The fleas are driving me nuts!!! Any ideas how to get rid of them?

[chicken_china_mom]

They are EVERYWHERE!!! Two and a half years ago when we first moved here, there wasn't a flea in site. Our cats and dogs were all on Frontline and we were flea free. Then, the rains came last year. With the rains came flies, gnats, mosquitoes, and FLEAS. We battled them hard all of last year and never fully got rid of them, despite the Frontline. This year we got more rain, and new fleas. These ones are red and HUGE!!! My dogs are going bald from scratching, they are jumping around outside even though I've put down DE, Sevin Dust, the dogs and cats are all on Frontline, they just won't die!!! I'm debating on whether or not to get another couple of flea beacons and set them down. Does anyone have any ideas that I haven't already exhausted for getting rid of these beasts? Short of bombing the house. I could bomb the house all I want, but they are everywhere outside, inside, on the animals, etc. I don't have the money right now to switch flea treatments either. I'm frustrated because Frontline has worked great for us for years, and now it's like I'm just putting water on my animals. I'm about to shave my long haired dogs down to their bare skin. If I could shave the cats too, I would, but I value my flesh. I'm about at my wits end here. Between them and the flies I feel like I'm losing my mind!!!

 

[ChickenToes]

Have you washed all the pet bedding, your bedding, used borax on your carpets and and vacuumed every square inch of your home? Sounds drastic but it will help get rid of the fleas inside your house. Using DE on the lawn should help too.

Here's a link with more suggestions. Make sure to read the comments below the article, there are tons of suggestions.

http://www.grandmashomeremedies.com/fleas.html

Good luck, I hope this helps!

 

[chickendude]

Wow....Sorry to hear about your problem. You say you can see them outside? on the lawn?. Do you have hardwood floors or is there a lot of carpet. If you have carpet you need to vacuum every day and treat for fleas until they are taken care of. Good luck.

 

[chicken_china_mom]

We have hardwood floors throughout. I can't even imagine how bad they would be if I had carpet!

Can I put the Borax on the furniture and then vacuum it off? Should I put it along the baseboards? I vacuum constantly, use cedar oil, and am considering rubbing tea tree oil on the short haired animals.

Is any one species more resistant than another to treatments? The fleas this year could eat the ones we had last year!

 

[NateinFL]

You're probably dealing with dog fleas and last year you had cat fleas. Out of personal experience, Advantage was more effective than Frontline. Good luck

 

[Sir Birdaholic]

Treat, treat, & more treat. A flea will hatch from the egg & 2 weeks later, it's eggs are hatching.You need to treat the yard before the next batch hatches. I use Diazinon granules outside. Treat every week until they are under control. As for the inside, you have to treat every crack & crevice where they can be. Use something that kills the eggs as well as adults. To keep them off of the dogs without over treating them, get a spray bottle of water & add a couple of tablespoons of lemon juice & spray your dogs every day. Fleas are a real battle to control, & if you give up the fight for a second, they regroup & are ready for battle again! Good luck.

 

[hanaleimel]

Here is what to do.... Out here in the Jungles of Kauai it always rain 444 inches a year to be exact so any dust, chemical anything either is illegal because we are on the ocean or it runs into the sea and we don't want that so here is a cheap way to get rid of them. First Comfortis is the best flea pill for dogs it last about 3 weeks you can get it from your vet, they will work so good. Next wash all bedding you can in hot water in washer and dry it. You can wash your dogs in your favorite flea and tick shampoo or use head and shoulders or dawn dish soap making sure not to get it in their eyes if you do rinse right away. As an extra procaution you can put a drop of mineral oil in the dogs eyes and that will make the soap run off. So wash the dog, the fleas will die instantly with these two shampoos, they may dry out the coat a bit at first but let me tell you they will be clean and flea free. The borax or boric acid as the other person said is also what I would do in the house. Fleas can survive in anything...wood, carpets, tile, concrete so all needs to be done. As for the yard..take dawn dish detergent and put it in a hose sprayer..like the miracle grow sprayer but fill it with soap and soap down everything and anything and doing all this will help and keep your pets on the comfortis. Also if you have cats DO NOT use dish soap or head and shoulders on them, use dog and cat flea shampoo.

good luck promise this will help and won't cost alot. I used to own a pest control company on the mainland. Also you could order Beneficial Nematodes but this can all take a long time to activate. They naturally live in the ground but in large numbers they work and they eat fleas!



Just so everyone knows Comfortis is the newest product on the market! It is a once a month FLEA pill and only fleas...some people have reported it works for ticks too..but no personal experience with that. Out here in the tropics we never ever ever get a cold snap to deal with these buggers so you can only imagine.

The dog down the street had what looked to be scabs above his eyes (he is a black dog) and low and behold they were fleas piled on top of fleas. I turned them on to comfortis...and pretty much from that day on they have thanked me everyday. It works I use it on my dogs.

 

[Turner]

Unfortunately you need to get your house bombed and spray the lawn - and shampoo or spray the dogs and cats....all on the same day. Advantage does work the best once you have it all under control. Good Luck!

 

[Jmurcks]

I have always used Frontline but this year it seemed to not be as effective and switched to Advantage.
Works great and I can use it on the cats, too. No fleas!
Buy the large dog type and use a syringe to break it down to small animal doses and that will save a little dough.

Vaccuum really well with a flea collar inside the bag or collection container every day for at least a month or so. They'll just jump back out if you don't have a flea collar in there to kill them.

That's what we did and we had them really bad this year.

OH! I almost forgot, you can soak down the DOGS (never tried on cats) in Joy or Dawn or other brand dishliquid (put it on them full strength, no water, just the liquid) and let them sit for 10-15 minutes before rinsing and it will kill all the fleas on them. Of course they are still in the carpet, etc. and will get back on the animals but it will get rid of the ones that are on them at the time.

 

[6chickens in St. Charles]

9 years ago we moved into a flea infested house. The exterminator told us the best way to rid the house is have a treated small mammal running around, the fleas collect on the small cat or dog or guineapigs, die after biting the treated small mammal and you vacuum them up. Then in so-many-days-when the flea eggs hatch, the same thing happens which breaks the cycle as they have to feed in order to produce more eggs. We luckily treated our 2 cats and vacuumed a lot, and have been flea free ever since. The exterminator told us the local fleas are all immune to the house bombs, they developed resistance to the insecticides, and the danger in having small kids around the house bombs is more important than the risk of flea bites.

I hope my experience helps you make your best decision. We used the vet-prescribed flea drops that go on the back of the cat/dog neck. Good luck!