So my dog has never had fleas before...we have never had fleas before! Well she has them and now they are inside the house.

She is now using Frontline, just started two days ago. The other stuff never worked! How long does it take to start working? Cause she is still bringing them inside alive.

I have found 2 fleas in the hair of each child today. Can't stand it!!!! (I did find one in the bathroom on the counter that looked like it was slowly dying.)

What do we do?

My DH sprayed the portion of the yard she is in, no fence. (we have an acre, so he only did the areas her leash goes. But I am not sure if it was flea treatment or bug treatment.

We also bombed the house two days ago as well.

So how do we make sure they don't come back?

Here is what my mother in law told us to do to get rid of them...

We already...
got dog on frontline
bombed house once
sprayed yard with bug killer

What we are doing next...
make sure they stay off dog, if frontline does not work, then we have to figure out something else.

Buy flea control for the yard and do it twice, wait to weeks for second round.

Wash carpets, blankets, floors, etc.

Bomb house again in two weeks.

Vacuum daily.

Repeat washing carpets, blankets, floors, etc.

Anything else you know of to help, like something child safe to spray down furniture, under furniture, closets, etc.?

I hate fleas and just want to get rid of them.

Megan

http://johnsontripletgirls.blogspot.com/
http://mjmphotocreations.blogspot.com/

Frontline should work, if they stay off the dog, they'll eventually die off in the house...might be slowly but they will. They cannot get enough food be eating off passerbys (you and your familiy), they need to eat where they live (darling doggy).

Here's what I would do:
Continue the Frontline.
Spray the yard.

Wipe down all the surfaces in the house that are over carpet, the little white eggs will sometimes be on tables etc...less so if you have a dog, but the eggs will fall off cats up there. Sprinkle a generous amount Borax into your carpet and sweep into the carpet so it gets down to the pad, wait about 24 hours and then vacuum it up. You'll want the kids out of the house for this step. Borax (the cleaning powder) aka Boric Acid, will kill fleas and destroy their eggs in your carpet. http://www.ehow.com/how_4421449_use-borax-kill-fleas.html

I hate those little S.O.B.s too.

Ryan & Megan
GGG Born 8/9/10 28 weeks 5 days
Lily Ann 2lbs 12oz.
Emma Grace 2lbs 6oz.
Abigail Rose 2lbs 7oz.
http://thesmithfamilytriplets.blogspot.com/

Put a flea collar in the vacuum cleaner. This will take care of any you vacuum up. I spray once a month with ortho home defense max and this seems to take care of everything.
Good Luck!

Melissa
mom to Abbie, Andy & Levi
November 11, 2005
34 weeks 5 days

http://benefieldtriplets.blogspot.com/

""

I live in Oklahoma and we have mutant fleas on steroids. When we had our dog she brought them in every year and it was like an infestation that sent me over the edge every time (I do not co-habitat with insects well!) The last year it happened we finally figured out what works and what didnt because they were super resistant that year. Fleas are a lot like head lice, it takes a massive effort to get rid of them.

First off, most fleas and ticks are becoming immune to a lot of the grocery store shelf insecticides and it will not do anything to them. For any insecticides you are using I would go to the pet store and get Adams brand OR go to your vet. Adams makes foggers too, we never had to use them. We got carpet powder that you had to let sit for a certain amount of time and it killed it. Foggers are a pain because you have to clean everything afterward. They also make upholstery spray.

For the yard, I would use sevin dust and spread it thru the yard. If you go to the hardware store they have sevin 10. What you can buy at Walmart or Target is sevin 5 and its less powerful. I am all about more power so I always went to Ace Hardware to get the sevin dust. A little goes a long way. Also if you have a crawl space foundation or a basement, you need to treat under the house too.

You need to vacuum at LEAST once a day, if not twice. After you are done vacuuming you HAVE to change the bag or dump the canister and take the trash you dumped it in outside. The fleas will get back out of the vacuum and it will do absolutely no good. You can buy a cheap flea collar and put it around the filter or in the canister and it will help kill them, but dump it after every vacuuming anyway. The vibration from the vacuum will encourage the flea eggs (if there are fleas, there are flea eggs) to hatch and you will suck up the adult fleas. This is the single most important thing that you can do.

As far as the pet goes, a lot of the flea drops like frontline ect. the fleas are also becoming immune to like the other insecticides. The one that we had the most success with was K9 advantix. After you put it on you could literally see the fleas jumping off. Any pet bedding needs to be washed in HOT water twice or thrown out.

If you have wood or tile floors, you can mop with vinegar and it will kill them. Also rubbing alcohol sometimes kills them. It will take at the least 2 week to kill them all because it takes about 2 weeks for the eggs to hatch so you need to stay on top of it for at least that long if not longer. After and only after they are gone, I would steam clean the carpet to get the poisons out. If you steam clean now it will make the eggs hatch faster and it will do no good. Good luck, HTH.

Shely~ Mom to 1+GGB
http://thehansontriplets.blogspot.com/
http://www.marchforbabies.org/team/TeamLilyGrace

This doesn't permanently get rid of the problem...but it helps let you know if you are getting it under control. You can put a pan of water under a night light and fleas will jump in and drown.

