First, not vacuuming will no doubt keep the fleas in their pupae stage longer. That means if you stop vacuuming, the flea problem will continue to persist.

Second, why is your service company asking you to not vacuum anymore? Probably because if the fleas aren’t hatching, it’s less likely you’ll call him to come back and retreat.

Third, how long will the problem persist? Well, as our article explains, as long as it takes for the flea pupae to run out. So if you have 500 flea pupae and they’re hatching at a rate of 5 a day, it would take 100 days. Keep in mind there is no practical way to tell how many pupae you might have so realistically, there is no way to know for sure.

Forth, as our article explains, flea pupae prefer pets over people. And in fact, they’ll hatch 50-75% faster when pets are readily available. So by removing your pet you’ve effectively made you and the family the sole target for the developing pupae. That means you’ll bear the brunt of every flea that hatches since there is no pet available. More importantly, the pupae really don’t want people so they’ll wait extra long to hatch compared to when a pet is around. This just adds to the length of time the problem will persist.

Fifth, our FLEA TRAPS are only sold here in the states. But we do sell them abroad and for anyone located outside the US, you can order them through our International Shopping Cart:

Flea Trap:  http://inter.bugspraycart.com/traps/electric/flea-trap

(US residents order here: http://www.bugspraycart.com/traps/electric/flea-trap)

In summary, you are no doubt making this problem worse than it needs to be. In my estimation, it would not surprise me if the problem is active for another month or two. Keeping several pets around would effectively stop the problem for people immediately. And though spraying over and over will help, this will pose more and more of an unneeded health hazard to the people and pets inside the home. No doubt Flea Traps will help but they’re not as good as a pet. Still, they might be your only savior save the spray. And the vacuuming most go on because if you stop that, I’m afraid the problem will be able to sustain itself even longer than it should.

Sorry for the bad news but I don’t think I’m telling you anything you didn’t already know from our article.

Flea Article: http://www.flea.net/flea-control

First, there is no need to “kill the grass” or put you or your pets in any danger by over exposing them to something too strong. A proper flea control program can handle any problem and not pose a threat to people, pets or the environment. As our FLEA ARTICLE explains, the secret is dealing the problem directly. And though treating the pets can help, rarely will this alone solve the infestation so in the end what we find is that most people fail to handle all the problem areas that will need attention which is why the fleas persist.

Second, you don’t cite the size of the yard but I’m assuming the area the pets stay is in the fenced area. Treat this with BIFEN GRANULES first. Next, spray over the top with ESFENVALERATE and NYLAR. This combo will get immediate results and if you treat every 30-45 days, nothing will be able to live or develop in the treated area.

Lastly, if the pets come inside you’ll need to treat with one of the options we have listed in our article. Over the years we have found that people will many times treat the pet and the home but neglect the yard. In other cases we’ve seen where they’ll treat the yard and the home but neglect the pet. In all these cases, the fleas have remained and that’s because these people weren’t treating all the potential problems. So if the pets come inside, you’ll need to treat in there as well.

In summary, if you stay the course with the products we have listed in our article (which are all professional grade pest control products), I’m sure you’ll get the desired results. The key is treating all areas and treating on that 30-45 day schedule. In all cases of ongoing problems we find that people aren’t treating all the areas, they’re not treating frequently enough or they’re not mixing the products at the right rate. In this case I’m leaning toward not enough and not all the areas as the main cause. So if you keep up the Frontline for the pets but step up the effort in the yard and home, I’m sure you’ll knock the fleas out sometime in 2012 for sure.

Here are direct links to the information and products listed above:

Bifen Granules:  http://www.bugspraycart.com/insecticide/granule/bifenthrin-g-25-lb

Conquer: http://www.bugspraycart.com/insecticide/liquid/conquer-esfenvalerate

Nylar: http://www.bugspraycart.com/insecticide/igr/igr-nylar

Flea Article: http://www.flea.net/flea-control

If you review our on line article on Flea Control, you’ll see we talk about this exact problem and why it would be wise to set out some Flea Traps to help get the cycle broken. Only then will you notice a big drop in the flea population as the current population of Flea Pupae start to hatch out and get used up. Be sure to set out enough following the guidelines on our Flea Trap page.

If they are still persistent after 1 week, get either some Permethrin or Precor 2000 to spray over the top of the Granules. This will help kill off some of the adults and make living there that much more tolerable.

Fleas can be active pretty much anytime. It is true that outside, in the yard, they will go dormant when local temperatures get cool. But in the house they can live quite comfortably all year long. And since so many people have pets, fleas can prosper in someone elses house and be brought to the work place where other people can pick them up. For this reason it’s smart to be aware of the local flea status if you are a pet owner and have had flea infestations in the past as our on line flea control article explains.