Fleas Be Gone!

Dog and cat fleas tend to flourish more in the summer as the warm weather affords them the luxury of living happily both indoors and outdoors.

If you find that fleas have become resident in your home, the following steps should help to control an infestation without the need to hire an exterminator.

• Steam clean the carpets. This will remove dried blood, carpet fibres and other debris, diluted excrement, some flea larva and their silk, eggs, pupal cocoons, adults, faeces and other food sources. Note: Most flea larvae coil themselves around carpet fibres and are not easily removed. Carpet is the perfect flea environment!
• Spray pets with a natural flea spray.
• Use a hose-end sprayer and spray your garden with citrus-based oils or soaps or dust with neem seed powder to control outside flea sources.
• Put a goose-neck lamp, 8-10 inches with a green light bulb, over a pan of "fizzy" seltzer water with a few drops of dish soap at night. The fleas are attracted to the heat and carbon dioxide and drown.
• Sprinkle salt where animals lay. Salt dehydrates the fleas and they die.
• A handful of leaves from the black walnut tree, southernwood, rue, camphor, lavender, sage, rosemary, catnip, pennyroyal, eucalyptus, peppermint, feverfew and tansy can be brewed in a tea pot with boiling water. Steep overnight, strain and spray to repel fleas.
• Check for allergies and stains before spraying.

To monitor infestations, slowly walk through suspected areas wearing white knee socks. When the fleas jump on you, you should clearly be able to see them on the socks. Outdoors, organic matter can harbour flea larvae. If you dry out these areas or saturate them with salt water, you will kill flea eggs and larvae.

As a last resort spray food-grade diatomaceous earth, using a dust mask and goggles, to the carpeting, litter boxes, roosts, bedding, furniture and other areas your pet frequents. Then rub some dust or diluted DE through your pet's fur to the skin, especially on the scalp and tail, behind the neck and in any area where your pet can't bite or scratch. Caution: Diatomaceous earth can dry out your pet's skin, so lightly use it and no more than once a month.

Article provided by Dynamic Pest Control