Fleas!!!! I am inexperienced and desperate for your help!!!

[nateandcher]

Hello, I'm new to chickens and have never posted on this forum before. Our dog has gotten fleas and brought them in our house!!!! I He is 13. We have not had fleas here ever and we have lived here 8 years!!! He is on Comfortis and they are still getting on him. This turned my attention to my chickens. We have only had them a month. We just started free ranging them this week. That is when the fleas showed up! Is it possible we got fleas from our chickens? We got our little flock from a sweet family that didn't handle them much. They were well taken care of but very very skiddish. I have finally gotten them to eat from my hand; but if I try to touch them, they run. So I don't know if they have fleas or not. Also, they love to dig around in our composted leaf pile out back. I know fleas like thick leaves like that. They'll be sad if we burn them, but I guess it has to be done. Our coop was covered in DE from the beginning and I have dusted it since then too. I try to put it on the chickens but I can't catch them. I just throw it out there the best I can lol. I'm sure we have fleas in the yard near our home bc of my dog. I'm not sure about the pasture and near the coop and gardens. I REALLY hate to use a pesticide in our yard and it be tracked into our home. We have a three year old daughter to protect. I treated our house with an organic indoor/outdoor spray. The smell is awful (rosemary, thyme and wintergreen oils by Ecosmart) and gave me a migraine. It says to keep away from birds, so I'm afraid to use that in the yard. Does anyone have any suggestions? I will use sevin dust or something if I have to. We can't tolerate bugs!! I was just wondering what my safest options were and how they will effect our health as well as our chickens and their eggs. I'm trying so hard to make friends with them. If I catch them and harass them with a bunch of treatments, they really won't like me. :-/ thank you in advance for your help.

 

[GitaBooks]

Welcome to BYC!

Ugh! Fleas! They are in my nightmares.
One year we had them so bad that you would step in a room and they would cover your legs. My brothers had tons of little bite marks on their ankles. The dogs were covered with them until they looked like they had rolled in dirt they had so many droppings on them. We were spraying them with cedarcide all the time and trying to use frontline but the fleas were resistant! They were everywhere! We covered our carpets in DE and they just jumped around in it!
Anyways, we switched to this new medication we could only get from Australia and it has since completely gotten rid of them. I'll try to get the name for you soon.

I don't think the same fleas that infest mammals can infest birds, so you shouldn't have to worry.

Best of luck!

 

[Angry Cupcake]

Unfortunately it is possible that your flea problem did come from the chickens. The same fleas that can live on and bite dogs can live on and bite chickens too. We use an animal and vegetable safe dust that contains permithrin. Go figure that I can't remember the name right now and I am at work. I will check on it when I get home and post it for you.

 

[drumstick diva]

I think the use of organic products etc., is why the fleas have proliferated - they just don't work. You need something with a fast "knock down," and residual action.

I really don't know what to recommend, as you want to keep things safe for your family. You would need to treat dog/chickens, home/yard & coop etc. simultaneously to reap the best results. and follow up at whatever interval is specified. Maybe you can consult a pest control company/ vet to explore the safest methods. If you are overrun with fleas, very likely tapeworms will follow.

 

[nateandcher]

Thank you all for your input!!! I'm am just desperate enough to use chemicals if I have to. Our two year old daughter has flea bites on the back of her neck and head this morning. I noticed the when I gave her a bath just now. I didn't see any fleas but I am fighting back tears right now.

 

[DutchessBec]

Hello, sorry for your flea ussues. Some things that worked for me are Frontline on the dog, sprinkle Borax on the carpets - this dries up eggs and kills fleas, wait 30 minutes and vaccuum up. For the chickens try to dust their area with Diamactious Earth (sp?). Good luck!

 

[Angry Cupcake]

This is what we use on our garden, pigs(who had a really bad pig lice issue when we got them that since resolved), and in the chickens dust bath. We got it at our local co-op but, I am sure it is sold in other places. We live in a forest and have a large flea and tick population so, control is a huge part of our property and animal care. Other tips I can recommend are vacuum often including furniture. Seal the bag or contents, if bagless, in a plastic bag and dispose of immediately. Wash bed sheets, blankets, cushion covers, and throw rugs in hot water. We use Frontline for the dogs and wash them with a permithrin based shampoo. I hope this helps.

 

[GitaBooks]

The flea medication we use is called Trifexis. Our fleas built up a tolerance to Frontline and I think a lot of fleas have in our area, even to the point where vets don't sell it anymore.
Trifexis works really well and also keeps away other parasites, including heartworms.

I hope this link helps. It talks about the different kind of fleas chickens can get and how to prevent them:
http://www.tillysnest.com/2013/07/backyard-chickens-and-fleas.html


Best of luck!

 

[BantamFan4Life]

Welcome to BYC! I'm glad you joined us!

 

[Kevin565]

I think the use of organic products etc., is why the fleas have proliferated - they just don't work. You need something with a fast "knock down," and residual action.

X2. I'm a huge fan of organic products but they can't always do the trick for every situation.

Would it be possible to use bug foggers in your house? That is the only thing I could get to rid me of the flea issue when I took in some stray puppies.