by fern » 16 Nov 2011 19:17
I have an ending to my almost 4 year nightmare flea problem and it was an unexpected finale. Since moving into this house, each winter, I get sick when the furnace is turned on. We faithfully have the furnace checked annually and the filter is changed monthly but still I get sick. It happened immediately again this year. I turned the furnace back off and froze through a cold spell and called a co that only makes ducts. Then I impatiently waited for our new supply ducts to be made and installed. When they were finally here and installed...we turned the furnace on and it was heaven. No stuffy head, no coughing and peace for two whole days...then it started again. I turned the furnace back off and called the duct guy back and asked him to replace our return air ducts. That took another 3 weeks but last Friday, he arrived to tear out the old and install the new. About 3 hours into his work, he knocked on the kitchen door to let me know that our return ducts were full of filth, crap, and fleas. The men were getting chewed up. They finished the ducts that evening and cleaned up all the mess, smashing the ducts into boxes, etc. They could not (I think they did not want to and I don't blame them!) fit all the boxes into their van so they asked to leave them for me to put out on garbage day. I did not go near the boxes but my husband did and said that he could see the fleas jumping around in there. The basement was swept thoroughly and resprayed with cedarcide and the same to our main floor. We had encountered sporadic fleas until we swept and resprayed. Knock on wood...I have not seen or been bitten since and I have a warm house and am FINALLY not getting sick. Cedarcide obviously killed the fleas in our house and managed to keep the fleas from coming out of the ducts into the house but would never have been able to kill what was constantly breeding in those ducts. So the mystery of the fleas is solved and I have had no need of cedarcide since the weekend. Just to feel prepared, I have ordered another gallon to have and keep on hand though. I have also ordered cedarcide's spray for exterior use. I plan on ensuring there are no fleas hiding in our yard or waiting to move back in next season.
I will add one more tidbit of info. Each of the previous 3 years we have lived here, I would hire a duct cleaning company to do all our ducts. They are NOT cheap. I hired a large firm from the city the first year, a local company the second year, and Stanley Steamer Duct cleaning specialists last year. From the amount of filth that was in ALL of our ducts...I can honestly NOT recommend wasting your money on these people. Each cut their own holes in our ducts at different locations but the amount of what still came out of this house was unbelievable. These companies are a farce...at least in our area and the amount I paid to have the ducts cleaned in two years is equal to the cost we paid to replace all of them.
I have an ending to my almost 4 year nightmare flea problem and it was an unexpected finale. Since moving into this house, each winter, I get sick when the furnace is turned on. We faithfully have the furnace checked annually and the filter is changed monthly but still I get sick. It happened immediately again this year. I turned the furnace back off and froze through a cold spell and called a co that only makes ducts. Then I impatiently waited for our new supply ducts to be made and installed. When they were finally here and installed...we turned the furnace on and it was heaven. No stuffy head, no coughing and peace for two whole days...then it started again. I turned the furnace back off and called the duct guy back and asked him to replace our return air ducts. That took another 3 weeks but last Friday, he arrived to tear out the old and install the new. About 3 hours into his work, he knocked on the kitchen door to let me know that our return ducts were full of filth, crap, and fleas. The men were getting chewed up. They finished the ducts that evening and cleaned up all the mess, smashing the ducts into boxes, etc. They could not (I think they did not want to and I don't blame them!) fit all the boxes into their van so they asked to leave them for me to put out on garbage day. I did not go near the boxes but my husband did and said that he could see the fleas jumping around in there. The basement was swept thoroughly and resprayed with cedarcide and the same to our main floor. We had encountered sporadic fleas until we swept and resprayed. Knock on wood...I have not seen or been bitten since and I have a warm house and am FINALLY not getting sick. Cedarcide obviously killed the fleas in our house and managed to keep the fleas from coming out of the ducts into the house but would never have been able to kill what was constantly breeding in those ducts. So the mystery of the fleas is solved and I have had no need of cedarcide since the weekend. Just to feel prepared, I have ordered another gallon to have and keep on hand though. I have also ordered cedarcide's spray for exterior use. I plan on ensuring there are no fleas hiding in our yard or waiting to move back in next season.
I will add one more tidbit of info. Each of the previous 3 years we have lived here, I would hire a duct cleaning company to do all our ducts. They are NOT cheap. I hired a large firm from the city the first year, a local company the second year, and Stanley Steamer Duct cleaning specialists last year. From the amount of filth that was in ALL of our ducts...I can honestly NOT recommend wasting your money on these people. Each cut their own holes in our ducts at different locations but the amount of what still came out of this house was unbelievable. These companies are a farce...at least in our area and the amount I paid to have the ducts cleaned in two years is equal to the cost we paid to replace all of them.