ground fleas ?

[junglemac]

whoha...Went down to the pool yesterday. and was suddenly covered in these little black dots. After some research I figure it must be ground fleas. We live in a rental property, old queenslander style house, and the owner has HEAPS of stuff in the garage and under the house, which backs on to the pool area. In the front yard I did not see any....yet, but out the back, and onto my deck there are heaps. Most pest control companies say you can`t deal with it yourself, but is it a way?, Should I spray outside, back to front and perhaps inside aswell? Need to take the reptiles elsewhere off course...but help, what to do ? And is this on my pocket or should the owner take this bill ? We been here for 6 months now.

 

[Sezzzzzzzzz]

i think that because you have pets in the property, its likely that you would be expected to be responsible for fleas. I have heard that putting lime down can kill fleas, but I am not sure about any possible harm that it could cause to your other pet. Also ask your vet.

 

[JAS101]

i dont think u could 100% get rid of the fleas being that they are out side .
the warm weather brings them out a lot more

 

[snakeynewbie]

They lay eggs in the dirt and when the warm weather hits they hatch. If you keep your pets treated with something like advantage or frontline and suggest your neighbors do the same it will make a dent in their population as they won't have anything safe t feed on. Use the frontline spray and put it on any soft furnishings you find fleas on around the house

 

[Sezzzzzzzzz]

We have started using a new product on the dogs for fleas this year as lasst years fleas didnt seem to be deterred by Frontline anymore. Its called Comfortis and its in tablet form. slightly more expensive than frontline, but we put it on the dogs on sunday (the fleas had a good hold on them after i left for a 2 week holiday and forgot to ask the pet sitter if he could frontline them) and by that night everything was dead and the dogs had stopped scratching.

 

[thepythonguy]

Not sure if this would work outside but it worked under a house we moved into which had thousands of flea's. All i did was sprinkle salt over the ground every couple of days worked on a couch as well that we had outside not sure bout it working on the ground tho. Salt dries the flea's out and kills them worked with in a couple of weeks

 

[Bel03]

We have started using a new product on the dogs for fleas this year as lasst years fleas didnt seem to be deterred by Frontline anymore. Its called Comfortis and its in tablet form. slightly more expensive than frontline, but we put it on the dogs on sunday (the fleas had a good hold on them after i left for a 2 week holiday and forgot to ask the pet sitter if he could frontline them) and by that night everything was dead and the dogs had stopped scratching.

I have just started using Comfortis for my dogs also, cause i had the same problem, although i was using Advocate instead of Frontline, but it 2 no longer seemed to be working. One of our dogs has a SEVERE allergy to fleas, he gets mange if even one flea lands on him, but after 2 treatments of Comfortis, so far so good! Lime does kill ground fleas, but im almost positive it shouldnt be used around cats & dogs.

 

[Sezzzzzzzzz]

Fleas in the ground! What kills them ? - quicksales Forum

bel is 100% right about the lime, I did a quick google and found that out , but there is another product in the link i have posted that might be worth a go...

 

[junglemac]

yeah...both my cat and dog are on frontline plus, and have been on the product since 4 weeks old. My dog first had a flea problem since moving here. The thing is the problem area is non access for dog and cat, only people.....and off course rodents as have been a problem since moving in. The rodent problem is actually on my entry report, and I asked for pest control when moving in, I believe it must be the rodents moving these suckers around, as if any rat or mice venture into where the dog is, their gone. Do these ground fleas also live in wood? We have timber deck at the back, and I really dont want them on there, allthough I seen a few there too

 

[Sezzzzzzzzz]

if animals arent using the area thn you can put lime down.

if you reported the rodents then I assume the real estate would have to do the pests control for them. Fleas dont require animals to carry them around. I am pretty sure they can lie dormant in the ground until the weather heats up, hence you are only just noticing them now.

 

[Bluetonguesblack]

Try laundry powder broken down in water and then spray around effected areas where infestations are at. Worked for me once when i had them real bad under my house. Surprised me !!. Ross

 

[Kitah]

Only a tiny fraction of fleas actually live on cats and dogs- the vast majority are present in the ground. And yes, they can live between floorboards, depending on the width of the gaps between the boards (if fairly wide, the eggs may fall through to the ground beneath, but if the boards are 'touching' (i.e. verynarrow gap between) the flea eggs and larvae can live in there.

As to the enviornment.. I'm not sure whether you can get insecticides, such as insect growth regulators in a spray form to spray the problematic areas as required. You could consider asking your local landscaping supply or even local produce store as they may have some ideas.

The best product out at the moment for fleas on dogs is comfortis (and I do believe that from the start of next year they're going to try and get this registered for cats aswell), or panoramis- panoramis is a new tablet (only just became available) with the same ingredient as comfortis, in addition to milbemycin which also controls intestinal parasites and heartworm- so the one once monthly tablet does fleas, heartworm and intestinal worms (except for tapeworms- praziquantal is required if these are a problem. However, the main tapeworm in dogs is Dipylidium caninum which is transmitted by ingesting the 'carrier' which are fleas. So, by superb control of fleas, the risk of these is reduced. If a dog eats frogs, geckos etc they can pick up Spirometra tapeworms as well which need an even larger dose of praziquantal to kill). Panoramis is actually slightly cheaper than sentinel, which is a similar product that does fleas, heartworm and intestinalworms, however sentinel is only a growth regulator- stops adult fleas from breeding, it doesnt kill them. Anyway sorry for going a bit off topic. I hope you can get a handle on the infestation, they're horrid to deal with.

If you used something like comfortis or panoramis, one thing you could then try is walking your dog through your problem areas- the motion, heat, 'scent' of the dog will be detected and trigger hatching of eggs, development of larvae and fleas jumping on the dog. However, because panoramis and comfortis are so effective- they will kill the fleas very, very promptly. Or even just walk through there every now and then to trigger eggs to hatch etc and then treat with environmental treatments (insecticides for example) - it'll generally make them more susceptible once they're out of the eggs.

Something else too- Warm, moist conditions = superb for fleas! So they'll only get worse through the wet season and with the lovely warmth we get. However there is a limit to this- if it gets too hot (happens occ. in QLD. depends on where you are) you can get reduced flea numbers again because its too hot for them.

Its best to get control of them ASAP to drop their numbers now- otherwise they will exponentially increase in numbers as the environment changes to their favour at this time of year!

 

[phantomreptiles]

There are some spray products that help with ground probs.
Most can be purchased from a produce store as they are used alot for hens etc, one I think was called coopex? It was a powder that had to be reconstituted and then sprayed.
I agree 100% with kitah, but would add you must treat every animal not just the ones scratching. (including cats with a CAT treatment)
I had to deal with a similar prob when I moved into a shared home, other flatmate had two rotties never treated for fleas, my dog has a flea allergy.....
permoxin spray for the two rotties every week, combined with capstar every day for one wk and then every 3 days for six weeks. Advantage for my dog every two weeks (now comfortis, was before it was available)
Coopex spray around whole yard every week for a month, tossed out all the rotten wood that was there.
Vacuumed everyday, washed my dogs bedding every wk (rotties were not allowed inside)
And being realistic it can take many, many months to get under control, there are no overnight cures......:-(
Finally no more fleas...