Friday, July 13, 2012

'Tis the Season



The flea season, that is! (Don't worry, I think fleas are way too gross to put pictures of them on my blog!)

As much as summer's heat and sunshine is welcome, with it comes the fleas and other bugs. I hate using chemicals on my dogs to prevent fleas, so instead, I've come up with a series of things that work for me to keep fleas out of my house and off of my pets.

Pallo Eye

The number one most important way to prevent flea infestations in a house is to vacuum. I always put a cheap flea collar into the canister of my vacuum so that any live fleas sucked up will be killed by the nasty chemicals in the collar (though I would never put one of these collars onto my dogs or cat). As a flea preventative, I try to vacuum every couple of days. If there is active flea activity that I have noticed, I will vacuum at least once a day and sometimes up to three times per day. I also sprinkle borax on the carpets about once a week or so before vacuuming, as the borax can help destroy the fleas and flea eggs.

Koira feet in the sand

For the dogs, I have a few tricks as well. After every bath, the dogs are rinsed with a diluted vinegar solution. This supposedly changes the pH of their skin and makes them less appealing to fleas. I don't know about that specifically, but it does seem to help discourage fleas. If I have noticed any fleas on the dogs, I will bathe them with a pure castile soap, with lots of suds, that they soak in for five minutes. That is followed by a second round of soap with some neem oil mixed in (I want to try the Neem "Protect" Shampoo from Ark Naturals, but it isn't currently carried at my local store), then conditioner (which they also soak in), then rinse, with the vinegar rinse as the last step.

I also will mix up a flea spray using neem oil, a tiny bit of soap to dissolve the oil, and water. The spray is then used on the dogs, cat, pet beds, and carpet. The brand of spray I use is Ark Naturals, and I have tried two of their sprays. The neem oil spray, I add a little extra neem oil to it each time, as I have heard that neem can become less effective if mixed with water for very long. Neem oil by itself smells pretty nasty, so the spray helps the smell be much better, as well as using additional essential oils to discourage flea activity.


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The last important step in my flea preventative regimen is to check over the dogs and cat often. I flip them over in front of me and, with good light, pick through their fur with my fingers. I check carefully not only for fleas themselves but also for signs of fleas such as flea poop and red spots. The best places to check are the belly and around the base of the tail, as these are the places fleas like to hang out. Even my cat lets me do this grooming on her and happily lays on her back while I pick through her fur.

Chasing Pallo

If we end up with a bad infestation, such as we had when I first moved into my current apartment, I am not opposed to using a very limited amount of chemicals to try to get ahead of the flea problem. The flea medication of choice for this is either CapStar for a quick flea killing action or Comfortis for an edible month-long flea preventative. I still find, however, that vacuuming the house and the use of borax on the carpet is just as effective, if not more so, as using chemical flea killing bombs, and without the nasty deadly chemical residues left over. All the on-the-dog treatments, however, are much more effective at preventing fleas than at treating an active infestation. The important part is to not let it get out of control!

How do you treat for fleas in the summer?

ETA: The area I am in does not have a lot of ticks, and those that we do have do not carry lyme disease, so ticks are much less of a worry for me and my dogs than people in other areas. In my lifetime in this area, I have had ticks on me twice total. 

Me and the Flyball Dogs are off to Salem, OR for the weekend for a flyball tournament. If you are in the area, you should stop by and check it out. We'll be at the Marion County Fair at the State Fairgrounds, just follow the sound of the barking!

Taking Dog Pictures

10 comments:

  1. Hi Y'all!

    Just stopped by to see how y'all are doing. Hope y'all are havin' a great weekend!

    Good luck in Oregon!

    Y'all come by now,
    Hawk aka BrownDog

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  2. To be honest, I don't use anything for fleas unless I see fleas on them. I occasionally have to treat once in September or so, and at that point I use Frontline (or Advantage on the cats).

