Fleas

When the great unwashed come visiting

Bed bugs would also be useful additions to the uninvited / unprepared accomodation, though I guess in a world short on personal hygiene products post TEOTWAWKI, the great unwashed will mostly bring their own unwanted critters : O

 

My wife's grandparents had us sit their dogs one summer. They were infested with fleas, and our carpets got infested, and we had an extreme flea problem. Our solution? Borax and a stiff bristle broom. Borax contains boric acid, which is extremely deadly to insectovoria. I sprinkled Borax on the carpets and worked it down into the fibers with a good stiff bristle broom. I did not vacuum the treated areas for 2 weeks then vacuumed the carpets three times. We have had zero fleas or other insects for 5 years. It seems that enough boric acid gets worked into the mat of the fibers and keeps on killing. I also ring my garden boxes with boric acid and it kills slugs, snails, etc. Seems that the bugs eat it, and die. Non staining and safe for use around children and pets. Good ol' 20 Mule Team Borax works wonders. YMMV, as with all things.

 

I agree with the Borax method, and if you are on pier and beam, they will be under the house.
You will need to dust it with either Borax, or add some Demon WP for quick relief.
Throw flea bombs with growth regulator in them for maintenance. Roaches, Spiders, Scorpions, Fleas, done.
Trap the mice, Find out where they are getting in or under. Operation Deny access.
Then go around the house and seal all holes etc. that may allow entry.
Caulking gun, wet rag. Expanded metal, screws, drill.

 

I had a flea problem a couple of years ago. In some stage of the flea life cycle, I can't recall which, but not the adult, the flea can develop a husk around itself and go dormant for a very long time. The thing that breaks the hibernation is vibration. In essence, the flea detects movement and comes out of its husk to feed.

I got rid of my with off-the-shelf flea spray killers (not aerosols). I think it had pyrethrins (not Permethrin). I sprayed daily.

 

We inherited a flea problem when we rented this house too. We came with 5 dogs that had never seen a flea and it's a nightmare. We have birds and can't bomb or anything. Husband just sprayed Shelby down this morning and she's still giving him the cold shoulder.

 

So what happened, Skyking?

 

I suggest spending the money on pros, if possible. If not, boric acid is the way to go.

Just my opinion, do with it what you will.

 

As a pest control operator, I have to recommend you first confirm they are fleas, and then call a licensed, bonded exterminator that is in good standing in your state. The thing about fleas is this: the eggs need to be killed, or they will continue to hatch. A house with flea eggs can sit flealess until you move into it. The heat from our bodies causes the eggs to hatch and there you have it.

Precor is a chemical we use that kills adults and eggs, etc. It is supposedly safe to spray on your carpets. I would definitely check out the MSDS sheet online and call a good exterminator.

Bed bugs are a whole different story....

The flea bombs do not work and are really not very safe to use. Why would you want checmial everywhere in your house when the fleas are not everywhere? Ick. It's a lot of unneccesary work.

 

My cats got fleas from the dogs next door (which is awesome because my cats don't go outside). IDK maybe the neighbor brought them over on his clothes, but the house was infested and I was getting eaten alive in bed. I bought Revolution for cats, needs a prescription but you can get it from Canada without one. Available for dogs too. Wherever they went, it killed the fleas and within a week the fleas were gone. Good luck. Fleas suck. Literally.

 

With your dogs take their bed mats and fill them with cedar chips, fleas can't stand cedar chips. You can see them fall of fo the dog when they lay on the mat.

 

Borax is best, IMO. The method as Quigs and I both outlined, is cheap, easy and effective.

 

The Raid fumigator smoke bombs work better than the spray bombs,without leaving a residue on everything.Spraying straight white vinegar on the effected areas will kill the eggs.The eggs can stay dormant for six months or longer.
Get"Comfortis"for your dogs.One $25 pill each will kill"All"the adult fleas in a couple of days,and I mean"All".
Mice dont like pepper,or hot sauce.Sprinkle pepper into carpet,and fabrics.Wet mop hard surfaces(floors,counters,ect.)with hot sauce,and let air dry.
If your dogs have cat buddies,the cow dip(malathion)can kill the cats even through second hand contact with the dog and the areas frequented by the dog.Total renal failure on an animal is not a pleasent thing to see.
Matt

 

If you want to keep fleas and ticks off your dogs take a peeled clove of garlic and pack it in some raw ground meat. Then feed it to you dog, if your dogs are as greedy as mine are they will swallow it before they figure out the garlic is in there. Do this once a week or as needed.



BWM

 

Borax worked for me. Work it into the carpet good.

 

well second round of baths and a Frontline type of product from Argentina and the Malathion type of rub/spray just made these rascals hungry.The fleas are still winning

 

I had to use a liquid spray...let it set for 2-3 hours, vacuum, spray again and wait once more. Then after vacuuming the second time i put down some flea powder made just for the prpose. My son brought in some abandoned kittens (6 of them) and a ton of fleas. We had bites all over our legs and those things got into the beds, and furniture. The spray was just a gallon jug of standard bug spray, sold at the hardware and Walgreens. That cured the flea problem and we never had a problem since. For my dogs, when they got them from outdoors, I bought "ADAMS PLUS" and one treatment cured them. I still have most of the bottle left today and that was several years ago! I even lent it to a neighbor that took in a stray cat that was infested and one treatment and they were happy as larks! That stuff works like magic!

 

Adams is good stuff, used it yrs ago,just wish we could get it here.The dish soap here works about as good as anything killing the adults on the dogs.There are times I wish we had carpet but everything is tile or in our case old,old bricks that are a real pain to clean as they left big gaps in the mortar ,you know it had to have been a man ,he never thought far enough ahead to how are you going to sweep and mop it clean??

 

Like others have said, the eggs are the problem. you can kill all the adults and the next day you will have more fleas. Its a very frustrating process, took us about a month to kill off all the dang things last summer. we used a comb of borax and 7 dust