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Originally Posted by RowdysMom

In the short run, you can give him a bath is Dawn dishwashing liquid - it will kill the fleas.

I too, used Frontline (1/2 tube) when Rowdy was only 10 weeks old and less than 2 lbs.

Here's what I do now to control fleas - of course if you live in an apartment, this won't work. Anyway, I take my dogs for walks, but never have more than a occasional flea because I keep the fleas out of my yard. I do NOT use frontline or advantage and have had no flea problems in many many years. For the occasional flea the boys pick up on walks, I use the Dawn bath.

Fleas
Here's a natural remedy to keep the fleas from reproducing in your yard - this will help tremendously to keep them off your animals. However, it will not prevent your babies from getting a flea or two when you walk them or having a flea or two crawl in your yard and getting on them.

Spray your yard with beneficial nematodes - these are microscopic organisms that eat flea eggs and fire ant eggs, as well as grub eggs. You can get them at your local plant nursery - one that carries organic products. You can also order them online - but they must be kept cool (in the fridge) so I don't know how they ship them, be sure to ask because if they get hot, they will die. I do know that they can ship things that need to be kept cold - my husband orders his insulin from a mail-order pharmacy and it comes with a cold pack so the insulin is kept cold during shipping - so I know it can be done - but be sure to ask the online store that ships the nematodes, because if they are not kept cold, they will die and will not work.

It just looks like a container of dirt, but when you get them home (keep them in the fridge till you put them on your yard), you follow the instructions, which is to put water in the dirt, let it sit for a while and then strain the water into a sprayer and spray onto your yard. Then water them in. Also, put them on in the cool of the morning or evening - not the heat of the day. Water the yard good so that they soak down into the soil. It will take a week or 2 but viola! no more fleas in your yard and no more fire ants for those of you living in the south.

I've used them for 5 years and have only had to have an occasional dawn bath to kill a flea or two on our 4 dogs who are in and out all the time.

Another thing you can do if you have a neighbor with a flea infested yard and the fleas are coming across to your yard. Sprinkle diatamacious earth (DE) around the perimeter of your yard - between your yard and theirs. You also get DE at an organic nursery. DE is not harmful to the animals but will kill the fleas. It sounds wierd, but DE is actually finely ground seashells and so when the fleas walk through it, it cuts their legs and their body fluid runs out and they die (yuk). It does have to be reapplied after a rain or watering.

The borax carpet treatment also works - but the BEST thing is to rip up your carpets - which we did a few years ago. WONDERFUL!!! Why didn't I do it YEARS ago?????

I am very interested in treating my yard with these things! How much do these things cost, if you don't mind me asking?? Thanks for the GREAT info!