sheep fleas in caves

hi all,
i understand many unreforemed caves have been used for storing animals.
whilst in spain veiwing caves we came across one full of straw and sheep poo, and fleas!!!!!
have since heard many scare stories about eggs in the wall of caves etc
anyone on here had any experience of this?
best regards Bec

I know many people that have had all sorts come out of their walls, but mainly ants.

I had a strange insect that took days to dig itself out. Little piles of dust on the worktop each morning. Eventually it flew out, made a lot of fuss and I let it out of the door.

The only other thing I saw when doing the renovation, was a small snake like creature come out of one of the walls. These were both early on, nothing for the past 5 years.

Our cave was full of goat and sheep poo, old straw and little biting insects when we bought it. Once all the crap (literally) was cleared out we didn't have any problems. Wear long sleeves, insect propellent and use a dust mask when clearing it.

We sell a lot of caves in the region and some of them had animals and some have fleas, most times it is no problem as long as the animals are there but if the animals are gone the fleas will bite humans, especially if there is still dung or straw in the cave there can be fleas or eggs or larvae.

The way to get rid of them is a powder that will kill both the fleas and the larvae and eggs. If you only spray for fleas the larvae and eggs will survive, and can survive for a long time (think months).
Larvae will spring to live as animals (or humans) enter the cave.

So look for a product that kills both, clean the cave out, and repeat it during building work and all will be gone.

cheers Piet

you need to dig the cave out to a meter depth to get rid of any contamination of animal waste. fleas can live for years in a state of hibernation.

thanks for the replies
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