Animal Rights Community Online

[antikfc]

 Can really use some advice on flea problem!!

[Tourterelle]

Hi antikfc,

Sorry you have this problem, but fleas are quite common, if not to be expected. And this is war -- it's either you and your dog, or them. . . The fleas will not go away on their own if they have a good thing going for them, and your poor dog will continue to be tormented. My first suggestion is to put a flea collar on your dog. If your dog can become flea-proof, then there is a good chance that the fleas will not continue to live and thrive on their own.

I'm not too much of an expert on fleas, however, so probably other members will have more to add.

I don't go out of my way to kill insects, and often try to help them when I can. . . but I have never in any way tolerated parasites or other intruders who would harm my birds. I am quite ruthless, in fact, when it comes to protecting my birds. My responsability and duty is to them, not to any parasites who are trying to free lunch on my friends.

[Gliondrach]

I think you'll have to take all potential hiding places of the fleas and their eggs outside where you can beat them to shake them all out. These could be rugs, curtains and chair covers. Carpets and large chairs would need to be thoroughly vacuumed - more than once. The fleas can then be emptied out of the dust bag.

Pennyroyal is supposed to be a flea deterrent. You could put it in vases around the house to deter the fleas.

I would be very careful not to put the pennyroyal oil on anyone, though. It is highly toxic. It might be all right diluted but you'd have to decide how much to dilute it for it to be safe.

http://www.ehow.com/how_2330944_use-pennyroyal-as-bug-repellent.html

[antikfc]

Tourterelle...thanks for responding! I agree with you about protecting my baby and sometimes having to put our loved ones first. In this particular situation the fleas do not seem to be biting her, myself or my roommate for that matter but I am wondering if it is a possibility that they might or will cause other problems.
My baby (dog) is due for her monthly heartworm preventative (Evolution) that also works as a flea repellent. Perhaps that may work or maybe I can get a flea collar as you suggested. Maybe they will leave then.
I can not tell you how tempting it is to just spray the darn things with insect spray and be rid of them once and for all!
Thanks again for your help!

Glondrach...Thanks for your advice as well! I will look into the product that you mentioned. Thanks for the link. I have been doing some vacumming but probably not as much as I should. I am even wondering if they are in fact fleas since they are not even bothering my dog at all. They really are more like the fruit flies that you find sometimes around fruit in the supermarket. Perhaps they are not fleas at all?? But they are the same size and look like fleas. They are attracted to the food products in the home. Maybe I will try an internet search and see if I can figure it out for sure.
Anyway, thanks again for the advice.

[Gliondrach]

They don't sound like fleas. Fleas wouldn't bother hanging around food. They are only interested in blood. Do you find them in flour and cereals? Do they have a reddish-brown colour? Do they have a tendency to climb upwards - up walls, up to the top of pots and pans? If so, they could be flour beetles. I have been battling them for a few years and have slowly worn them down. Two years ago I could easily evict over a hundred of them a day during the worst part of the invasion. Now, I only find 8 or 9 a week.

All flour and cereals are likely to harbour their eggs. If you keep these products for any length of time they will hatch out into larvae and then become beetles. A female can lay 200 eggs in a year. Once they get established, they will travel all over the house. Buy these products in small quantities and use them up quickly or freeze them to prevent the eggs hatching.

I also had to deal with tiny flies that lived in the overflow of my bathroom wash basin. It took months to catch and evict them all.

Now, I am fighting a war against moths. A few weeks ago I was evicting over a hundred a week. Now it is down to about thirty a week.

It is war, and you must be eternally vigilant. Never give them a chance to regroup. Attack them whenever they show themselves. Never show any weakness or they will take advantage of it. Be brave and you will win.

[panthera]

I agree that these do not sound like fleas. Fleas have no interest in anything except blood. I call killing them "self-defense." I have no problem using stuff like Frontline and Advantage. Flea collars are not very effective, they don't protect the animal in the most vulnerable areas, they can cause irritation around the neck, and they do nothing for the environment. Flea eggs can just sit around for months with no food, and as soon as animals come their way, descend with no mercy.

Again, it doesn't sound like fleas, which is a good thing, b/c that can be a difficult battle to win.

Just in case anyone is wondering about flea products, let me just say that Hartz, Advantix, & Biospot are toxic to cats. If your dog is around cats, don't use these items.

Here's a descriptions of their lifecycle:
Flea Life Cycle

[Horsefriend]

Fleas hate the smell of horses. To solve a flea problem, just adopt some minis!

[panthera]

oh, great, that's really practical and ethical!

[Horsefriend]

I said adopt, not buy. I'm confused. I've been a really bad boy.

[Faunus]

On the topic of fleas, it is possible for any insect in future generations to build up resistance against a pesticide, including topical flea remedies. I used Frontline Plus for two years, and it became totally worthless even before that time. Grooming the cats daily I never found a dead flea, only tonnes of live ones in their fur. So I switched to Advantage, and the same thing happened; it worked great for a time, and then was completely ineffective.

I've been using Vectra for Cats (also available for dogs) for the past 5 months, and this is the first time in my life that I have never seen a single flea on any of the cats! In the U.S. right now, it is only available through a veterinarian, and I cannot find it at the usual web sites I order medications from: www.allivet.com and www.petshed.com They also have medications for horses and can be a big money saver! Compare their prices regularly. Although they appear to be the least expensive sites on the Internet, either of them are much cheaper than any speciesist pet store.

There will always be more fleas in the home or outdoor environment than on the animal. Fleas suck blood and then jump off. Instead of changing vacuum cleaning bags every time I vacuumed, I used about half a cup of Twenty Mule Team Borax (what a speciesist brand name ) sold as a laundry booster, and suck it up into the VC bag. Borax will kill any insect, but do not use it in the house because it is toxic to cats and dogs.

I also grew tired of treating my buddies for tapeworms when they ingested fleas while grooming themselves. Fleas can also transmit bartonellosis and tularemia. Fleas, ticks, and tapeworms are conscious and sentient animals, but they can also be vectors for these diseases. Countless times I've gone out of my way to relocate insects, arachnids, snails, and you name it off plants in my garden and out of the house - but I have no compassion whatsoever with blood-sucking parasites. (Sorry, sentience-based-rights abolitionists).

Tomorrow, I'm sure I'll once again be gently swiping slugs off of my garden plants with a moist paper towel and relocating them to the back of the yard. Then I will be happy, the slugs will be happy, and my plants will be happy.

[Faunus]

I must quickly add that the element boron, used in many products in high concentration (borax & boric acid) - is also toxic to birds, fish, plants, and you name it.

[panthera]

[Horsefriend]

Of course I didn't mean it that way! Where's the faith, Panthera? Where?

I was joking really. You know, I was worried that something bad could come from saying that: the same sort of thing you suspected. Perfect Panorama of the Perceptive Panthera.

[antikfc]

Thanks everyone...problem solved!!

[Faunus]

Antikfc, how did you identify them as "fruit flies"? I'm only asking this because when people have "fungus gnats", they call them "fruit flies" 99% of the time. There are also "shore flies", misidentified by some as being "fungus gnats".

The remedy for all of the above is not the same.