1. The most important thing to do is to keep your
pets treated with a good flea treatment such as advantage or frontline. This will kill the fleas on your pet as well as the
fleas that may be in your house. Talk to your vet about which treatment is best for your pet. Most vets will treat your pets
for a very reasonable charge. B
e sure not to keep your dog or cat outside during a flea infestation, it will only make it worse. A fleas
food source is blood,
preferring your pet's blood.
If the pets are not in the home, humans
may be the ones getting the bites.
It can take 2 or 3 weeks to break the life cycle of the flea.
2.
Spray your carpets and furniture with an aerosol or liquid that contains a adultricide and a IGR or FGR (insect growth
regulator). This type of spray will kill the adult fleas and also prevent the flea larvae from developing. You may need
to spray again if you are still seeing fleas afte 2 or 3 weeks. Read insecticide label carefully. Adams Plus Carpet Spray For Fleas With IGR
3. Run flea traps. They probably won't eliminate a heavy flea infestation by themselves but
will help to kill many of the adult fleas.The home-made type work as well as the store-bought kind.
4.
Vacuum your floors and furniture every day if possible concentrating on the areas where your pets sleep and hang-out.
Be sure and vacuum under all couch and chair cushions and under beds. One final note: Do not waste your money on electronic
repellers, they will do absolutely nothing to stop or prevent an infestation.
5. Do not quarantine your pets. This will only make your flea
situation worse. Trust me,, I know what I'm talking about. If your pets have been treated the fleas in your house will jump on them and die. This is what you want.Don't quarantine your dog or cat.
5. Your basement can sometimes be the most difficult room in the house to spray. The pores
in the cement floor will sometimes absorb a liquid insecticide to quickly. Also, human and pet activity is usually much less
in your basement which can contribute to a longer time span in flea eradication. Vacuuming or sweeping as much as possible
will help. You may need to spray the basement twice. A wettable powder or boric acid powder product will work best on cement
floors.
Why Do I Still Have Fleas
I have had a flea problem in my house for
two months. I've tried bug bombs twice and even had an exterminator spray. My wife is ready to move out. How do
we get rid of these things?
This is a question we get asked daily during flea season(hot, humid, summer months.Usually july and august in most states).
The answer is that getting rid of a heavy infestation inside your house may take some time and may have to
run a coarse of two to four weeks before all are dead. This is because of the hard to kill pupae stage of the life cycle.
While the flea is in this stage it is protected from insecticides because of the hard water-tight casing shell that it is
enclosed in. Vacuuming 3 or 4 times a week will help to eliminate the pupae by causing them to hatch out of their cocoon and
to come in contact with the insecticide you are using. The vibrations of a running vacuum cleaner or a person
or pet walking past these pupae will cause them to pop open and die after contacting the insecticide you have sprayed.
Spraying Fleas In An Empty House
An empty house can be much more difficult to eliminate
fleas in than a house full of people. Having the dog or cat out of the area of the infestation will not reduce the amount
of fleas. It normally will make it worse. Motion and movement is needed to hatch the fleas out of their pupae shell which
is needed to eliminate them. Running a vacuum cleaner every day or two will vibrate the floor and provide the motion
which is needed to cause the pupae casing to pop open and allow the adult to emerge and come in contact with the insecticide
you have sprayed, and shorten the time it will take to get rid of them.
The most important factors to eradicate
fleas in your house are:
1. Keep treated pet in the infested areas.
2. Spraying floors and
rugs with an igr (insect growth regulator)
3. Plenty of motion and movement to hatch out the pupae stage.
To find out which rooms in your home have a bad infestation of fleas, put on white socks
and stomp loudly on the floor in each room including the basement and garage. The fleas will jump onto your socks and will
be easily seen.
Do it yourself flea trap
Homemade Flea Trap -- Fill a pie or cake tin with water. Add one tablespoon of dish detergent to soften water. Place
under night light. You can also use sticky board placed on a paper plate instead of a tin of soapy water.
Do
Not Use Flea Traps As A Stand Alone Treatment For Heavy Infestations
An
all natural way to get rid of fleas in your house
or yard
Killing fleas on your pet or in your home with diatomaceous
earth and how to use it:
1. Even though it's nontoxic, getting it in your
lungs is not recommended
2. To exterminate fleas on your dog or cat sprinkle the DE along your dogs spine. Massage it along
the body, working your way carefully to the extremities of the animal, do not get it in your pets eyes
3. Spread organic
diatomaceous earth on the rugs in your house, brush it in with a broom and leave for about four days. Then vacuum your carpet.
4. Repeat the application
frequently during an infestation. You should notice a decrease of fleas in your house within a couple days
5. Spread DE in your yard or pet kennel where fleas might be present. Be sure and rake it in.
I've been dealing with this problem for close to 3 weeks now. I have 2
cats who have been completely inside for 8 years. Recently one of them decided he's had enough of inside and wants to be outside
all the time. Except, I make him come in and sleep in the garage at night with our other cat. Shortly after he started going
outside is when we noticed the fleas. Now, we've fogged, sprayed, had the exterminator come twice and had our cats treated.
It's been 8 days since the last exterminator visit and I've seen 2 tiny fleas. I think my problem is the outside cat. He pretty
much hangs out under our house and I still insist he come into the garage at night. (did I mention our garage has a doggy
door leading into the house? It's closed up at night though.) Like I said, they've both been treated and wear flea collars,
but could letting him in at night be my issue? I'm frustrated, disgusted and have 2 small children I want to keep safe from
flea bites! Please help me figure this out.
