Practical And Cheap Ways To Kill A Flea Infestation

[Trisven13]

We've just found out that our lovely cat's skin problems which we had been told for 18 months were due to stress are actually a hyper-sensitivity to fleas so we have to completely flea treat our whole house & yard. The vet is boarding her for us and has told us she is not sending her back until we've treated it as everyone loves Jessie.

This is our plan:

Completely clean out the house, flea-bomb every room and then vacuum.

Wash, sun, throw out pet bedding.

Treat every animal.

Treat the yard - now the treatment of the yard is the hardest thing - what do we use? If we use lime how do we use it? I would like to be able to use stuff I can buy here in Albury on Sunday so that we can bring Jessie home - any other suggestions? Is there anything that can be bought from rural supply stores that may help?

We're also going to treat every dog that comes to our house from the pound with flea treatment 48 hours before it leaves the pound to try to prevent it returning as we need to keep fleas out of our house as much as possible.

What else can we do?

[Trisven13]

Anyone???? Really need help on the best way to deal with the yard.

[Are You Serious Jo]

Use garden lime for the yard, just throw it around and lightly sprinkle in with water. fleas have been bad bad bad this year, I had my first flea plague ever.

[Trisven13]

Thanks jdavis. I'm having a serious attack of the guilts over poor Jessie. Because for 18 months we've been told she overgrooms through stress we hadn't even considered a flea allergy. I don't know how we've missed it because it is now soooo very obvious - I just want to make sure that we get rid of them and she can live in comfort.

Would I buy garden lime from a garden supplies place?

[puggy_puggy]

Capstar

Spot on products every two weeks

Wash bedding in tea tree or eucalyptus wash

Wash bedding in malawash or similar

Add eucalyptus to pets baths

Vaccum every day and throw away bag/ empty vaccum every day

Flea bomb yard with malacide

[Cockerlover]

I have been told GARLIC in the diet keeps fleas @ bay but dont know how true that is;the fleas are really plague proportion Because of the crazy weather I think ; good luck

[Vizsla]

Would be a good idea to treat your vehicle. Either flea bomb or frontline spray etc.

Also, if you can, flea bomb or insecticide under the house.

Once you have flea bombed the house might be an idea to use a product like Defender http://www.scottsaustralia.com.au/Defender...der_HomeDefense

We have a used a similar product at the pound to help with insects and ants and its been brillant.

Treating them for fleas atleast 24hrs before coming into care should also help reduce and eliminate the problem.

Have you thought about writing a letter to companies like Merial (frontline and heartguard) or Novartis (Capstar) and asking them if the could sponsor Albury Dog Rescue or donate producit to ADR. They may supply old or damaged (package) stock.

If you are able to ensure animals coming into care are not infested all you need to worry about i maintaining the home environment and transport.

[Are You Serious Jo]

Yes, can get it from garden centres and hardware stores, we got ours from Bunnings. Don't get the dolomite one though, get the garden lime. The problem we have was that the neighbours cats kept coming back in the front yard where they were, so we could never control it completely.

[belgavin]

also try putting moth balls into the vacuum cleaner bag. It stinks but it apparently kills off any fleas the vacuum picks up, or so I've read

[Scarlet]

I use advantix collars and the bit I cut off, because they are too long, I put in the vacuum cleaner bag.

I would vacuum before (to stir up the fleas) and after bombing the house. You may have to vacuum every day, or every second day, for a couple of weeks.

I would also take all the dogs and kids away from the house when you use the bombs. Do you have any fish? I would remove them too. Stay away for a couple of hours after the bomb finishes. Turn off any pilot lights.

I think whatever method you use to remove fleas would probably have to be repeated on a regular basis for a while (guessing maybe every week for a month or so) because I think any treatments don't kill all the lavae.

Did you vet have any ideas?

Could you talk to a pest control person about some sort of outdoor spraying. They would have to be aware that you have cats, dogs and children so they don't use anything too strong/toxic. Again it may have to be repeated so it could get expensive.

[Caesars mum]

Trisven13

I feel your pain at trying to rid the yard of fleas.

I finally found a product that does kill them and keep them away. It is really poisonous and the animals have to stay out of the yard for 12 hours or until completely dry. I also used it inside as per the instructions.

I got it at Mitre 10 but had to ask for it. "Pigeon's pest controller 500 Termiticide and insecticide" $50 for 1 litre but you only need to use a small amount.

I did the yard and the house nearly a month ago and have not had a flea here since.

Make sure you follow the safety instructions but we have had no ill effects from the dogs, birds or fish (all protected while spraying) and none of the kids had any reaction.

I highly recommend this product good luck

Edited to add: I tried lime and other chemicals and none of them made any difference. Bombing the house if you have wood floors may have to be done a couple of times.

Edited February 16, 2008 by Caesars mum

[Gallomph]

I've had good success with a product called Solfac Pro. You can get it at a lot of rural supply stores. It can be used indoors and outdoors. It's approved for use in farms, houses, schools, hospitals, food processing establishments etc, so is pretty safe if used according to directions (eg. don't spray directly onto animals, food or drinks, let it dry before allowing animals/people back into the area, wear gloves/ wash hands after use...etc). It has a residual effect, so lasts for a couple of months. It's about $60 for 200ml, which would do about 200 square metres.

[Kangaroo dog]

coopex works well, $10 for a sachet, mix with water and spray everywhere, its residual so lasts a while

bear in mind that you may need to try a few different things to knock the fleas on the head

thankfully ive never had a problem with fleas, in fact have gone yearas without even seeing them on a dog, recently they got into the yard somehow, frontline is working for me at the moment but

[Guest Pandii]

I spray my yard with Malawash from Safeway, also can do bedding house and animals with it

inexpensive but works well

Also try the stuff you buy to clean your wheelie bins for the yard. PM Dogcop about that one