Fleas!!!!! - Newnan,GA

Fleas- have dog treated with once-a-month pill. At the same time, flea bombs. Fleas can get on a person outside also and transfer inside.

Call the exterminator! We have never had animals in the house, but bought a house where they had a pet and started getting bitten around the ankles. Evidently if there are fleas in a house and you remove the pet, the fleas start to multiply very fast. At least that's what the exterminator told us when I told him we didn't have animals. It took them spraying twice to get rid of them - the first time and about two weeks later. They were gone for good. Best wishes!

You definitely have to treat your dogs or you'll never get rid of the fleas. Think about how annoyed you are with them and consider that your four-legged friends are probably being eaten alive by them. The cost of Frontline is definitely worth it. The vet is very expensive but you can order online cheaper (I personally use pets-megastore.com, an Australian company. I usually just use their standard shipping and get my order in about 5 days). You might want to try the Hartz stuff you can get at Wal-mart in the meantime but I know it's not as effective.

Most extermination companies require a contract otherwise they charge out the wazoo for a single treatment. I would go to Home Depot or Lowe's and buy a yard treatment and see what they have for inside. The bombs are pretty potent and do work but you pretty much have to do that when you know you aren't going to be home for at least 12 hours, or more with a baby. We had an exterminator once who basically told us that treating the inside of a house after the initial treatment was useless. Once you killed what was inside, you only have to create a 'barrier' to the house outside. If bugs go through that 'barrier', they pick up the pesticide and will die before making it inside.

Another thing the exterminator tols us was to put a peice of white paper on the carpeted area to see if you still have fleas. The fleas are attracted to the paper, I assume beause of the color, and if you have any in the house, you'll see them on the paper very soon.

Good Luck!

J.,

Ack... It's been a terrible year for fleas. Lots of people are having success with Comfortis (a flea treatment for dogs, available from your vet) but you will have to have the house treated as well. Calling an exterminator is probably the answer. If you have a cat, it's likely that the fleas are actually from the cat. The chemicals they use for the house are safe with children after they dry, so you may want to have the house treated and then leave for errands for an hour or so. Good luck. Fleas really are pretty gross.... so sorry you are having to deal with them.

Hi J.,
Since you probably don't want pesticides in your home with a child there, you will have to google and make sure no residue is left behind with my option. All other options (sprays, etc) leave pesticide residue on furniture, walls, etc that could end up in your baby. Brains are very important :).

The cannisters that "smoke" work great. I think there is only 1 brand. You buy three in a box, they look like the things you put under a catering dish that have the blue flame (can't remember the name of those). You get enough to put 1 in each major hallway and each large room. Place a plate or something under them just for saftey, remove all the plants from your house, and leave for three hours. My understanding is that it basically suffocates by removing the oxygen - which is why the plants will die if you leave them. Obviously, remove your pets as well. We used to have a problem inconsistently with an indoor/outdoor cat - and this immediately eliminated the problem. If your infestation is bad, you will want to do it again in 6-7 days, I think because the eggs will hatch and you want to get them before they lay more.

Best of luck, J.

You're going to have to first get rid of the fleas from the dogs, they are very resistant these days and the only thing that keeps um off of my dog is 1) spraying my back yard for fleas before flea season gets into full swing, late spring / early summer. and 2) comfortis- it's a new flea stuff , it's pill form and you get it from your vet.

You're going to have to get some of that sprinkle flea stuff and vacuum EVERYTHING. And throw out the vacuum bag or empty the canister and take it out of the house immediately. I have sprinkled a little of the flea stuff in the bag to start with. Then like the other poster said steam clean the carpets. and spray some kind of flea stuff round outside door frames. They do make natural stuff for the carpets it's worked in the past for me but the best way we've found to keep um out of here is make sure the dog gets his flea med on time every month and spray the yard. Fleas are rough down here in the south.

We tried everything and the only thing that got them was to bomb the entire house. Good luck...fleas are SO not fun.

You need to set up some flea bombs in your house. Of course, treating the dog with Frontline, Bio-Spot or one of those monthly applications will stop the dog from hosting them. The cheapest way to get rid of them is to go to Lowes or Home Depot and buy some packs of the indoor room "bombs". You place them on newspaper on the floor, and let them fill the room with the spray. You need to vacate the house when you are doing this. I would recommend getting one for every room, placing it in the middle of the floor.. and leaving your house. They say to stay out a few hours. I would certainly do that with a child, even try and keep the child out for the day perhaps. After the few hours, you can air the house out to get fumes out. (In this heat, not so easy to do!) Make sure you get the flea bombs, but it will do the trick. If you are seeing them, you probably have thousands in your home. If you don't treat the host, and the house, you won't fix the problem. You may want to also get a spray at the store for your yard. You can spray the grass to eliminate them there, too. Good LUCK!

