The Flea Experiment

My flight back to Charleston this Saturday didn't really go as planned...which explains why I didn't actually end up in Charleston until Sunday. The flight out of Baltimore was delayed to the point where there was no way to make any connecting flights to Charleston. Thankfully Brandy picked me up at the airport and I had an overnight layover at their house, which, was far superior than my general layover seeing as how it included hanging out with Brandy, John, and Dudley (who was VERY confused why Kaylinn wasn't there and kept looking for her).

Eventually, (granted after yet another delay) I did finally arrive in Charleston. Unfortunately I arrived to find out that we had developed a bit of a flea problem while I was gone. We have been fighting fleas for about 6 weeks now, but up to this point we have been winning the war. Without the dog mom home to keep it in check, however, we seemed to have lost a major battle. In an attempt to keep from having to flea bomb the house (putting poisonous materials into the house to the point that nothing living is supposed to be there for 3 hours, and then apparently all that poison is gone and you can go back just doesn't add up for me) I asked around for some ideas yesterday at work. And thus, we began the first installment of a flea offensive and conducted a bit of an experiment last night.

Apparently, if you fill a shallow dish with water and dish soap, and then set said dish under a lamp in a dark room the fleas will jump into the water and drown. I have been working under the hypothesis that the flea problem is originating in the living room - I'm not really sure why I have been working under that assumption, but I have. So, I decided to test said hypothesis last night. I put the dish and lamp in the bedroom at 5:00 when I got home from work and shut the door with instructions to keep lights off and dogs out. When Sandor was getting ready for bed at 11:00 we found we had drowned 7 fleas. So I took the dish and lamp into the livingroom and locked the dog in the bedroom with us for the night. Interestingly enough when I got up this morning at 5:30 because I couldn't handle the poor dog scratching any longer and felt the need to bathe the poor thing, there were still only 7 fleas in the dish. I have therefore determined that I feel my hypothesis is incorrect - I think the bedroom may be the problem area.

here's a look at our science fair experiement

So, with that knowledge I did a few things... Last night I had washed the sheets and bedspread just as a precaution and before we went to bed sprayed Kaylinn with this stuff that is supposedly to kill fleas (I'm not sure if I believe it, but it's worth a try). Oh and by the way, in case you were unsure, yes we do give her monthly flea drops, this is all in addition to that! So anyway, then this morning I got up and bathed her in flea shampoo and then based on our experiment results, cleared out the stuff on the floor of the bedroom, put the carpet flea killing stuff all over the bedroom floor, shut the door to keep out cats and the like, washed the blankets that are in Kaylinn's crate (which for the time being is now in the livingroom), and left the poison to do it's thing for the next 12 hours...

We shall see what results. Wish me luck!