Things Are Not Always What They Seem

I must thank everyone who sent flea death wishes my way. Your thoughts were so powerful that you were able to change the fleas into a completely different species of pest. That's right, folks. Turns out we didn't have fleas and all of that cleaning was for nothing. Well, I guess it wasn't for nothing, but it was overkill.

How did this happen? When I was still seeing a lot of activity after the third day, I called the pest company to ask if this was normal. They told me that it was normal, but this seemed a bit excessive, so they would send someone out to take a look. A supervisor came to my door and without even looking at what we still had, chuckled and told me I didn't have fleas, but springtails instead.

Have you ever felt relief and anger all at the same time? Well, it paralyzed me so that I didn't even know what to say to the guy. After a few minutes, I asked some questions, like what is a springtail? How do you know I have springtails and not fleas? What do you mean the guy that came last week didn't think I had fleas and sprayed my house anyway? What do you mean he's a trainee? Why didn't he call and ask someone if he wasn't sure before he went ahead with an unnecessary treatment? I expressed my concern about having a child in the house, as well as my displeasure at doing all of the cleanup work I'd been doing for the past 5 days. Basically all the guy did was apologize and tell me about springtails. So in case anyone is interested:

Springtails are tiny insects (about the same size as fleas) that come out in search of water. They live in nests and enter homes through window cracks, drain pipes, foundation cracks, etc. They are completely harmless and jump like fleas due to a mechanism in their tail that acts like a flea. They are more than a nuisance because of the numbers that they often appear when they entera home (this would explain why we found tons of them on our curtains and floors, baseboards and windowsills. Springtails can be found all over the country and are often mistaken for fleas.

So that's pretty much the short version of the story here. I have a few letters to write to the BBB, as I am outraged that this company would allow a trainee, who is obviously incompetent, to go ahead and perform chemical treatments in people's homes. I used the analogy to the supervisor that my husband is a dentist and if someone comes in and says they need a root canal, he does tests to see if that's true. If the tests do not agree that such a treatment is needed, he doesn't go ahead with it just because the patient thinks he needs one. And since I expressed such concern about putting down such chemicals with a child in the house, you would think that the technician would have taken that extra minute to make a phone call and ask someone if he wasn't sure about the job he was supposed to do. People just don't value the work they do. Either way, someone will be paying for my carpets to be cleaned and I will not use this company for services in the future. I'm also going to stock up on some organic goods to deal with a flea problem on my own if I have to (hopefully not, though!) sometime later on.

On the bright side, we're very happy that we don't have to vacuum everyday. And J is so excited that all of his toys did not get put away because they are for babies.