Fleas! Fleas! Fleas!

[bluetaterbaby]

For whatever reason, fleas are continuing to survive despite all my efforts to get rid of them. I've washed and sprayed dogs, used drops on them, sprayed the lawn, barn, and other areas. Put down granules, sevin dust, and other stuff I've forgotten. What do you do? Seems like an epidemic in our community! Help!

Thanks in advance to all for their advice.

Joan

 

[Reble]

Yellow lemon dish soap, also can kill fleas. revolution on pets controls them.

The store bought applications are not strong enough must get it from your vet.

Sometimes you just have to call pest control, leave it to the professionals, with a guarantee. :new_shocked:

 

[Charley]

Frontline on the pets works. You must treat all the animals first and then the environment....as long as they have a host they will reappear.

 

[Warpony]

The store bought drops are not only not strong enough but many pets have adverse reactions to them. I learned that the hard way. :-(

When I can find it locally I use Diatomaceous Earth for flea control. The stuff for organic gardening, NOT the stuff for pool filters (the stuff for pool filters has been treated and is less effective). Just do NOT inhale the dust. I mix it with water and spray it all around where the pets go in the yard at the same time I treat the critters. I also sprinkle it dry all over my carpet and couches a couple of times a year, let it sit for a while and then vacuum it up. It kills the fleas by scratching their exoskeleton and letting them dehydrate.

By using a combination of the good drops from the vet and the diatomaceous earth I have not seen a flea in a year even though this house and yard was infested when we moved here AND I have 6 cats and 3 dogs. I use a flea comb on all the cats because I like the way it gets out dead hair (two of the dogs are hairless and the other has hair to dense for the flea comb so I don;t use it on them) and I'm pretty sure if I were getting fleas I'd get some when I comb them.

It took a couple of months to get rid of them all, though.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diatomaceous_earth (see "pest control" and "safety considerations")

 

[bluetaterbaby]

: Thank all of you so much for this valuable information. This forum is filled with kind, intelligent people and I appreciate all of you. I get so frustrated trying so much stuff and still having fleas. Other folks around here are in the same boat. I'll be sure to share this information with them. The rest of you, feel free to add to this wonderful advice. I'm taking notes so I'll remember all this stuff.

Thanks again,

Joan

 

[whiskeyranch]

Yellow sulfer for bad infestations. Kills fleas, bugs on plants, safe for the animals, and good for the yard, grass, etc.

I also use Frontline from the vet.

 

[runamuk]

: Thank all of you so much for this valuable information. This forum is filled with kind, intelligent people and I appreciate all of you. I get so frustrated trying so much stuff and still having fleas. Other folks around here are in the same boat. I'll be sure to share this information with them. The rest of you, feel free to add to this wonderful advice. I'm taking notes so I'll remember all this stuff.

Thanks again,

Joan

I am noticing it seems to be the south having lots of flea issues. I usually treat everyone with frontline then buy the good bombs zodiac or adams and bomb the house (taking pets out first

: ). That usually does the trick and then I can get away with DE and other more organic control measures.

Something else occured to me that might be worth trying........what about using a dehumidifier?

Fleas require a fair bit of humidity to hatch and we didn't have fleas ever when we were in eastern wa where it was low humidity all year round.

I have been lucky since moving back to Western WA we treated the dogs/cats with frontline before moving, then bombed the new house as soon as we had the furniture in........that was 1 year ago and I haven't had a flea problem.....yay.....

 

[Jenn]

Our dogs recently got badly infested - I think our yard foxes gave them to them.

We did the triple whammy all in one day - hit them with the liquid drops on the skin, used the flea powder and put flea collars on them all. I think it was four or five days, but they are now flea-free.

We also put flea collars on the cats we could catch.

 

[Pepipony]

For the first few years here we were hit exceptionally bad with fleas and nothing worked. Untill I did the massive combo of Bombing the house ( used the raid in the black box, only one that worked), washing the dogs, then spraying everything that didnt run away with Adams flea and tick mist , bedding, floors, drapes etc, everything got sprayed. I repeated this every 6 weeks for about 3 cycles, then as needed. Now, knock wood, I havent seen a flea in 5 or so years. good luck!

 

[ponyboi09]

we had a problem with them this year. They were on our back porch and the thing that did the trick was sprinkling tide detergent lightly everywhere....sounds crazy, but its true

:

 

[MiniHoofBeats]

Frontline!

Frontline works for both lice and fleas and it works AWESOME! Pricey...but gets the job done in a matter of days =)

 

[Warpony]

we had a problem with them this year. They were on our back porch and the thing that did the trick was sprinkling tide detergent lightly everywhere....sounds crazy, but its true

:

I never heard of using tide but when I can;t get the diatomaceous earth I use borax in the house the same way (sprinkle on, let sit, vacuum up) and it works pretty good. Just have to be more careful with it around the animals than the DE.

 

[bluetaterbaby]

:aktion033: Thank you all so much for this valuable information! I really appreciate it!

Joan