I think one of the problems seems to be this: “These are quick kill and break down in light or with oxygen, they break down quickly”, I am using and have been using several different soaps/shampoos, the best being the line from Bayer Germany, but I could imagine that a Borax solution would be more effective because of it’s way of action, anything to add to that?
Wash the dogs with Head & Shoulders shampoo. Kills fleas Instantly! I’ve been using it on my dogs for years with no harm.
Simple Mind, I am not sure we are understanding each other, so I am going to give some Pest Management 101.
“Pests” are about 1% of the insect/arthropod population, as a general rule we do not want to kill the other 99%. Australia may be an exception to this ratio 
Boric Acid and Diatomaceous Earth are great preventative treatments because they have very high LD 50s, but they are very slow kill. They will get the random bugs that wander into your house but once you have an infestation they are unlikely to fix it. These products do kill just about every “bug” they come in contact with but with proper application are unlikely to kill “Good Bugs” like Honey Bees.
Chemical treatments, modern chemistry brought us some really great pest management tools like Organophosphate Pesticides.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Organophosphate
But they come with a few downsides, low LD 50s, a tendency to stick around for long periods of time and to runoff into streams, rivers and lakes. These chemicals get into the food chain and this can have serious consequences for Humans and other Animals.
Chemistry advanced and brought a new set of pest management tools, hormones that are specific to insects like insect growth regulators
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Insect_growth_regulator
and Pyrethrins (probably in use for thousands of years locally), which are very powerful neurotoxins but break down quickly, thus are safer if used properly.
The chemistry has advanced since I worked in the industry and I am not current but the idea is still the same, kill the pest while doing the least harm to everything else.
I know nothing about Mange except it makes dogs miserable and is hard to treat.
I only know about pest management uses for Boric Acid, I wish someone would explain why it gets blood and other stains out of laundry.
As to the OP, I seriously doubt that Boric Acid is some sort of magic cure all, it is pretty useful in the ways described by myself and other above.
Capt
If you suspect that you have fleas nesting off of your dog, but you don’t know where, you might want to try a flea bomb or fogger. That said, I’ve heard that they can nest outdoors, too. Are there any places outdoors that your dog uses as a resting spot?
LD50 isn’t the whole story about toxicity, either. Maybe a particular substance has a high LD50 because it tends to make you throw up most of it before it can kill you, for instance. Something doesn’t have to kill you to make you wish that it had.
Not really. I have 4 dogs (I know), two who are about 13 years old, one who’s about 6 and one who’s about 3 (they’re all rescues, so it’s hard to know for sure). The two old ones go out and pee and come back in. They don’t much like being outside. The two younger ones will go out and run around and play a bit, but rarely for more than 10 minutes or so. And they are running and barking at squirrels that whole time, not resting. Nevertheless, we spray the yard with flea killing stuff because the vet said it was a good idea.
Most of our house is hardwood, which I vacuum regularly. I also mop it, but I confess, that is less regular. We also have a rug in the living room they lay on, in addition to the couch, which I keep covered with a blanket at all times. The blanket gets washed at least once a week. Oh, and there’s carpet in my bedroom which they sleep on (I’m planning on ripping it out as soon as I can afford to replace it with wood). All those soft surfaces are regularly vacuumed, and I also sprayed them with flea spray a couple weeks ago, again at the recommendation of my vet. I still don’t know exactly what I’m looking for, but I never see fleas in these places, and I did spray them with flea spray. And, yes, I took the blanket off the couch and sprayed underneath the cushions and on all the cushion surfaces.
The dogs have less fleas now, but they still have fleas, and not an insignificant number. It is driving me absolutely batty.
eta: I also give the dogs Frontline monthly, of course. The thing that pisses me off is that I feel like I’m doing everything I should (and in fact, my vet agrees I am) and THEY ARE STILL HERE!!! And people I know with dogs don’t spend nearly this much time on flea prevention, and their dogs aren’t always scratching! So what am I doing wrong???
Ran out of edit time: I also use a flea comb on them. It doesn’t seem to help much, but I do like to watch them die.
Most LD-50s are determined with rats. Rats can’t vomit.
You are correct, I was trying to not write an essay. Both Boric Acid and Dia Earth have been ingested by me, in small amounts, to demonstrate their safety.
Capt
I feel your pain. Fleas are very difficult to get rid of and it sounds like you are doing the right things. The key to getting rid of fleas is breaking the life cycle, you have to treat yard, dogs and house every two weeks for at least three times to kill them all. The eggs of fleas are unlikely to be harmed by pesticides, so you have to kill them after they hatch. Hence the every two weeks thing.
It seems that you are winning the war, keep it up and victory shall be yours. Remember to vacuum after treatment and get rid of the bag every time.
Capt
:smack:
Jeeeeeeeez. Thanks for correcting me, and double-thanks for the rest of your post, which was very informative!
I am glad to be of help, the image of bugs slowly and painfully dying pleases me to no end. You are welcome.
Capt