With you there, DCnDC! Before DE (food version - just in case someone didn’t read the above) I would do the water thing. Fiance splits them between her nails but (a) I’m crap at that and (b) I usually drop them or they hop out. Difference is that they’ll swim around in the water happily for days, and hop out if they get ANY traction, like once the water evaporates down a little in the Texas heat and leaves something on the glass’s side they can grab to. In DE there’s no hopping out cus they can only hop maybe an inch, and they’re dead in hours. And during that time instead of watching them having nice ‘pool time’, I get to watch them dragging their tiny little ba@#%rd selves around like they’re crippled. 
Yeah you have to kind of poke at them to keep them underwater, and then they drown in about 30 seconds.
CDnDC - oh! Something new every day!! <<http://www.richsoil.com/diatomaceous-earth.jsp>>. Completely non-toxic.Non-pesticidal. Impervious to tolerance-building as it’s a physical killing. For the poster above that didn’t want toxic answers.
There’s a life cycle involved, which means that, while you may have killed adults with your initial application of Frontline, you probably didn’t get the eggs… which hatched 2-3 weeks later, giving you a fresh new crop of fleas to contend with.
I recommend a shotgun approach and find you have to continue doing these things pretty much about once a month during the entire flea season.
•First, treat all pets in the house. Frontline, Advantage, Comfortis, Capstar, Trifexis, whathaveyou. Get a recommendation from your vet. (I use Trifexis for fleas and heartworms.) At the same time…
•Run all the pet bedding and anywhere they sleep through the washer in super hot water. I add Borax to any pet laundry because it kills fleas dead.
• Vacuum daily. Again, Borax to the rescue: I sprinkle it liberally on any rug, couch, or cushion that cannot be run through a washer. On the main rug, I get the dog to walk around a bit to rub the Borax into the carpet, then vacuum up.
•Dissolve some Borax in hot water and wash down anything that couldn’t be cleaned with the previous two steps. I use a Borax solution to mop my floors because also, cockroaches don’t like it. Kills them too. It’s also harmless to the critters if they are floor lickers like mine are.
•Maybe use a bottle of Frontline spray on any fabric in any room where the animals might be.
•Call a pest control company and have them spray outside, all around your house, but especially in any grassy areas where your pets hang out. You could probably also find some sort of bug killer at a home supply store and spray your yard yourself.
•Use a flea comb or a nit comb and go over the critters every day. Be sure to kill anything you get out. I use a dish soap and water solution, but I see upthread vinegar solution would work, as would, I imagine, a Borax solution.
•If you have a really bad problem, (I did this once – ugh), in a darkened room, shine a light on a bowl of soapy water. For some reason, the fleas are attracted to the light, jump into the bowl, drown and die.
•When you are through vacuuming, make sure you empty the vacuum cleaner carefully – you don’t want unhatched eggs hatching inside your vacuum cleaner. :eek:
If I think of anything else, I’ll come back to post.
Interesting topic we all have to contend with. I’ve read hundreds of posts on dozens of sites on flea infestations, on whether or not Frontline/Advantage are working and fleas becoming immune to these products. I don’t see any substantiated evidence to confirm this to date. There’s a lot going on in the bigger scheme of things, that causes people to jump to conclusions without any empirical data to show causality. Generally, flea infestations are functionally multiple generations being at different points in the life cycle (adults, freshly laid eggs, newly hatched eggs, repeat).
If the pet was treated, a spray containing the anti-growth hormone (my preference, used inside, and of course intense vacuuming and washing of textile products), the only possible vector of new contamination comes from outdoors–something you have almost no control over. Frustratingly, upon the sight of an adult flea, most people will conclude ‘the Frontline is not working’ or similar. Short of spraying the immediate outdoor environment (after all, that’s where the fleas came from in the first place), the pet will continue to bring in new adult fleas with every outing. I personally have an opposition to this scorched earth policy of dousing the backyard with a neurotoxin who’s long term effects are unknown, with the killing of beneficial insects, and worry about the toxic after effects on my kids when they play in the grass and dirt. I look forward to the onslaught of winter’s colder temperatures and a natural lowering of the flea population. Until then, I’ll continue to fight the battle.
Is it possible to fleabomb the house? The residual insecticide should work for around three months, preventing new generations of fleas from hatching in the first place.
This is exactly what I’ve done in the past when fleas were bad. Treat the cats (Advantage is my preference), get the cats out, close everything up tights and bomb every single room (even the basement and attic–I’m not taking any chances!). Come home and air out the house and vacuum every where, including furniture. Dispose of the vacuum bag outside immediately.
This usually takes care of any flea problems. However, don’t wait until a house is infested–that just makes it harder to get rid of them.
I had a horrible flea infestation because all me neighbors had outside dogs and didn’t seem to do anything to control them. I used boric acid on my carpet and was done with fleas completely. I had 4 large dogs at that time. I sprinkled all over the carpet, swept it in and did not vacuum for a week.
Wow, I’m amazed nobody has mentioned Comfortis. It’s a pill that makes them poisonous to fleas for at LEAST a month. It’s kind of a pain in the ass to get them to take it because it smells and tastes terrible, but it gets the job done.
Unfortunately, my local pet store stopped selling it over the counter. I switched to Advantage, but it works for two weeks at the absolute most. They’re due for a vet visit soon so we’ll get some more then.
listedmia, the vet should be able to get you Comfortis, if that is what you want. Or at least a prescription for one, so that you don’t have to use Advantage instead.
Flea problems are actually easy to solve, just like everything else, when you know how.
Diatomaceous earth, FOOD GRADE, is fool proof, non toxic, harmless to pets, humans, plants and gardens. You can sprinkle it inside and outside of the house and mix it into the soil for the ants. It kills all hard shelled pests such as ants and roaches as well as fleas and even bedbugs.
DE is ground up fossil of ancient sea critters called diatoms. It works on hard shelled insects by scratching the exoskeleton and causing them to dehydrate and die. Google it and see all its many uses.
Just be careful not to inhale it or get into your eyes when applying it. You can get it at country-type stores, hardware stores or order it online. DE is cheap but heavy so shipping charges are high. It feels like a fine talc.
I have been flea/ant/roach-free for many years because I use DE inside and out and I have indoor/outdoor fur babies as well as wild critters who visit.
DE doesn’t work instantly because it takes time for the pests to dehydrate so reapply to stop the cycle of reinfestation. Put it on your pets and everywhere the pets go and wherever you are bothered by pests. Once the cycle is broken, you just need to reapply now and then to keep the pests away.
Best of all, you don’t have to poison your pets. I had a dog who got very sick when I used Advantage on her once years ago.
Don’t worry if pets try to lick it off. It’s harmless. Some people even put DE into smoothies and use it as a laxative.
Be sure that the package says food grade on it. This is not the same stuff that is used for the pool.
HTH
I used Frontline and found it made no difference whatsoever to fleas on my dog. I requested a refund and couldn’t get one so was out of pocket and still had to deal with fleas.
I bought some Advantage - and it worked PERFECTLY.