Fleas?

[tanyar23]

Seriously…the worst fleas ever. They won’t go away. We’ve tried Revolution flea treatment and boric acid. No luck so far.

What treatment strategies are you doing that isn’t super toxic to the pets or people?

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[transplantella]

We had a terrible case of fleas here two years ago.

And we lived in Texas for 25 years with multiple pets, so believe me I know a flea infestation when I see one. And I have dealt with many.

Here is what I’ve found that works:

(Organic warriors turn your heads away now)

– Sevin dust in conjunction with the Revolution/Frontline.-

1. Wash the pet with flea shampoo to reduce the number of fleas. When dry, apply the Revolution.

2. Dust carpets, upholstered furniture, all fabric surfaces with a good dose of the Sevin dust. Leave it there at least overnight, or better yet, longer. After a good percolating, vacuum up the Sevin dust.

If the fleas persist in the house, Sevin dust again. The second application should get most of the hatchlings.

From there on be sure to keep your pet on the Revolution year round. That should prevent another total infestation.

Sevin dust is hard to find around here, but I did manage to get a couple of little bags of it at McClendons. They only carry the 5% but it worked.

Fleas are not a joke. In Texas they will absolutely destroy your animals. I don’t mess around, I get rid of fleas.

P.S. Forget the flea bombs. They don’t work, total waste of time and money. Neither does all that pennyroyal/natural BS. Fleas laugh in the face of that stuff, meanwhile you and your pet are being eaten alive.

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[littlebrowndog]

Can’t help with non-toxic effective treatments for the pet when the flea infestation is bad, had to resort to Frontline when it was at that point for ours. As for the house, after trying unsuccessfully with everything else we used Fleabusters. For about $200 (small house) they came out and dusted everything and the fleas were gone in a few days and over the next few months all the eggs, which can essentially go into hibernation and then hatch over the months, were also killed. The best part was the one year guarantee. It has been 18 months now and nary a flea. Can’t remember the name of the product but it is non-toxic. Our infestation was extreme and they totally got rid of it.

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[ttt]

I am not impressed with revolution. It only seems to last for about 20 days…

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[LisaM]

Yeah, I just went through the same thing, worst fleas ever and only one dog!!

I am still fighting the battle, but its gotten a lot better.

I treat my dog every 20ish days with Revolution. As ttt noted, you need to treat about every 3 weeks.

I have had Rambo pest control treat the house and then I vacuum everyday for 2 weeks.

My vet suggested treating the yard with something called Nematode Larva which you can get at the hardware store, but I haven’t done that yet.

I also flea comb my dog twice a day to keep his misery at bay..he loves it at least!

I have heard good things about Flea Busters too.

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[Lena]

Flea busters are great! Also have my clients use diatomaceous earth both in the carpets and on their dogs. If you do flea busters no reason to do the carpets with the earth also. This summer Frontline only works about 5% of the time, Advantage probably around 25% and Revolution is at about 75% because our topicals are no longer working well because of flea resistance.

I often have clients do a combo of diatomaceous earth, revolution and then also bathing and combing. Most have been able to get rid of the fleas that way.

I have had some dogs get sick from Comfortis and Trifexis and there have been deaths reported so don’t recommend them to my clients.

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[Lena]

My friend and fellow vet Donna Kelleher also has a great page on flea control

http://www.wholepetvet.com/fleas/

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[J242]

My wife and I had a nasty flea problem at our old place just off Alki (Our dogs kept getting them from other dogs they’d meet on walks down in the grass park areas just west of the beach) and we tried everything before we finally hired flea busters. It cost around $150 (if I remember correctly) to check out and spray the entire 3 bed, 2 story unit we had and the service came with a 6 month guarantee. It worked great but we did have to call them back one more time (about 4 1/2 months later but thankfully still covered by their guarantee) and the rest of 18 months we spent there we never had another flea problem so I highly recommend them.

http://www.fleabusterswa.com

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[J242]

Whoops! They have a 1 year guarantee, not sure why I thought it was 6 months. Anyhow, good folks, great service!

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[tckhan]

I dont know about dogs, but our cats have them, and to control them, we use Frontline and the other brand stuff. Out vet said we can apply them alternately if needed, since they have different active ingredients. We also did Regular combing and an occasional bath. The most unusual thing we discovered, was that upon return from a long trip

(the cats went with us) if we entered the house first, the fleas would swarm us, in the absence of the cats. My son said they key in on the body heat, so my wife fills a baking pan with very hot soapy water and slides it into a room. Within seconds, there were fleas jumping into it and drowning. I was able to rid our travel trailer of fleas just by using the hot water trick repeatedly.

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[Al]

Horrible infestation in part of the house this year (luckily only part of it!). Two indoor cats. No fleas last year, we suspect they gained entry via climbing onto us humans when we were outside.

After almost a month we think they are under control, with the help of cooler weather.

We did three treatments with Borax in the worst room and one or two treatments in the other rooms. I left a little Borax along the crooks b/t the wall and carpet and larger pieces of furniture. I used some flea spray (horrible stuff) very sparingly in a couple hard to reach locations.

Vacuumed at least every other day if not able to do so every day. Take out vacuum/bag/cannister right after vacuuming. Do not leave any of it in the house.

Washed all bedding/cat blankets and anything that was touching the floor. Keep all clothes off the floor.

Flea comb cats daily.

Used Advantage II on them, no side effects. I had to repeat the application after two weeks, and that did it. I still find a half-alive flea or two on them but they are much happier that’s for sure. Never had to resort to baths (would not use flea bath on them, just lots of soap/water). I’ll be using Advantage on them the next several months as well.

So far, so good. Today is another vacuum day and we’re crossing our fingers.

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[JTB]

There’s an article in today’s NYTimes Science section about concerns over fleas becoming resistant to previously effective chemical treatments. The basic view is people need to use the products correctly and realize effective treatment requires weeks and even months. There was some reference to using permethrin in stubborn cases but I would encourage people to avoid that due to its persistence in soil and water and extreme toxicity to aquatic organisms (and cats).

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[RatedPG]

I had a HUGE problem last year – I started using Comfortis for both my dog and cat, because it is LITERALLY the only thing that worked. I tried everything: Frontline, diatomaceous earth (the fleas skipped right through it and laughed at me…), bathing, combing, bombing, organic sprays, non-organic sprays…and Comfortis was a last resort, but it worked very well…good luck!!

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