We have 2 dogs who normally have zero fleas. All we do is a monthly "frontline" application, but other brands work well too (liquid applied to skin between shoulder blades). I think that chemical is ok, but I do wear gloves and wrap up the plastic packaging before tossing in the trash. The stuff is toxic to fish so you don't want it to get into our groundwater. If I had a big dog flea issue, i would give the dog a bath first (just regular dog shampoo helps if you don't want the flea soap), and then apply the frontline. I would wash their bedding if possible. As for the chickens, our chickens have "stick tight fleas", which are different from the dog fleas. They are more like tics that suck blood from the chicken's heads (they don't go where there are feathers). I was the one having issues with sevin dust, so i stopped that, and just apply the flea spray every 10 days. It's a pain because we catch each chicken, and apply a small amount of flea spray on a Q-tip (pyrethins, we actually use the Bronco horse flea spray) wherever we see fleas on there heads. This has not eradicated them but greatly reduced the fleas, after about 2 months of doing this. I feel the flea spray is not too bad of a chemical, since tons of people use it on horses every day of summer and don't complain of much. If you do resort to 7 dust, wear long sleeves, shower after, wear a mask, etc. All chemicals are not equally toxic. Follow all precautions on the labels.
