Flea season

[SAMIAM]

Just winding down a wicked battle with fleas. Both kitties were scratching like crazy so we went to the vet and they were loaded. They are outside cats and Dr A said that, due to the weather this year, he's had big problems with fleas on all of his animals.
Anyway.......after 10 weeks and three Frontline treatments each, I think we have a handle on it. We've used flea powder throughout the house and even outside where they hang out. Also, brush them daily and use spray directly on the cats when needed.
Every time I think I have it liked another flea shows up.Arrgghhh.
Two days now we've been ok......wish me luck.

[Rusty]

Fall is peak flea and tick season.

A female flea can lay about 50 eggs a day. These are deposited on our pets' skin, and, as they walk around the house, the eggs fall off. This starts the life cycle all over again. The eggs, larvae and pupae are in our carpeting and the cushions of our chairs and couches and in the cracks in our hardwood floors. Most of the flea population in a house will be found where pets spend most of their time (on the couch, around the cat or dog's bed, etc.). It is a myth that the adult flea spends time off the pet - they have no use for our houses - they need to feed, so they stay on our pets.

[wifi]

This year is the first time I have had fleas on my cat(s) in about 25 years back, when I had some construction sand delivered and the eggs were in that. They are a bear to get rid of this year.

[magicrobotmonkey]

Yea they were bad this year. One of our cats had a UTI and I think it made him more susceptible because we got back from a long weekend and he was losing hair and COVERED in fleas. They were jumping off him onto the other cat and dog too. It's been a long battle since then, but I think we've got them licked for this year. One thing you might want to try is diatomaceous earth. It's a type of small fossil that kills fleas physically instead of chemically by cutting up their carapace or something. We have kids so wanted to avoid chemicals in the house so we got some of this and periodically sprinkled it on the animals and along the bottoms of the walls in the rooms where the animals spend most of their time. It really worked great!

[wifi]

Yea they were bad this year. One of our cats had a UTI and I think it made him more susceptible because we got back from a long weekend and he was losing hair and COVERED in fleas. They were jumping off him onto the other cat and dog too. It's been a long battle since then, but I think we've got them licked for this year. One thing you might want to try is diatomaceous earth. It's a type of small fossil that kills fleas physically instead of chemically by cutting up their carapace or something. We have kids so wanted to avoid chemicals in the house so we got some of this and periodically sprinkled it on the animals and along the bottoms of the walls in the rooms where the animals spend most of their time. It really worked great!

I've read about this, where can you get this locally ?

[Belmont Resident]

First tick this year that attached itself to me. Go figure it had to turn out to be a deer tick. I only hope it was disease free.

[SteveA]

I've read about this, where can you get this locally ?

We got it at Agway in Gilford.
More info here.. funny, the guy at Agway told me he has several customers that buy it to eat it!

http://www.richsoil.com/diatomaceous-earth.jsp

We had a miserable flea season also, helped by didn't completely eliminate them. Frontline helped.

[Belmont Resident]

We got it at Agway in Gilford.
More info here.. funny, the guy at Agway told me he has several customers that buy it to eat it!

http://www.richsoil.com/diatomaceous-earth.jsp

We had a miserable flea season also, helped by didn't completely eliminate them. Frontline helped.

I may be wrong but I seem to remember this as the same named product we used in our pool filter.

Yup, after reading the whole article is is the same product different grade.
Interesting read.

[SAMIAM]

Thanks for the tip on DE........will definately pick some up.

[PaugusBayFireFighter]

I have a couple of friends, both extremely healthy middle age men, who ingest food grade diatomaceous earth daily and swear by it. I question supplements that make claims without strong studies and years of use to determine long term effects. Bottom line, as time goes on, long term effects of some "wonder" drugs and supplements can rear their ugly head. I'm wary of eating diatomaceous earth, but my two buddies say their cholesterol and blood pressure decreased, and their colon is a lot happier. Diatomaceous earth is a very hard substance. On a hardness scale, diamonds are a 9 and diatomaceous earth is a 7. The grains are cylindrical, full of holes, shaped like Rice Chex cereal. The advocates claim as these hard cylinders pass through the digestive tract they "scrub" the walls, absorbing endotoxins, pesticides and drug residues. In theory this makes us "healthier" by allowing nutrients to enter the bloodstream easier via the digestive tract.

Back to the fleas. We have 3 outdoor cats and 2 dogs that wander mainly on our property. This year we have been very lucky avoiding any flea problems. The landscapers use a lot of lime on the grass and this is said to kill most lawn pests, including fleas. It's also safe for the pets. I'm not sure if we have just been lucky or the lime has killed the fleas. All three cats sleep in our bed (I'm sure they think it's THEIR bed and they would say WE sleep with them) so any flea problem would be a huge problem for all of us!
Hopefully the recent cold nights have helped a lot to kill the flea eggs.

[SIKSUKR]

Curious about the comment that fleas need pets around to survive. My cat was put down a few months ago and I seem to have fleas still around. Or maybe there are something else? I'm about ready to use one of those bombs.

Just looked and apparently fleas don't fly? Wiki said they are wingless and the little buggers I have walk a little and fly. No bigger than the point of a half dull pencil. Any guesses?

[SAMIAM]

OK...here we go....... Got a bag of food grade DE and rubbed it all over both kitties. Hopefully, they'll spread it around where they hang out and sleep.

[Rusty]

Curious about the comment that fleas need pets around to survive. My cat was put down a few months ago and I seem to have fleas still around. Or maybe there are something else? I'm about ready to use one of those bombs.

Just looked and apparently fleas don't fly? Wiki said they are wingless and the little buggers I have walk a little and fly. No bigger than the point of a half dull pencil. Any guesses?

Could be fruit flies. If you have fruit or anything sweet that they can get at, they will get on them and multiply very quickly. They will fly in front of your face and drive you crazy. Don't leave fruit out to ripen, and don't leave anything sweet exposed so they can lay their eggs on them.

For some reason there are a lot of them this year...around my house anyway.

[SIKSUKR]

Thanks Rusty. My partner had the same response. I thought fruit flies were larger. I don't have any fruit outside of my fridge so not sure what they are eating. They have been around for many months and I see them here at work which makes me wonder if they are hanging around me?:laugh:

[SAMIAM]

Huge thanks to Magicrobotmonkey and Stevea for the tip on DE.........I rubbed it all over my kitties(not around the face because it is abrasive)and those little buggers are finally gone.I tried everything and nothing worked until I used the DE.Makes sense.If you rub down your pets,they take it to their sleeping areas and places that they hang out.