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ALmom
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| Posted: Jan 17 2008 at 5:27pm | IP Logged
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Ok our dog has fleas and it is out of control in our house. The buggers have been taking rides all over on all of us - and are biting most of the children. I hate the idea of fogging - and what I'm reading claims that it isn't all that effective, especially in our circumstances with lots of clutter. I'm trying to address the dust and clutter as thouroughly as is humanly possible but some of it is inevitable with a large household of people living, breathing and working in the house 24/7. However, We have got to solve this problem ASAP and soap traps and vacuuming like a maniac are not going to hack it. My children are getting eaten up, and I can only vacuum so many times a day to try and get all the eggs and larva - besides, they still might be lurking in our baseboards or vacuum cleaner hose or....  . Of course everyone around here who has ever experienced a flea problem insist that you bomb your house as soon as you see the first bugger. (I am beginning to understand the feeling).
I googled about the life cycle of a flea - figuring we'd get some science mileage out of our agony and in the process came across someone selling products that are supposedly safer than the typical. The recommendation here is to treat furniture, floors and outside with an insect growth regulator and the inside floors and furniture with an insecticide called Demize (actually this has the insect growth regulator in it so you wouldn't need it seperate) which can supposedly be used around food (we wouldn't but if true it sure would make me feel better about using it). Anyways it sounds impressive, but before we delay the big guns, I would like to know if any of you ladies have any experience with IGR or with a battle against fleas. We are truly overrun.
Oh, by the way, our dog is on a monthly Frontline. We forgot once and boy oh boy - we'll never forget again!!!!!
Janet
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lilac hill
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| Posted: Jan 17 2008 at 8:38pm | IP Logged
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BTW, you can do Frontline every 2-3 weeks for dogs and every three weeks for puppies. It has been the only way for us to break the cycle.
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Viv
Wife to Rick (7/83), Mom to dd#1(6/87), dd#2(1/90), and dd#3(6/94) in central PA.
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ALmom
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| Posted: Jan 18 2008 at 1:20am | IP Logged
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Thanks Viv. Yes our vet told us that too. Our dog has had 3 treatments recently - all about 2 weeks apart and she is still crawling with fleas and as she actually tends to skin sensitivities, she is chewing raw spots all over. She is such a sweatheart and even let me try to vacuum her which is amazing since she is normally afraid of the vacuum. (Vacuuming may have gotten eggs and larva up - who knows as you cannot see those buggers - but it doesn't work with the adult fleas-. We spent about 10 minutes going after 1 flea with the vacuum nozzle. We have soapy water dishes with lights shining on them in every room in our house. These are all catching at least 10 fleas each except our master bathroom trap which has only caught 2 - 4 per day. These seem to be coming in on the children who are showering in our bathroom as the dog doesn't even go in that room. Our daughter is being bitten while she sleeps, our 8 year olds legs are covered in flea bites.
I re-called the vet and talked to some pest control companies. The pest companies confirmed that foggers don't work unless you spray the floors and baseboards so you might as well just spray the floors and baseboards and wherever you see specific signs of fleas. Evidently they too use a combination IGR and insecticide so maybe that is standard now. Sure hope it works and it is safe.
We aren't sure whether we just have so many meal sources and people bringing them in from the woods or the Frontline isn't effective against the fleas she has or we did such a poor job of staying on top of dust and clutter that we unwittingly bred the buggers before we knew it  .
Am I the only one that notices that whenever you get at the end of a Frontline applicationa and redose at the end of the month, the fleas have always, in the past, left our dog and these are the first fleas we've seen on her - and we have never pulled ticks off of her, But as soon as we give her the dose, our children start coming in with ticks. We've pulled them out of our toddlers ears - and he wasn't even outside. It seems like they've developed this intelligence - stay off the dog, we die there, go for the kids! Is there something natural and non-chemical that we can use to keep the ticks and fleas off our children?
Janet
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lapazfarm
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| Posted: Jan 18 2008 at 8:14am | IP Logged
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We had a problem with fleas getting in our house while we were gone to Alaska over the summer. It was a nightmare trying to get rid of them, and we had a professional service! They had to come to our home and treat several times (like 5!) to finally get rid of them, all the while saying they had never seen fleas so hard to get rid of. Great.
One thing our exterminator suggested if it didn't work the last time (which, thankfully, it did) was to have the yard treated.We did not have to end up doing that, but I remember when we lived in Florida we had some friends who had to do that. In the south where it doesn't freeze they can apparently live in your yard quite happily year round.
So, my recommendation is to call a professional and keep calling until the fleas are gone.
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Theresa
us-schooling in beautiful Fairbanks, Alaska.
LaPaz Home Learning
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Mary G
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| Posted: Jan 18 2008 at 8:59am | IP Logged
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lapazfarm wrote:
One thing our exterminator suggested if it didn't work the last time (which, thankfully, it did) was to have the yard treated.We did not have to end up doing that, but I remember when we lived in Florida we had some friends who had to do that. In the south where it doesn't freeze they can apparently live in your yard quite happily year round.
So, my recommendation is to call a professional and keep calling until the fleas are gone. |
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Yep, that's what happened when I moved into a house in Durham (maybe NC fleas are heartier than elswhere, Theresa?  ).... anyway, the previous had their dogs outside in a dog run and THAT was infested with fleas  ! When we moved in, of course, we had no idea and I put our dog out in the run a couple of times ... all of a sudden we had fleas all over poor Lady (a pure-bred, but hyper, Irish Setter) and she brought them in the house and infested that (it was an old house with lots of nooks and crannies).
Long story short, it took us 6months+ to get rid of them (we even moved the pets out to a friends' to avoid them getting fleas) -- wouldn't have been so bad except that I was selling the house during the time and folks coming to view were getting bitten  and complaining. We had Orkin out at least half-dozen times that Spring and finally put them to rest ...
I think pros are your only option if there's an infestation. I'll pray to St. Rocco for you and your dog though~!
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MaryG
3 boys (22, 12, 8)2 girls (20, 11)
my website that combines my schooling, hand-knits work, writing and everything else in one spot!
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mary theresa
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| Posted: Jan 19 2008 at 4:14pm | IP Logged
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My parents raise Labrador Retrievers and FWIW we always mixed a good helping of garlic powder in with their food. Fleas don't like the smell that gets released through the dogs skin from garlic.
(And if you'd be worried that the smell would bother people, I never noticed that the dogs smelled noticably.)
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Mary Theresa
mother to 3 little girls --March '06, Dec '07 and Jan '10
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4Real Forums : Our Lady of Good Remedy and Care
Topic: fleas
