Four weeks ago I house-sat for a woman for a couple of days. She has a small farm with chickens and a garden, plus a dog, so I had to kind of stay there and take care of things. Shortly after I got myself settled in the guest room, I discovered something. I was covered in a bazillion fleas. All afternoon and evening I was in a battle against me and the fleas. I even got up on a stool and folded my legs underneath me in an effort to avoid them. But they still got me.
When I woke up the next morning I literally looked like I had small pox, especially on my lower extremetities. I fed and walked the dog, took care of the chickens, watered the vegetables, and then took off unapologetically.
I haven’t talked to the woman since. I have a feeling she knew good and well that her house was infested before she asked me to help her (I was not paid for this house-sitting, though she said I could help myself to eggs). So I feel…perhaps like she isn’t a good person? I dunno. Her going-away wasn’t for a trivial thing. She was visiting a grandchild of a son she’d given away for adoption. But it wasn’t a last minute thing–she had plenty of time to fumigate the place before I came. Or at least, she could have warned me beforehand so that I could have brought some repellant or something. But I have a very strong feeling that both would have been a no-no for her, because she’s 100% organic about everything. Having repellant in her house probably would have been against her house rules (and she seems to have more than most, which I respect as her perogative).
So now she keeps leaving messages on my voice mail just to “talk”. But normally when she wants to “talk”, it’s to ask a favor. I’m not under any delusion that she’s anything more than a friendly aquaintance who likes to lean on me when she can. I have no problem with that. But I don’t like being used as flea bait. I think that was wrong. So I’m conflicted about how I feel about this person and thinking I should probably stop helping her out as much as I do.
My mother suspects she had no idea that her house was that bad off. I don’t understand how that’s possible. Is it possible? Have you ever met someone who just did not know their house was teeming with a gazillion fleas? I don’t believe it, but I’m willing to be persuaded.
Oh she knew they were there, but she may not have known it was as bad as it was. Some people just don’t get bitten by bugs, some do. I’ve gone through two different flea infestations, and both times I got eaten alive, but my kids barely got any bites. The first time I was the only one to do anything about the infestation because I was the only one getting eaten. At the time I had three cats, and one had so many bites and scabs around his neck, the poor thing. The other two cats? Meh. They never scratched or had bite scabs.
As to getting rid of them, copious vacuuming, borax in the carpets and pans of lightly soapy water under night lights works well.
We had fleas in an apartment we used to rent about 10 years ago, but they were only in the bathroom. Did you only get bitten in the guest bedroom? Because maybe she just never goes in there…I rarely go into our guest bedroom.
Also, even though I have bad reactions to every other bug bite in the world, I can barely feel flea bites, and they don’t leave a mark on me. So, yeah, I could see how she could miss it in those circumstances.
This. My mother has always enjoyed sitting on the porch after sundown in the summertime. She doesn’t taste good to mosquitoes. However, my father and I are apparently like caramel covered crack to skeeters, and we’ll attract every nasty little bloodsucker in five counties.
Naturally, my mother keeps buying those citronella candles and other repellents, which keeps the bugs off of HER, but the bugs just land on my father and me. And then she thinks that we’re unsociable because we don’t want to spend hours on the porch.
My guess is that this woman knew she had a flea problem, but it doesn’t bother her, so she thinks that you wouldn’t be bothered with it. Anyway, fleas are a part of Nature, to some people.
If she always wants a favor every time she talks to you, I don’t see any reason why you should return her calls. She’s not a friend, she’s a leech. And she should have warned you that she had fleas in the house. For all she knows, you could be allergic to their bite.
Yeah, we recently found out we had a minor flea issue because I set a white piece of paper on our couch and forgot about it. When I came back I could see the fleas on the paper. Otherwise we had no idea because they aren’t bothering us or the cats. We got frontline for the kitties and flea powder to dust the furniture with and we are vacuuming as much as possible so they should be gone before we have a cat sitter come in November while we are on vacation.
What everyone else said, plus: flea infestations can explode on short notice. Flea pupae can literally lie in wait in their evil little cocoons until the presence of a tasty-blood-containing victim triggers them to hatch.
Your leechy friend could legitimately have had no idea there were flea pupae in the guest room if she rarely goes in there.