Keeping Frontline on our dogs has always kept the fleas off. It works far better than Advantage even though for some reason my vet always pushes Advantage. Both of our dogs got fleas while using Advantage. Years ago before those products came out, my indoor cat got fleas that quickly spread all over the carpeted townhome where I lived. I called a pest control company that advertised "non-toxic" flea powder/control for people with children and pets in their homes, and I had them come out. It worked like a charm! The guy went around and sprayed a little but mainly gave me a powder to use like you would Carpet Fresh -shake and vacuum. The fleas were gone in a day and never returned. Now that the green movement has really taken hold and more people are concerned about pesticides, most pest control companies offer something of that nature -just call around and ask -it really worked!

Buy the flea treatment that goes on their backs, if you haven't already. It kills the fleas that jump on them. You can got to a vet or a pet supply store for something for treating the house. (Don't forget to throw your vacuum bag away after you've vacuumed. -- the instructions on the flea treatment for your carpets will say that too, I'm pretty sure.)

We use frontline or advantix on our dogs. It may seem expensive but we don't worry about fleas, tick and such. There is a flea powder that you sprinkle on carpets. But the fleas seemed to go away once we started using the frontline or advantix. Takes about 48 hours before we noticed them going away. Hope this helps.

J.
I bought some different products at Dollar General and Freds which seemed to work well for our dog. WE didn't want to go the BOMB route and have to move out so to speak.
One was a flea shampoo Scratrex flea and tick
Home Spray for fabric that kills flea and tick on beds, chairs, carpet, etc.
Vetscription Hydrocortisone Spray which helps the pet keep from scratching if they do have fleas or hot spots.
So far it has helped over the past two weeks and I have not seen any fleas and our Pacheo Puppy, she is much less likely to scratch.
I hate using chemicals I'm a green person, but even those have limitations.
Best of luck, S.

We use Hartz concentrated flea spray for our dogs. We have three and it works on them well.

We had fleas in our first home, and the only way we were able to get rid of them was to clean carpet with Rug Dr using the antibacterial cleaner stuff from the Rug Dr rental place. You can also add the flea concentrate to the cleaner and it will do the same thing. Use the hottest water that you can, and spray the home Flea killer around doorways where carpet meets hardwood. That will help contain the fleas to the treated area.

I wish you the best of luck with them....pesky little varmits!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Try - www.domyownpestcontrol.com - they can help with the flea advice and they even sell the professional chemical to treat for fleas - but I know you need to make sure you vacuum the carpets for several weeks to capture all the fleas in their various stages and then make sure the vacuum bag is sealed and thrown away so that fleas do not escape. Good luck!

Frontline!! It isn't cheap but it works great! My cats got fleas just from being on our screened porch after our neighbors moved out with there 2 dogs. All I did was put it on both cats and within a few days we noticed a tremendous difference in the cats scratching and less fleas jumping in the house.

Good luck!
S.

SALT!!! take regular table salt from your kitchen spread throughout house (carpets and hard floors) everywhere! leave on floors for about 24 hours, then clean up mess (sweep&vaccum). that works on floor but for the dog flee treatments ...... might have to repeat floor treatment over again in a week ...... it has worked for me several times over!

In my experience, Advantage is the best monthly treatment, and I've tried all the cheap ones from Walmart/Target, Frontline, and Advantix.
You've also got to treat the house - flea bombs work for us but with a baby crawling around you might want to call an exterminator or try the carpet powders, this might be safer.

Frontline and Advantix are the only way to go. Get them at the vet or on line at Pet Meds. Go cheap and you get cheap results with the sprays and shampoos that are sold at stores - they are not worth a penny of your money. As for ridding them from your house now, people have suggested some excellent remedies. We don't have any fleas - never been a problem with our two large indoor/outdoor dogs because we used Frontline from the start.

From what I`ve read up on, fleas only drink sick blood.
So your dog might be sick even if your dog is just a little sick. My cats had a ton of fleas once and I started feeding them raw meat as a snack every day also giving them a bath twice with lemon and water. You just boil some water turn the stove off put 1 or 2 cut up lemons in, put the lid to the pot on and let it steep over night (like making tea).You can use this to clean your pet and places that fleas are. The reason this water/lemon solution works is because it contans an acid that kills and repels fleas along with that it helps heal the bites on your pet also it`s notixic to your pet.You can spray this on your pet too or sponge it on there fur they lay their eggs and live in carpet.
Hope this helps,
H.

Try sprinkling Borax into the carpets and leaving it for a while before vaccuuming. (Google for suggestions on how long to leave it & how much to use.) With a baby in the house, I'd avoid the toxic pesticides. It's on the laundry aisle, "20 Mule Team Borax" - it's a good as a laundry detergent booster, too - basically it's a water softener. You still don't want your kid eating it from the box, but it's a lot safer than spraying Raid all over the place, or even worse, those AWFUL foggers.

And give both dogs a dose of Advantage. (Frontline and another one whose name I forget are good at combatting ticks, too, but if I recall correctly, if it's JUST fleas, then Advantage works best.) Talk to your vet -(s)he'll know. They say it's a once-a-month thing, but I've never had to use it nearly that often, especially in the colder months.