Monday, August 03, 2009

At my wits end.. and.. my giveaway winner!

First I will post the winner.. which is 'anonymous' but she left me her email address! So congrats whoever you are! lol I will call you dal2 for the beginning of your email address. :) Sorry I am 3 days late posting the winner!

Now, why am I at my wits end? you may be wondering. I usually try to keep this blog pretty upbeat but I don't know what to do. We are having a major flea problem in our house and my daughter and I are getting eaten alive. We slacked off flea-treating our dog during the colder months(will NEVER do that again) and now the fleas are back in full force. We have started treating our dog again, and also giving him brewer's yeast and garlic pills. My husband is not being very supportive otherwise in my efforts to get rid of the fleas. They don't bite him. And he is under the mistaken impression that when the weather gets colder the fleas will go away. First of all, if our house is nice and warm I am sure they will stay. Secondly, I DON'T WANT TO WAIT THAT LONG. I AM ITCHY!!!! My daughter's bites are not as frequent as they were thank goodness but she is still suffering a bit. I, on the other hand, am ashamed to show my legs/feet in public! I haven't even tried to count all the bites I have. But enough of my complaining. I need help, advice, whatever has worked for you if you have ever had fleas in your home. We used flea bombs once before a while back and I think they worked but I really don't remember. The problem we have too is that our dog is old. He is 15 and his back legs are not working very well so it will be hard to take him anywhere- getting him in the car is feasible but where do we take him? It is very hot outside. Plus it is very humid here and I don't know if opening the windows after we bomb would work well. I have tried salt in my carpets. I am trying to vacuum more often. I am just a little nervous about using chemicals due to my kids, and the fact that we will have trouble keeping the dog out for long periods. The 'natural' products that I have found kill fleas on contact but do not continue to kill them for prolonged periods, and I don't think an exterminator would fit into our budget right now, especially if they have to make routine visits. I am just really getting depressed about all this. I feel like we will never get rid of them. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

6 comments:

Carolyn NC said...

I don't know how you feel about permethrin (I think), but they have it generically (and very inexpensively) that you put on your size dog once a month. I've used in on both of our dogs and never had a problem.
As for your house, I don't how easy it is to get this stuff now and you may want to leave your house for a little while, but it sure used to work.
We lived in an apartment with shag carpet (remember when?) and then a home with thick carpet. We had a problem with it in both places. We shook Sevin Dust (pesticide for roses) all over the house and let it sit awhile and then came and dusted and vaccuumed it all up. We didn't then, but I'd suggest in today's time to wear gloves and a mask. (We even put it on our cats at the time- guess we just didn't think too hard). Someone had told us to use this stuff and it really did work. We did two flea bombs - not much help. Never had another problem after the Sevin dust. Good luck!

Anonymous said...

Hi I'm the annonymous winner. My name is Debbie. I'm so excited that I won, I never win. Thank you so much. Appreciate it.

And I'm so sorry you are having trouble at your house.

Hugs,
Debbie, KY

Kathy said...

I know one thing that will kill the fleas right away. Believe it or not. Palmolive dishwashing detergent. Before I used the flea treatments I would bath the dog in Palmolive every two weeks. We rarely ever had fleas in the house.

Maybe you could find a friends place to stay in for the day and bomb the house real early in the morning?

Other than the palmolove trick and bombing I can't think of anything else to do for the problem. Good luck.

I'll be checking back to see if others have any good advice.

Unknown said...

We had the same problem last summer when it was so hot...we used 20-Mule Team Borax laundry soap on the carpets and Joy dish soap on the dogs and cat. It worked like a champ and there were no problems with my allergies. You can find the Borax at Walmart in the laundry aisle. Just sprinkle it heavily on the carpet before bed, let it sit overnight, then vacumm it in the morning very thoroughly...be sure to throw the vacumm bag or dump and clean the canister in your outside trash can. Repeat this once a week for 2-3 weeks. It takes about 7-10 days for the flea eggs to hatch, so you want to repeat it a few times as the Borax only kills the adults, not the eggs. Like Pamolive, the Joy detergent kills the adult fleas on the pets. I bathed them every few days during the carpet treatment cycle and that did the trick. Terminex also has a good product that is not too expensive if this doesn't work...about $99 I think...but, it is pretty toxic and you and the animals have to be out of the home for about 3-4 hours for it to dry. I only use that if it is a massive problem. I sure hope you can find some relief quickly...good luck!

Michelle said...

Sorry to hear about the flea problem. You might search online for some non-chemical options. I think Brewer's yeast is a good one that you mentioned. I hope you get it sorted out!

g-girl said...

oh, that's awful about the fleas. it seems as though you've got a load of experts that read your blog though so you'll be okay. i haven't any sage advice to share with you. sorry. :(

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