Scared of Sevin Dust ~ help with fleas needed fast!!!

[ArizonaNessa]

Okay just checking but is this the same stuff that you guys are using?

http://www.flowerdepotstore.com/se5du5lbbag.html

 

[rufus]

Sorry Nessa, but I am afraid treating your property will not do the trick if you have fifteen infested dogs next door. Your neighbor needs to deal with her problem also.

Fleas can jump about fifteen feet.

I sure hope your neighbor is reasonable and deals with this issue.

We are neighbors, I live south of Metro Center.

Rufus

 

[chickenannie]

I agree that if you go to great lengths to treat your yard it will surely become re-infested from the neighbors dogs.

Also, I would be very careful about treating your entire yard with a toxic chemical because children, babies, pets, birds, etc may get in contact with it and be harmed or poisoned.

I have heard that guineas will eat ticks. Perhaps you could get 5 or 10 or those and put them on your lawn.

 

[annek]

I am sure your dog and cat already have fleas on them unless you have them on a flea preventative. If not, they need to go on one immediately. There are safe preventatives to put on them. You could go with the type that you put on their backs, they have one that combines with the monthly heartworm pill, they have even come out with Comfortis for dogs now that is a pill. There is no excuse not to use it. If you neighbor boards dogs, she needs to insist that either they come on flea preventative or she will put it on and charge an additional fee of 20.00 for flea treatment. If she is reasonable about it customers would comply. I would never leave my dogs in a flea infested home. She is the problem, control her dog flea problem and yours will go away if you treat your animals too. Fleas prefer dogs and cats, I don't think they really care about chickens. They don't particularly like us either just will come for a munch when the canine isn't around.

Don't go crazy with too many chemicals on your lawn, it kills a lot more than just fleas.

 

[ArizonaNessa]

Well the neighbor lady refuses to use ANY chemical on any of the dogs. The only thing she will use it DE. That being said she is not in good health and my husband does alot of around the house work for her so we broke down and bought the sevin dust. We dumped it all into a big plastic storage container and told her it was DE. We covered her yard and ours and I dusted the coops. My cat never comes inside and my dog is on frontline drops for fleas, flea eggs, and ticks. I swear if I am bit one more time I am going to scream. I hope that the dust don't harm anything but I am at the end of my rope and willing to do anything at this point. My hubby and my son both think I am crazy because neither of them have be bitten even once. I walked out in the yard last evening and showed hubby my legs as they jumped on me in droves. I thought he was going to throw up. We went through 50lbs of DE and countless cans of sevin dust. I have declared nuclear war on the flea infestation. As for the bubonic plague comment.... I have overcome too much in my life to let a miniscule flea take me out

Edited to add: The yard might not be rid of fleas but I am so covered in DE and sevin that I look like Lucille Ball just walking out of a flour factory so I am sure I won't be bit for at least 5 minutes!!!!

 

[chickachickadoo]

Fleas are outdoors and can come indoors via people. They can jump on your socks, shoes, pants, etc when you go to get the mail or simply walk to your door. My husband brought me a flower from one of our bushes and when I went to smell it, a flea crawled out of the flower.

Since you have already treated with the Sevin dust, you should see an improvement. Good luck! (And I am just like you--bugs will go for me long before they go for my husband. )

 

[cassie]

Sevin is relatively benign. Use to use it on dogs for fleas. Only trouble I had with it was that it turned my white komondors orange.

 

[ArizonaNessa]

Hubby did try to make me feel better when we were discussing the fact that the fleas don't bite him or my son. He said, "Well honey they only bite you because you are so sweet." I think he was just sucking up but I gave him credit for that anyway

Thank you all for all your kind words and information. You all really helped me to make my decision. Hopefully what I have chosen to do will be effective and if not I am burning the whole place to the ground.

Edited for spelling

 

[ArizonaDesertChicks]

Hi Nessa,
I know you've just finished treating the yards, but I'm hoping you know to use a dust mask when working with DE & the sevin dust, especially when you use so much of it. You shouldn't be inhaling it.
I hope your treatment worked.

 

[ArizonaNessa]

Thanks for the advice. I used a mask this time because I used so much but usually I don't use one with DE only. I actually try to get as close to the ground as possible even with the DE because I don't want to make too much of a dust cloud. Anytime I use any type of chemical or DE I do not allow my son out there with me. I do allow him to put DE in my personal coop though because that is his little project and I don't think a little DE will hurt him. If you think it will by all means tell me because I don't want anything horrible happening. He just gets one coffee can of it to spread around in the little coop.

Edited to say: We also bought some of the liquid sevin to treat the front and side yard where there are no animals. So far no fleas and believe it or not no flies either. I kinda feel silly saying this but I relocated a praying mantis that I found just before I treated. I have always been told they are good luck and they kill the bad bugs. They are kinda cool to look at too so we gave that guy a new home.