Sounds
like you have done all the right things. Hopefully your exterminator sprayed with an IGR (insect growth regulator), most do.
I do believe your outside cat is the cause, so be sure and treat both of your cats each month with Frontline or Advantage
or check with your vet to see what is best for your pet. Most other treatments including most flea collars are a waste of
money. It can sometimes take 3 to 4 weeks to break the life cycle of the flea. It's not unusual for a heavy flea infestation
to last 3 or 4 weeks. Be sure and vacuum alot.
Fleas In Back yard
During the summer mouths we tie our two dogs in the back yard. Last summer
between july and august the fleas were so bad in the area where we keep him tied we would be covered with them when we took
him out his food and water. We would carry the fleas into our house which eventually became infested. Is there any safe and
non toxic insecticide we can put in our yard to prevent these bugs from starting up again this year. Thank you so much for
any suggestions.
Treating Yard For Fleas The first thing you should do is keep your dog treated with advantage, it really
works great. You can also treat your yard and dog pen with food grade diatomaceous earth. It is a non toxic powder which will
kill just about any insect that comes in contact with it. Be sure and spread it around with a rake or broom and repeat application
twice a month. Thanks for your question.
What is the Best Way and Safest Way to Kill Fleas
We recently moved into an apartment that is loaded with them. The people who lived here before us had 2 cats. The
landlord said he would have an exterminator come to spray, but we don't feel safe with insecticides since we have two young
children ages 2 and 3. Can you suggest something we can use to eliminate these fleas without exposing our children to toxic
pestacides. Thanks for your informative website.
Safe Method to Rid Your Apartment of Fleas
The best way to eliminate them without using insecticides is by using flea traps, although they may not help if you
have a heavy infestation. Just plug them in a night and the flea's will jump towards the light and heat and get stuck on the
sticky pad. You can make a do it yourself trap that might work just as good as the ones sold in stores.
Lawn Fleas
Hello, Great site!
We bought a little house last indian summer, and the big yard was full Of jumping fleas. Will the diatomaceous earth product
work with such pest? We are looking forward to sitting out in our yard without getting attacked. I suppose also right now
would be a good time, before they hatch again
Thanks for your wisdom'
Fleas in lawn Yes DE works well in lawns, holds up pretty well in the rain, and is non toxic, although it might
take 2 or 3
applications. Be sure to spread it around with a rake or a broom. Spraying your lawn is probably not a good idea since
many insecticides can be slightly toxic to children and pets.
Will Keeping My Dog Outside Help Get Rid Of Fleas In House I am having a minor problem with fleas in my house.
I have a german sheperd and a poodle that both stay in the house most of the time. I treated them both with advantage last
week and the fleas seem to be getting better. I went on the web today and found a site giving advice on how to get rid of
different things including fleas. They advise putting my dogs under quarantine until the infestation is completely gone. My
sister told me the same thing but I really don't want to keep my dogs outside since they are house dogs. Since you have pest
control experiance I just thought I would ask you for your opinion. Please Help!
If you keep your treated pets in the house the fleas will jump on them and die. They prefer hosting off from your dogs,
but if their kept outside you will be the host.
Exterminating Fleas Using DE
am considering using the Diatomaceous Earth remedy to exterminate fleas and other insects we have on our property.
Does DE work for roaches, ants, and other insects such as these? You suggested to place the DE onto the dog/cat, using care
not to get into their eyes, I am concerned about my dogs and cat inhaling the substance. I know just from owning a pool that
DE is a harmful substance if inhaled. If I sprinkle this onto my pets, the carpets, pets bedding, couches, and outdoors, how
do I prevent it from causing respiratory problems in my pets? Especially since the dogs and cat sniff the floors. You said
to sprinkle the carpets and "work it in", leave it for four days, then vacuum. How do you recommend "working it into the carpets"?
For outdoor control, should you just sprinkle the DE around the exterior wall of the house, or would it be more effective
to sprinkle the entire yard, to help minimize bugs/fleas throughout the yard? One other question, we have access to a pool
supply store that sells the DE media, is this the same as what you are talking about or should I look elsewhere, if you don't
recommend the Pool Store's DE Media, where else could I look to find this? Thank You so much for your time and response.
Flea Control Using Diatomaceous Earth
It is a good idea for you and your pets to avoid breathing in the dust as much as possible when applying it.Once it is applied
it is completely non toxic and harmless to breath or even ingest. Many people add DE to their pets food to get rid of worms.
By no means should you use pool grade DE, it is quite toxic. Use the food grade DE. You can spread DE around your yard in
the areas where your pets hang out such as dog pens or houses. It can also be sweep into carpets to kill fleas, but try not
to breath it in when sweeping. Do not vacuum carpet for at least 4 days after applying it to carpets. It works great around
foundations in keeping all crawling insects out of your home.
Recommend A Good Flea Spray
My house has been loaded with fleas for around 2 months
now. I have used lots of different sprays on the rugs but nothing seems to work. My two cats have been treated by my vet and
seem to be clear of fleas. My friends and relatives have told me that they won't come over to my home until I take care of
this bad flea problem. Could you please recommend a spray that really works fast. Should I also spray outside in the grass.
Sorry to hear about your fleas. Spraying your grass should not be necessary but
be sure and treat the front and back porch and even the garage, if your cats hang out there.. As I said in my article above
you really need to use a product that contains a insect growth regulator. Read the insecticide label closely to make sure
an IGR is included in the ingredients. Most hardware stores sell this type of spray, if not you can find it online. There
is usually no way to eradicate fleas quickly.