My college roomate never knew our house was flea infested, because they never bit him. He was surprised when his new girlfriend started complaining of bites when she slept over.
Yeah, there are some people who just don’t taste good to the bloodsuckers, apparently. We once had bedbugs, I’m pretty sure–at least, I would wake up every morning with trails of bites all over me. My husband never had a one.
Oddly, I went out of town for business for 4 days, during which time I didn’t wake up with any bites. When I got home, whatever it was, was gone, and did not come back. Or anyway I never got bit again, nor did anyone else in my family.
Also, if you are out with me, you don’t have to worry about mosquito repellent. They will ignore you, because they’ll all be on me.
People vary in how they react to flea bites. Some are utterly miserable, some don’t seem to notice. It is possible, though a bit unlikely, she simply doesn’t have much reaction to flea bites, in which case she may be unaware of the infestation…except you can see the little monsters jump, and the animals will probably be scratching continuously.
Probably a hefty dose of denial involved.
If she asks you to housesit again just say “Hon, your house has fleas. I’m very sensitive to flea bites, so for my own health I must decline.” Or at least, that’s what I would do. YMMV.
Most people who have lower levels of flea presence in their house have absolutely no idea their house is infested. It’s a conversation I have multiple times a week from about April to November in this part of the country–people come in wanting Frontline or Advantage or Comfortis because their pet is just eaten up with fleas and they don’t want the little blighters setting up shop in their house, and I have to break the news that they’re too late. These people aren’t seeing fleas on their floors and furnishings, they’re not getting any bites at all all, they’re just seeing the fleas or flea dirt on the critter(s). But they have fleas living and breeding in their houses just as sure as Og made little green apples.
Fleas by and large prefer dogs and cats as hosts to humans, so you can have a pretty serious flea load before you ever start getting bites or seeing any other evidence besides an itchy pet. (And sometimes, it’s just the one pet who’s itchy, despite other pets being present–they have variable tastiness to bugs just like humans do.) The bright side, of course, is that you can generally treat the issue by just treating the pets and vacuuming your baseboards and couch cushions and such. But if you’re going to vacuum to get rid of fleas, it is vitally important to change the bag/empty the canister immediately afterward, and march that straight out to the outside trash. Vacuuming doesn’t kill fleas and they can crawl back out, so if you leave the bag/canister contents inside your house you’re just undoing all the work you just did.
Somewhat off-topic - does anyone happen to know the geographical areas where fleas live? My cats go outside in our fenced-off backyard all the time, but they don’t seem to be bringing fleas back in. I’m not sure if we’re lucky, we just haven’t noticed, or if there simply aren’t any fleas this far north.
Regarding the OP - I’d take her call, alright - “Dude! Your house is completely flea-infested! No, I’m not housesitting for you any more.”
My ex wife allowed our house (I still own half of it) to become infested. It was, frankly, gross, and she didn’t seem to notice early on because they don’t bite her. But they sure liked biting our kid. And me. My lower legs were in awful shape.
Yes, it is totally possible she didn’t realize it. If there is a flea in the house, I’ll be the one to get bitten, others in my house are totally ignored. Not sure if it’s true or not, but I was told that others are probably getting bitten, but aren’t allergic so there aren’t feeling the effects like the rest of us.
Back in college for a couple of weeks I used a living room chair my landlord had leftover from previous tenants or maybe it has been hers, I’m not sure. Anyway, I started getting flea bites and found they were in the chair, so I quickly got rid of it, knowing how susceptible I am. Fast forward to the summer, my landlord lets her daughter, daughter’s boyfriend and their large dog live in my apartment for the summer. They apparently had no idea they infested the apt. with fleas. They never bothered any of them. It was awful. They must have gotten down into the floorboards and hidden into corners. Took me a month or two of flea bombing and cleaning to rid of them. Even in the winter I would still find a few here and there. As much as I want a pet, I’m hesitant to rent an apartment that would let me for fear the pets of the person before me would leave some unwanted guests behind.
We bought a used tanning bed from friends.
I was using the tanning bed when I discovered it was infested with fleas. It was as if the UV sent them into a frenzy.
The friends acted like we were crazy when we suggested they had a flea problem.
They had two dogs and a cat, that they allowed to wander in and out, and only used flea collars.
Within a couple of months WE had a flea problem, and no pets.
