Fleas

[Col. Brik]

A horrible experience is now going on with PBR.....and in real life.

a week or so ago our family Cat (Zena) got fleas. She then got extremely sick and had to be put down. In the 48 hours of the Fleas getting on her and then her dieing the Lego area in our house was completely infested. Zena enjoyed staying under the table, near the Lego bins. So every bin was covered with fleas. Imagine 400+ lbs of Lego in bins infested with fleas. I am now washing and cleaning every Lego piece we own. Not a fun experience. The exterminator has cleaned and cleared the house but the bins have dead fleas everywhere. PBR is literally decimated. Only small amounts survived the onslaught of Fleas. Like a plague spreading across the land only those above the ground and on the table survived. Unfortunately we had 3/4ths of the Lego under the tables in bins since we have been going through a rebuilding process again.

It will take a long....long time to get this all cleaned up properly. The chemicals put down shouldn't hurt the Lego but I am still washing and drying each and every piece regardless. I would post up pictures but you don't want to see it. I have one 50 gallon bin I filled with hot water to let the Lego soak in that and the fleas float to the top. The top is a thin oil like slick of dead fleas and cat hair. Just not something I should have even described.

Fleas, I don't wish them on anyone. This has been a horrible experience with having to explain to our two sons why Zena got sick and died. How the Fleas won't get them sick (both kids have been to a pediatrician since her passing) and why every Lego can't be touched until Dad has cleaned every ounce of Chemical and then dead Flea off. Zena wasn't even a outdoor Cat. She never went outdoors. The Fleas likely came in on the kids shoes, my shoes or something else.

[Sisco]

I'm so sorry about your cat ! And cleaning all that Lego... ...

Truly sorry for your horrible experience!

[escortmad79]

Fleas are a nightmare. My fiancee & I visited my parents a few weeks ago & we hired a car whilst visiting them.

My fiancee's legs started coming out in red blotches, a few at first & then gradually more & more. Then her arms & other areas of her body. I didn't have any marks on my skin at all.

We couldn't work out where they had come from until we were out in the car one day & she felt something on her arm, she looked down & spotted a flea on her arm so she killed it, then she saw another one & then another!!

It turns out the hire car we rented was infested with fleas (Previous users must have had a dog in the car), she was in the passenger seat so she got bitten half to death, whereas me in the drivers seat escaped as the fleas couldn't hop over the centre console into the drivers side!

[RoryoCox]

I feel sorry for your cat dieing and having to clean all of your lego.

Thank fully we really don't get fleas around here but I know it must be a pain.

[Stash2Sixx]

Sorry to hear about the loss of the family pet Col. Brick. Infestations are always a pain in the keister. A good lesson for all to keep your workspace clean and clear if possible. Again, sorry to hear about the situation you are in. Good luck with everything.

[vynsane]

WOW - I'd never heard a flea infestation having a lethal outcome! I'm so sorry to hear that Col. Brik.

We have four cats, but we had a flea infestation last summer before we got the fourth. None of them are outdoor cats, but there is a rather large stray cat problem in my town, and one notorious stray (whom we dubbed "half-tail") hung out on our front porch all the time.

Anyway, our infestation was HORRIBLE - we gave all three cats two flea baths each in the span of a week, sprayed the entire house and did 23 loads of laundry (basically ever piece of fabric in the house) and they started to attack us again after we got back home! It so happens that they can reproduce very quickly and in great numbers. The new attackers were the babies hatching from eggs laid by the ones who were killed by the first flea bath (that's when they got the second bath.

The fleas can also go into a hibernation state if there is no food present in which they can live for up to 18 months! They had gone dormant in our living room rug (probably the same deal as the rental car in the post above) and as soon as we set foot in the house they became active again. We finally got rid of the rug and that took care of it. We'll never let our Advantage treatments lapse again.

[Col. Brik]

Thank you all for the well wishes. It it is appreciated.

We are still not sure ourselves how a flea infestation took Zena so quickly. We can only think she had a under lying issue health wise and the fleas just advanced it or had something themselves that cause her health to fail quickly. She was 12, moderately old for a cat outdoors but since she was indoors we thought she was still young.

As for the Lego I have been getting tons of great suggestions on what to do. I have about 1/4 cleaned and drying in the garage. The kids are taking both situations well. Again, thanks everyone for the well wishes.