house if I knew it had fleas! Yuck. It's really awful to live with, even for a day. Those fleas must have been very hungry by the time you arrived.
I don't know how anyone could just live with it, but I'm sure I'd be surprised to know the truth of it.
I wondered if there were some folks that fleas would not be attractive too. You know "they" say that certain vitamin B types cause a person not to smell attractive to mosquitos. I wonder if there is anything fleas would find offensive that humans or pets could eat, that was natural like that. I don't know the answer to that.
There's a homeopathic remedy that supposedly makes the body unsuitable for fleas - Caladium. I used it, and it did seem to help. There's also a remedy for dogs - Psorinum. I haven't tried this yet, but I have the stuff. When I am certain I am 100% on top of this problem (there's still the yard to deal with), I will try it, along with essential oils on my dog. Problem is that the oils that repel fleas also antidote homeopathic remedies. We'll see!
I used to put diatomaceous earth on the dogs and Rudy's food, they say it helps keep fleas away. What kind of oil do you put on your dog?
Lemon, cedar, rosemary and geranium. She hates it.
I put DE on the animals' bedding, but I hear that stuff is not so good for them or for me. I really have to figure out where they get them. The cats will not be going outside anymore. Poor things. They used to go in and out all day long.
I wonder if a carpet steamer would do the trick, if you went slowly enough.
Carpet is a pain!
I participated in my first freewrite today - and five minutes went by much faster than I anticipated!
I haBut if nothing else at least I'm still had the same thought, and had them professionally cleaned. It helped a lot!
I saw your freewrite - it was good!
Getting rid of fleas is the worst! Ounce of prevention worth a pound of cure...
Yes I have learned my lesson. It's interesting to learn that many others have had this problem! I'm on my sixth month of obsessive cleaning, and find very little evidence of fleas now. No one is scratching. Cleaning my basement was the hardest task, and for that I used pyrethrins.
Good to see you freewriting again! I hope 2025 is good to you, my friend
Thank you Bruce! I really would like to get more freewriting in. I seem to have lost the magic there, and await its return. Same to you!
One of the few pitfalls of owning a pet! Amstel only was infested with fleas twice but was a magnet for ticks. We had to check him regularly and bathed him with a special herbal shampoo. We have carpet in our new house on the main level and can't wait to have it replaced by hardwood or vinyl. It feels good on the feet but it's gross when we start thinking about all that gets trapped in there. It's good to see you writing again. I missed your voice on Hive!
Irish Spring - a bar of this soap kills fleas instantly! Put to the test on a cat who had fleas crawling all over him.
Funny, we've been advised to sprinkle baking soda on our mattresses and rugs, then vacuum it up - only to read now that this ruins our vacuums.
How much bad advice do we get in a lifetime?
Poison the pets to kill the fleas - I hear you!!!
Like all these vaccines and anti-bacterial hand soaps. And Lysol.
Lysol kills immune systems. Probably leads to cancer, too.
Oh the bane of fleas!
The price we pay for having furry companions in our homes!
I don't think I could possibly give a cat a bath! Do you have any tips on just how to accomplish that? I have sprayed them with Wondercide, but honestly, that stuff has such a strong smell I cannot stand it. It's essential oils and stuff, supposedly good for cats as well as dogs.