Christina

Sophia June
Emma Grace
Annabelle Kate

1/29/09



http://threelittleseminoles.blogspot.com

Thanks everyone, I am getting more ideas of things I can do!

I HATE BUGS!!! Especially when they are on me and my kids!

Megan

http://johnsontripletgirls.blogspot.com/
http://mjmphotocreations.blogspot.com/

I don't know how compliant your dog is, but if you can wash him in dishwashing detergent and let it sit for a few minutes, it suffocates the fleas. Doesn't keep more from getting on him, of course, but it will at least get rid of the ones that are on currently.

BGG born 4/25/05 at 31w1d




New baby girl born 9/19/06

I've heard advantage works better than frontline but I don't know if that's true. The only way to get rid of them is to make sure the dog doesn't have any. They breed so fast that they'll just hop right back on the dog. Just keep using the frontline or advantage and it should work in the next few days.

proud mom to
DS 8
DS 5
BBB 9/29/06 born @ 32w2d

" "

So it's been a week in a half since I posted about the fleas. And we are still living with them. I don't know how much more I can take. Here is what we have done over the last month.

Put the dog on frontline plus
Bombed the house three times, basement and garage once (most recent)
Washed all bedding/blankets, etc.
Cleaned house
Vacuum Daily, every morning.
Put borax in all the carpet. (used broom to get it deeper) Vacuumed 24 hours later.
Treated the yard twice.

I thought it was getting better but then today I found a flea in two of the kids hair, adult ones. And have seen a couple. And set up flea traps last night and their were 7, 4 were tiny ones.

I have not been bit but a couple times, but the girls have been a few times each in the last couple days.

So how do I know its getting better?

Thinking about trying the diatomaceous earth and making a spray with it and spraying EVERYTHING! Just don't know how to clean it up afterwards.

If they are not gone in a week, we are calling an exterminator.

Megan

http://johnsontripletgirls.blogspot.com/
http://mjmphotocreations.blogspot.com/

Honestly, I would call the exterminator now and have the dog dipped at the same time.

It's been several years now but we had a huge flea problem and ended up spending hundreds of dollars trying to get rid of them oursleves. Eventually we had to have the apartment sprayed by an exterminator and have the dog dipped--we had to do it several times before we got rid of all of them. We didn't have kids then and the dog slept in our bed and on the furniture so I stripped the bed had them spray the mattress and furniture and flipped the mattress and cushions when I got home.

Spray your home, have the dog dipped, wash all bedding in hot water, put the dog on flea control (front line etc.) By the way the vet does have a medication that will kill every live flea on the dog instantly--they use it to keep their place from getting infested, maybe you could convince them to use it on your dog, but you still have to worry about those hatching eggs.

Good Luck.

If you use diatomaceous earth it needs to go down in the powder form and you need to get the kids and pets out of the house and wear a painters mask while you do it. DE is actually algae that are like tiny razor blades and it works by wearing off the hard shells on fleas (and any other hard shelled insects like ants) and it will cause respiratory issues because of that. It also has to stay down for a good period of time for it to work. It may be more effective outside than inside.

Don't dip the dog if you have used frontline on him either. Too many chemicals are bad and dip is nothing but chemicals. I would call your vet and ask if there is something else that would work better. When we had our dog we went to Banfield (in petsmart) and they told us that frontline was not as effective anymore because the fleas and ticks are becoming immune to it because it is used so much.

Make sure when you vacuum, as big of a pain as it is, you are moving EVERYTHING to vacuum every square inch of your carpeting- couches, beds, cribs, toys, chairs, everything.

Vinegar and rubbing alcohol is supposed to kill fleas too. It never worked to well for us, but you could always try it. Just get a spray bottle and fill it up with alcohol (I preferred alcohol because of the smell of vinegar) and spray everything down.

Did you try that Adams carpet powder? That is finally what killed them for us. Bombing never did anything and borax is highly toxic to children so be careful.

http://www.petsmart.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2751933

That is the link for the Adams carpet powder... its great.

Shely~ Mom to 1+GGB
http://thehansontriplets.blogspot.com/
http://www.marchforbabies.org/team/TeamLilyGrace

A veteran mommy here,

I would call Frontline...the have a help line and will explain to you how their product works. Do not re dose the dog or use harsh chems or dish soap on him. That will just be detrimental to him .One dose of Frontline will protect your dog and repel any other fleas. It does take up to 72 hours to work.

Now that the fleas are in your home you should call Orkin or similar..they will come monthly to spray and break the life cycle of the fleas. It is not as simple as getting rid of the live ones.The eggs can live a long time off the dog on their own.

Yes to very frequent vacuuming and especially emptying the bags daily. Pay careful attention to where your dog sleeps.

Now hold on to your hat...you have another issue.

You must watch your pet and family for tapeworm. Fleas are carriers. You would have to eat a flea to become infected but is they are all over the house it is possible. More so for your dog but it can happen to people, too.

Gross I know. But you will get through this.

Tami

mom to ggg19 and g 15

Please please call your vet before you treat your dog with anything else.