You may be thinking, “Enough about fleas!” But if a flea was good enough for a John Donne poem, and that poem was worthy of two days’ discussion in a sophomore English lit class…
I have discovered a bio-friendly and apparently effective way to fight fleas in the yard (which is the only way to keep the bastards out of the house). Here’s what I read online, courtesy of PETA:
Products containing beneficial nematodes (micro-organisms that eat flea larvae) can be sprayed on lawns and, unlike many toxic treatments, are perfectly safe for animals, birds, and humans, as well as “friendly” garden dwellers like earthworms and ladybugs. Brand names such as Bio Flea Halt!, Biosys, and Interrupt! can be found in pet stores and in the lawn and garden sections of hardware stores and supermarkets.
Sounds wonderful. Except that Petco, Petsmart, Home Depot, Lowe’s, and the Garden Center have no such products, and I can’t seem to find a place to order them online. Anyone familiar with these brands or know a chain that carries them?
PETA, don’t get me started on those blathering hypocrites.
I tried using nematodes once back in my former life. IIRC, they need to be kept moist in order to stay alive and eating. So…that drought we’re having? Not gonna help.
I hate to say it, but what finally did the trick for both the indoor/outdoor dog and the indoor cats? Advantage. So far, it’s been the only product that has worked as advertised. Our flea-fested pets were pretty well flea free within 24 hours. Yes, it does wash off, BUT if you bathe the dog weekly (and ask your vet about this to be sure), you can reapply Advantage 7 days after the last application if it’s been washed off. You can give Frontline a try, but it didn’t work as well for us as Advantage did. YMMV.
Ooh, and to answer your first question, I think we picked up the nematodes at C&D Hardware in the Heights. If that fails? Try to order “beneficial nematodes” online. If you want to attempt to use the exact products endorsed by the blathering hypocrites at PETA, you might want to contact them.
The girls use Frontline now; I don’t remember if we tried Advantage before. At our last vet visit, we were told that overbathing them exacerbates the problem, and that they should get only one bath midway between their monthly applications of Frontline.
We can generally get the dogs okay, and even win rounds of battles over the house. But we can’t stop the rats, cats, and squirrels from transporting fleas into the yard, and I can’t stand filling the yard with poisons. Plus I think all these insecticides will damage my dogs, and that freaks me out.
Maybe I’ll ask the vet to switch to Advantage from Frontline.
Usually the trouble starts when the fleas from the backyard are transported into the house on the indoor/outdoor pets. If something like Advantage or Frontline works to keep the fleas off, they won’t come into the house. At least, that’s how it worked for us. We never treated the yard again.
I’m not saying NOT to try the nematodes. If you want to spray the yard, that’s the way to try to go. I’m just saying that it was hard for us to keep the yard moist enough considering our scorching summers.
Thank you so much, Rhonda, for your help! C&D Hardware didn’t have the nematodes (but what a cool store, like Southland Hardware), so they sent me to Buchanan’s Plants just down the street from them, who did. So I found two interesting new places. I really liked the woman at Buchanan’s, and she said she uses nematodes and they will work as long as we water every night, until we start getting rain again. It’s definitely worth a try, because it’s safe.
I really think the problem is caused by the rats and the opossums more than the dogs, who are just victims. And in a pier and beam house, anything can be under us. Not to mention there is no telling how many entrances there are into our attic space. If I want to live in a 80-year-old house (and I do!), I’m going to end up sharing it with wildlife, one way or another. And I don’t mean Tim.
So the dogs are vetted, the house and apartment have been fogged (thanks, Lindsey), and the yard is our last defense. I just can’t stand using any more poison, because I feel sorry for our animals.
Aren’t the silver-haired guys at C&D awesome? I loved that place when I lived in the Heights. They know everything an old house needs! And Buchanan’s is a really cool, hippy place…and now I think that’s where we bought the nematodes in the first place!