    I do use Frontline/Certifect on the hairy hiking Border Collie because he collects ticks like it's his hobby, and we see a LOT of Lyme disease in this area. Is it my favorite thing in the world? No. But I am more worried about tick-borne nasties than the occasional use of pesticides.

    Ugh, bugs. I remember growing up in this area, I *never* saw ticks in all the time we were out running the fields and woods. I didn't see my first attached tick until I was in college (it was very traumatic). I went hiking earlier this summer on reasonably well-maintained trails and ended up with five attached ticks on ME. DO NOT WANT.

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  3. I'll have to try you're techniques! Currently, none of my dogs have fleas and they aren't on drops. I'm a bit of a clean freak so bedding, rugs, pillows ect are washed at least weekly.
    My dogs get rinsed off (just with warm water) about 4 times a week, and get a soap bath maybe twice a month.
    I do occasionally use Frontline on the dogs, as two of them are allergic to fleas.
    Nola's Mom
    PS. LOVE that first photo

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  4. We are glad we don't really have to worry about ticks here either. Honestly, we don't often use anything for fleas. We are usually either walking in the City or the woods and there are not many fleas either place. If I do use something though, I admit it is chemicals. I usually use Frontline plus.

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  5. I do use Advantage but only when I see a flea. The last few years I've only had to do it once a year. I think it helps that we don't have a lot of cats that roam the neighborhood.

    In the past I've used the borax with good results. I would sprinkle it on the carpet before going to bed. I used a broom to work it into the carpet.

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  6. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  7. Love that third picture. Just awesome!!
    We have terrible tick problems here. So I have to use something on the dogs that hike. I use frontline. Not every month, just like every other month during the warm time.

    ( I wanted to edit my comment thats why I deleted it the first time. )

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  8. I wash/rinse my dogs with vinegar too. I don't vacuum as much, though. We've never had a problem with fleas on the dogs.
    One thing I really, really like, is my metal toothed flea comb. I go over each dog with that once a week (and after every hike) and it really helps save time and energy picking through their fur. It's also good to get ticks with before they latch on. Some of them in my neck of the woods are pretty dang tiny and you wouldn't find them easily without the flea comb until they bite.

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  9. Boric acid powder is also effective on insects -- it is sold for cockroaches -- and relatively non-toxic for mammals [you would have to ingest *a lot* to get a tummy ache]. Boric acid is inexpensive and available at at most Walgreens & Family Dollar. [Again, the powder and is in the section with the fly paper and the ant poison.] For the yard diatonaceous [?sp] earth -- sold in gardening stores for the control of ants -- is also not a problem for mammels, just exoskeletal beings. [Not the diatonaceous earth for pool filters.] And for flea infestations, vacuuming like a mad person [and getting the vac bag out of the house or have some flea killing stuff in the vac bag]is essential to get up all the eggs. Focus on corners and edges like where the wall meets the floor and places the animals sleep.
    Lynnda L in Minneapolis
    PS: I stopped having flea problems when I stopped having a hunting cat. The cat never scratched but the dogs sure did [most every August -- I did not use flea collars].

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  10. Boric acid powder is also effective on insects -- it is sold for cockroaches -- and relatively non-toxic for mammals [you would have to ingest *a lot* to get a tummy ache]. Boric acid is inexpensive and available at at most Walgreens & Family Dollar. [Again, the powder and is in the section with the fly paper and the ant poison.] For the yard diatonaceous [?sp] earth -- sold in gardening stores for the control of ants -- is also not a problem for mammels, just exoskeletal beings. [Not the diatonaceous earth for pool filters.] And for flea infestations, vacuuming like a mad person [and getting the vac bag out of the house or have some flea killing stuff in the vac bag]is essential to get up all the eggs. Focus on corners and edges like where the wall meets the floor and places the animals sleep.
    Lynnda L in Minneapolis
    PS: I stopped having flea problems when I stopped having a hunting cat. The cat never scratched but the dogs sure did [most every August -- I did not use flea collars].

    ReplyDelete