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Originally Posted by cashb  I have 3 five week old puppies in my house! After picking one up to play with him today - I noticed a flea crawling on his stomach. Its the first one I've seen, but I know if you can see one, there are more you can't see! The puppies are still pretty young - is there anything I can do to combat this problem?
Thanks yall!
Koretta |
I understand your concern of not wanting to use pesticides especially on such little ones....I've been doing some reading myself on fleas and alternatives to safer products to use so I'll give you some info from my experiences...
You can use Diatomaceous Earth (which is also called fossil shell flour) for their bedding, and it can be lightly dusted on their skin. It is very safe....This is what I use, my local health food store sells it but this is a better but for me....This is from a d.e.site....
Diatomaceous earth (fossil shell four )- Diatomaceous earth is a type of fossilized algae that resembles chalk dust. The fine, sharp-edged particles attach themselves to and penetrate the waxy coating on a flea's shell-like exoskeleton, causing the little bloodsucker to dehydrate and die.It can be lightly applied to pets and their bedding. Work it in using a brush or broom. Lightly vacuum afterwards to remove loose dust. Be very carefull not to breath in the dust it can be irritating to the lungs. DE can dry out a pet’s skin, so use it lightly. Buy Diatomaceous Earth to kill fleas, ticks, bed bugs and parasites naturally
For bathing I use Neem Oil shampoo like Tropiclean. My Petco sells it. It looks like this...
Tropiclean With Neem Coconut & Citrus Shampoo 20 Oz-Dog Shampoos
I've also did an experiment on my own pets and used just a plain pet shampoo, I lathered it up
very well and left it on for 5-6 minutes to see if it would kill fleas without the poisons. I brushed him out on a white towel and two dead fleas fell off! So it may have nothing to do with the product but if the shampoo is left on long enough they drown....
Shampooing is only going to do so much. If they are in the home then they will jump back on...I also use Cedar oil and it works great for killing. I sprayed a flea with it , it was dead in under five seconds . This in good as a repellent and it kills on contact. I use it if I see a flea on my boys. Instead of trying to grab the flea I just give the flea a quick spritz and it's dead. When I used to try and pick the flea off I always lost it, not anymore since I use this.....I bought the little spritzer bottles to try it out first and now I have the quart which I can refill the little ones with. I also spray their beds with this. But be warned it does have a strong cedar smell...
ANIMAL HEALTH PRODUCTS
Lastly the best thing you can do in the home is vacuum, vacuum, vacuum!!
I know most people like to get out the heavy artillery but this is the safest and most effective thing you can do. Most of the fleas are not on the pet and most are not in the adult flea stage....
It's been estimated that any given time, only about 1% of the population of fleas is in the adult phase. About 9% are in the pupal stage, 55% are in the larval stage, and 35% are in the egg stage.
Since most are in the larvae and egg stage you need to keep vacuuming to get them up. This is from two studies from researchers....
Sciencedaily .com: Lead study author W. Fred Hink, professor emeritus of entomology at Ohio State and a longtime researcher in nontoxic controls of fleas on dogs, sought to test the effects of vacuuming on all flea life stages and whether any extra disposal steps or additional chemical controls are necessary.
The study involved groups of 100 adult fleas at a time, as well as groups of 50 pupae and 50 larvae, by vacuuming them up from a tightly woven kitchen-type of carpet. Six tests of vacuuming the adult fleas yielded an average of 96 percent of fleas killed; three tests of vacuumed pupae and one test of vacuumed larvae (in their third stage of development) resulted in 100 percent killed.
In comparison, an average of only 5 percent of adult fleas died after being held in paper vacuum bags to test for toxicity, and an average of only 3 percent died when circulated in moving air.
“I did not include eggs in the vacuum study, but I'm sure they would not have survived,” Hink said.
Dutch journal Entomologia Experimentalis et Applicata:
The old upright is not only lethal to adult bugs, but it completely wipes out their young. Scientists from Ohio State University had set out to determine what additional measures might be needed to kill a bunch of Hoovered-up fleas: burning, freezing, poisoning, maybe even a little good old fashioned stomping. But it turns out that getting sucked into a vacuum bag does the whole job.
The researchers were so surprised by the results, they repeated the study several times. In each experiment, they sprinkled a kitchen carpet with 100 cat fleas, either adults or juveniles. And they found that the vacuum snuffed out pretty much all of them.
I hope you kind some useful info to help your situation......Sorry so long.