Tuesday, April 5, 2011

Flea Management

I have 2 dogs and I live in Florida. Now that Winter is over, the flea population is skyrocketing due to the nice warm weather. So it is time for me to pull out all my flea killing gear and prepare. I follow a 3 step process to get rid of fleas.

Three steps to being flea free:
1. Treat inside of the home, especially carpeted areas
2. Treat your pets and put them on a regular flea regimen.
3. My dogs go to the bathroom outside so I need to treat those areas too.

Step 1: Treating your home
I steam clean all my carpets and any furniture that is made with fabric. This gets rid of a lot of the fleas. After everything is dry, I spray all the carpets and furniture with this product: Enforcer Flea Spray for Homes, except the one I buy has a spray hose and nozzle attached to the top.

This is supposed to last for 6 months I think. But the fleas are in such abundance here in Florida that I usually steam clean everything and apply this product like every 2 months. Make sure if you use it more often than said in the instructions, that you do steam clean out the old chemicals before adding more to it.

Step 2: Treating your pets
I buy all my flea medications from this website: http://piccardmeds4pets.com/Default.aspx
I like Frontline and I know it works because my dogs have no fleas when I use this. Of course I wonder why is it so cheap? It sells for at least $50 for a one month application in my local pet stores. I have done research about fake Frontline and Advantage being imported from Asia and Europe and sold cheap here in the U.S. I took a chance and tested it out for myself. Even if the product is a fake, it still works. I save tons of money buying from this website, especially since I have 2 dogs. So far my dogs have not had any reactions or complications from this stuff. I have been using their Frontline for over 8 months now. If anyone ever tries this company out please let me know if it worked for you.

Step 3: Treating your lawn

Again, I went to my local Home Depot and bought an insecticidal lawn treatment that comes in small pellets. It looks like fertilizer and your supposed to spread it around your lawn with a fertilizer broadcast spreader.It kills a variety of insects, just make sure you get the one that kills fleas. I could not find a photo of it online, sorry. This is also supposed to last several months according to the directions. But, I live in Florida it rains almost every other day now that summer time is approaching. This stuff does not last that long for me. I've had it on my lawn for about 2 months now and it has worn off by now.

I have tried several products to control fleas and this is the best and proven way to get rid of them.

9 comments:

  1. Arg I hate fleas..my dog used to have a ton. Nice article though.

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  2. My dog is usually fine with just the flea medecine. Never had any problems

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  3. my dogs have never had a flea problem but ticks are another story

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  4. i need some of this. I really have an issue

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  5. Thanks for the tips, if I had a dog I'd use them. I've got cats with fleas though. Gonna have to work on that.

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  6. Pretty thorough. I've never treated outside though, because it seems futile.

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