Fleas fleas fleas! Theyre outta control!

[Miss Red]

Last night I was playing a game of chicken round up. I had one white ee chick caught up and was bending down under my house to grab the other one... I immediatly got covered in a thousand ants. I threw my flashlight down and started slaing the "ants" off of me... They weren't ants, they were fleas!

No wonder I can't seem to get the fleas off of my dogs and cat. Jeesum crawl there has to be millions under my house, and who knows how many outside. I have a hen sitting under there on eight eggs, the last of the season, and I'm worried she'll be eaten alive... Unfortunately I can't get under there to get to her because I can't get that far under there.

So now I'm going to have to call a professional exterminator. This is so disgusting. I've never had fleas this bad before, not even when we first move onto this sandy lot. Ugh. Has anyone ever had fleas so bad when you touch the ground by their area they cover you?

Whatd you do to get rid of them other than an exterminator?

 

[jbowyer01]

When we first moved into the house we now live in they were horrible! I walked out to the backyard and before I knew it I had what felt like hundreds stuck to my socks! We had to treat the yard and the house before we could move in. I was terrified my dogs would bring them in the house. I hate using anything thats a pesticide but they were so bad I had no choice!

 

[robin416]

This is where Guineas are a huge benefit. We've heard complaints from people that the fleas are terrible this year but we've not had any problems. And we're three months in to tick season, still haven't seen the first one.

 

[Miss Red]

I was given three guineas two weeks ago. Yesterday morning my Ridgeback "cleaned" two of them to death by licking when I wasn't watching. He does it to the cats, I know it wasn't on purpose... So now I'm looking for a few more I've heard they help big-time.

This is just unreal... I bathe the dogs every other day, they are still covered! Its horrible!
.

 

[Buugette]

What about sprinkling around a lot of DE...? I had what I thought was a horrible (till I read yours) flea problem and I dusted everything with DE. The dogs, the chicks, their coop, the dog beds, the grass... everything... (even the carpet... left it for 2 days and then vaccumed)... haven't see a flea since.

I used the DE cause I figured it wouldn't matter if one of the animals ate some it.

D

 

[Miss Red]

We dusted with seven dust, vipor dust, and every type on non lethal (to my pets) dust we could get at the feed store. Pay day were going to call Spider Be Gone (our local exterminators) to come out and spray.

I didn't realize they were THAT bad under there. I knew the fleas were bad because we lost two barn kittens to them. I moved everyone inside and deflead the cats. They aren't allowed back outside. I just didn't realize I had a gold mine of fleas under my house and in my yard. Its sickening.
Tomorrow were going to put on our masks and spray everything. Ashtons at her mothers so she doesn't end up inhaling anything that could harm the baby. This is horrible. I'm willing to bet it was the fleas not the drought killing my grass. We had just managed to get grass growing and things under control. I have no idea what spiked this infestation, but were not going down without a fight.

I'm working on a plan to get hen 22 out from under the house and get her and her eggs into a safe zone. Probably going to wait until its dark, put out some lights and a few white sheets of paper to draw them over, and send my thin as a twig very helpful neighbor under there recon style. Poor hen... I bet she's being eaten alive.

So now I'm going to go try some DE. More dusting, more spraying, then the professionals. Off to bathe the dogs again... I might include pictures of what I get off of them to show how bad they are. (They got bathed yesterday morning, and spent two hours under the house mid-day when I was out working so I'm sure they're swarming.)

 

[Manda0227]

I'm no help... but I just wanted to say I got itchy reading this post!

Good luck! Those things are such a pain!

 

[chicken_china_mom]

We had fleas soooooooo bad last year. Still have a problem with them and we're battling it. But...a major helper with the dogs and cats is a product called Best YET!. It's not chemical based, so it's not toxic to the dogs and cats. They make a wonderful product that you spray your yard with and it kills all non beneficial bugs, with the exception of like one or two kinds of ants, and a few other inconsequential bugs. But it kills lice (human and bird!), flies, fleas, ticks, you name it. The only catch is, it's main ingredient for the spray that you would use on the animals is cedar, so you can't spray it inside the coop or on the birds. We're now battling lice. We had none at all last year. The birds were clean, healthy (they're still healthy, just battling lice!), and not a parasite on them. But this year, it's mind blowing how fast we went from nothing to full blown infestation! So I was out there yesterday using the Sevin dust to dust the birds, the coop, the yard, you name it. I still have some more of the yard spray, and I plan to get out there and use it where my dogs go in the yard. I will be getting more DE too to use.

If you want to get rid of your fleas and not have them return, one way to go is to plant herbs that repel insects, like peppermint, spearmint, catnip, oregano, wild bergamot, lavender, rosemary, sage, basil, thyme, and fennel. (I got that out of Backyard Poultry magazine, April/May edition, page 48) You can also add some into your chickens' nest boxes. I went out this afternoon and slipped a handful of mint leaves into all of mine. I want to grow some rosemary and maybe make some window boxes for my coop and grow it right there as well as around the yard where I can easily pick it and place it wherever I feel I need to. On the other side of my house I have no bugs, except the occasional Japanese beetle because that's where the mint grows. But the beetles won't eat the mint. I'd like to grow rosemary and lavender on the other side where our door is. I'm hoping to repel a lot more than just the fleas!

The only way to get rid of the fleas is to treat the whole area, but you already know that.

You have to kind of time it right, you need to treat the animals, the yard, and the house all at once. I would dip the dogs, use some sort of cedar spray around the house (the one I use kills on contact), treat their bedding, YOUR bedding, carpets, closets, anywhere they could possibly hide and start a new colony. They'll hide on you too. I find the darn things trying to crawl on my head. I HATE that!!! I comb some cedar spray through my hair, wait a couple of minutes, and then wash my hair. Fleas all gone! I also spray my little short haired dogs really good. It's my big sheepdog mix that I have a hard time with, she has to be shaved practically bald before I can get sprays and powders close enough to her skin to have an effect. She will bite off all her hair in spots too because of fleas. I used some Sevin dust on her last night and for the first time in weeks she is calmly laying down, sleeping. She rests after the cedar spray too, but I just didn't have the time to cut her hair short, so my daughter did yesterday afternoon. She has THICK hair, drives me nuts! I'll be going through the house again and spraying everywhere to kill the stupid fleas. I really, really hate those little blood sucking vampires...

 

[OccamsTazer]

I am swiping the phrase "Jeesum crawl", it's fantastic.

 

[Stumpy]

TWO WORDS: FLEA BUSTERS. I have tried all sorts of things, including herbs, and found them worthless.

Flea Busters is a powder which works so well. After years of using bombs, flea dips for the dogs, toxic spot treatments, etc., we used Flea Busters and we've never looked back. It's not poison. Check it out on the internet.

(Edited to correct misinformation).