The fleas are driving me crazy!!!

[Naked Camper]

I seriously don't think we'll ever get rid of the fleas. :hissyfit

We have spent so much money on flea treatments for the house, yard and dogs. They are sooooo bad right now. I'm going to go crazy. If it were just the dogs effected it wouldn't be bad, but the whole family has numerous flea bites on us. It's rediculous!

[Weezie]

What are you using for treatments?:think

My vet once told me we needed a deep freeze to get them to go away. Yeah. We are under a heat advisory now. There's no deep freeze in sight.:-/

We used Revolution. It helped.:hugheart

[JellyBean]

Cedarcide helped us big time a few years back. And it's just cedar oil so I could keep spraying it without worries of killing us all off in the process! ;). That and lots and lots of vacuuming! I hated my vacuum by the end I that summer!

[EskimoBoston]

I had to take our dog in earlier this summer. She's really allergic to them. We had to put her on flea pills, steroids and antibiotics. The vet said after the mild winter we had they never went away and are awful this year. :( I wish I had some new suggestions for you.

[MaiMama]

My dog is on a monthly pill. I went ahead and had the house sprayed. Between those two, we nailed it. I read all the great crunchy treatments, but in my first trimester I did. not. have. the strength to do all the work it entailed. I did spend the night elsewhere when it was sprayed.

Have you been doing natural stuff or are you hitting it with chemicals too?

[blessedwithboys]

I've heard a few people say that Frontline isn't working for them this year since the flea population is so huge now. Our vet is recommending Certifect. The bonus is that it's a lot better tick killer than Frontline or Advantix are.

This is the down side of our mild winter. :(

I'd probably go with Certifect, plus Capstar for every dog and some kind of house treatment too. $$$ :(

[mamacat]

one thing that sounds wierd but really works is to put plates of ater - either white plates or shiny like a pie plate in a dark room at night and shine a little light on the water - they are attracted to and will jump in the water my neighbor broke flea cycle by only walking dogs on leash for awhile and not having them in and out of house in yard and guess kids couldnt go in backyard for awhile either so fleas lost their hosts and then she did the vacuuming and indoor stuff - evidently they dont like the smell of tea tree oil either so can try spraying house /animals with diluted TTO we have been using Comfortis which is an oral thing - think it helped to break the cycle so maybe wouldnt need it now becaue one dog cant have it and doesnt get any fleas either i our backyard.might want to consider a round of that

[MomtoJGJ]

We had to have a professional exterminator come in every 4 weeks until we saw no more fleas in the plates of water a couple of years ago until it froze outside. But we had the problem in the fall.

[greengirl19]

We're having a really bad flea summer here too. I noticed they were out of control a few weeks ago (only on the dog, not us). I started a 'treatment' of every other day baths for the dog, fleaing her at least once a day, preferable twice, vacuuming the two rooms she lays in morning and evening, and putting baking soda or salt on her bed area overnight a few times a week. It sounds like a lot but it hasn't been toom much work. It's helped significantly. As soon as I can find my essential oil stash I'm also going to make a after-bath rinse that might discourage them from hopping on.

[Naked Camper]

What does the baking soda or salt do?

We've gone straight to chemicals this go round. We did the carpet powder, flea baths, flea dip today. I'm getting ready to spray the furniture with flea spray. Dh and I decided as of today the dogs are no longer allowed inside the house. There's a room they can go inside that is carpet free and they can be shut in there when not outside.

I guess the yard is the area I'm having the hardest time with. We sprayed chemicals back there, but I haven't seen any results. :sigh

[PacisEtAmor]

I so feel your pain. :( The 2 dogs gave them to the 2 cats (1 dog is a mainly outside dog when it's nice out, 1 is inside mostly, cats are in). I can't even walk in my room without at least 1 or 2 jumping on me (and we have all hardwood floors). It's really awful. I have bites all over my legs especially.

[Naked Camper]

It just makes you feel dirty to have a bug problem, KWIM? :(

[PacisEtAmor]

It really does. And i hate being 'mean' to the one cat and make her move when she sits next to me and scratches b/c every time she scratches she flings fleas (well, usually only 1 at a time) on me and :shudder.

If i wish anything would go extinct, it would be fleas. They have no purpose except to make people/animals miserable. :shifty

eta: i'm glad there's no kids in the house though. Although the buggers seem to like me more than my mother. :(

[Delaney]

Last summer we had a horrible flea problem. My DS was had bites all over his little body. It was bad. We tried natural stuff, we tried over the counter stuff. What worked for us, was to make sure we kept our pet treated with drops from the vet, and to get an exterminator to bring in the big guns. He spays inside and outside. We had him come when spring came to prevent this year, and so far so good.

[Ethereal]

Oh it's a HIDEOUS nightmare isn't it!? I totally understand. Where I live is hot and humid and fleas are endemic ALL.YEAR.AROUND. I'm a huge animal lover but I have decided that after all the ones I have have passed on that I will not want get anymore pets mainly because of fleas and how horrendously expensive it is to buy monthly flea and heartworm meds. My cats now live outside all the time because NOTHING works on them. NOTHING.

I have wasted $$$ on flea stuff from the vets that had zero effect. They have a great life as we have a big garden with lots of trees and rural area and I do the best I can for them. I am just so sick of them giving the dog fleas and then fleas in the house there is only so much you can take and I am expecting a baby soon so am in protective mode too. And it is just soooooooooooo GROSS!!! I feel for anyone who gets an infestation:hug2 the last time we had a bad one was from the neighbor's dog who brought them over :mad

I find that Frontline is absolutely USELESS, the fleas are just immune to it. Comfortis works the best for my dog.

[Naked Camper]

I've given up on the drop stuff :yes

That's how we got fleas initially too. The neighbor's brought home a puppy :rolleyes. We had dogs for 5 years without problems until the neighbors got their untreated dog. New neighbors now, new dog next door, but as far as I'm aware, she has not treated her yard :sigh

About how much does it cost for an exterminator to come treat the yard?

[kiloyd]

I'm a huge fan of Advantage.

If they are that bad then treating the house andyard and using Advantage is probably a good idea.

[MomtoJGJ]

We use the drops and if we see any on teh dogs we use a pill...

It wasn't terribly expensive to have the exterminator come out. I think it was 60 dollars. The second time was free because they said that if we saw any more after a month that they'd come back for free.

We didn't get someone to treat the yard. Although that's not a bad idea.