A young mother said her family's life has become a nightmare because their flat is plagued with fleas.

But the housing association responsible said it had done everything it can to help.

Rachel Tricker, 20, said that despite the housing association spraying the flat, she has been told they will have to put up with living with the fleas for at least two weeks because it takes that long for the spray to have an effect.

Mrs Tricker, of Broadfields, Little- more, Oxford, said she fears that her young son Jamie, two, could be badly affected by the fleas. He has asthma and needs an inhaler to help him breathe. She said: "We have only been in the flat for two weeks and one night my husband saw fleas jumping out of the carpet. I now have bites all over my arms and legs and I am scared for what could happen to Jamie."

Mrs Tricker added that her husband, Simon, 23, had had to miss work at Lucy's Factory because of the problem.

Mrs Tricker said that although the housing association acted quickly, she was unhappy about having to move back to the flat with the fleas still there. She said: "They want us to wait two weeks to see if the fleas go and they have told us the spray might not work even then. This has really got me down."

A spokesman for the housing association said: "We have pulled out all the stops on this one and responded within 24 hours. There is no immediate way to get rid of fleas, you have to wait for them to die, but we have done all we can."

Story date: Monday 29 November

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.