My Dog Lacey

Fleas, fleas, fleas — do they ever go away or even just get managed?? Here’s the beginning of the story — yikes! my girl has fleas!, flea control the gentle way, and Advantage, the wonder flea product.

Before I left on my trip, I sprinkled Borax on the carpet in some of the Lacey-frequented rooms (Linda says she’s getting flea bites, and I know there must be fleas in my carpet and in the carpet of the other bedrooms). I was hoping that would kill the ones in the carpet.

I’ve been asking Kevin to spray the backyard with Sunlight (diluted, of course), so maybe he’ll do that while I’m away.

The 2nd day I’m gone, Melissa calls and says she’s got thousands of flea bites on her legs and feet. Interesting, I don’t have a single one! whatever…..

So I’m a thousand miles away trying to think of what to do about the flea problem in the house. No solutions come to mind the whole week. I couldn’t imagine why that Advantage wasn’t working because apparently Lacey still has fleas walking around all over her body.

I get home Sunday night and Alexis tells me the real story of Advantage (which she got from her friend who knows the real story). Advantage works to kill the fleas on a treated animal, but the fleas only die when they bite said treated animal. (As opposed to a flea collar where the chemicals from the collar kill the fleas without them having to bite the animal — I think).

The flea cycle (from laying eggs to hatching, growing, adulthood, death) is 6 weeks or so. So any fleas on Lacey bite her and die. Then the fleas that are in the house jump on her, bite her, and die. As eggs hatch, they look for a host (Lacey or one of the cats) and jump on for the ride. They bite and die from the Advantage. This process continues until all the fleas are gone(either death by borax in the carpet and being vacuumed or biting said treated dog). Basically, Lacey is a flea mop for the house.

Doesn’t seem quite fair, does it?

Oh well. She and the cats brought in the fleas, they can certainly host their extermination. And way better than a chemical bomb in the house, right?

I also read that fleas can be sucked up into a vacuum cleaner bag (using a vacuum cleaner of course). The key is, you have to get rid of the vc bag right away (the web site I was reading talked about burning it. Hm, that’s all I need. To have to tell the fire department and the insurance company that I burned down the house to get rid of the fleas.)

I will bathe her in Sunlight one of these days to get rid of the fleas on her in the moment. And hopefully Kevin will get the yard sprayed before he leaves for a month-long trip. Did I mention that the Sunlight yard bath is also good for roses?

Anyway, I’m determined to get these mongrels under control without harsh chemicals.
Will keep you posted.
Anna

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 16th, 2006 at 4:12 pm and is filed under Health & Nutrition. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Fleas, fleas, fleas — do they ever go away or even just get managed?? Here’s the beginning of the story — yikes! my girl has fleas!, flea control the gentle way, and Advantage, the wonder flea product.

Before I left on my trip, I sprinkled Borax on the carpet in some of the Lacey-frequented rooms (Linda says she’s getting flea bites, and I know there must be fleas in my carpet and in the carpet of the other bedrooms). I was hoping that would kill the ones in the carpet.

I’ve been asking Kevin to spray the backyard with Sunlight (diluted, of course), so maybe he’ll do that while I’m away.

The 2nd day I’m gone, Melissa calls and says she’s got thousands of flea bites on her legs and feet. Interesting, I don’t have a single one! whatever…..

So I’m a thousand miles away trying to think of what to do about the flea problem in the house. No solutions come to mind the whole week. I couldn’t imagine why that Advantage wasn’t working because apparently Lacey still has fleas walking around all over her body.

I get home Sunday night and Alexis tells me the real story of Advantage (which she got from her friend who knows the real story). Advantage works to kill the fleas on a treated animal, but the fleas only die when they bite said treated animal. (As opposed to a flea collar where the chemicals from the collar kill the fleas without them having to bite the animal — I think).

The flea cycle (from laying eggs to hatching, growing, adulthood, death) is 6 weeks or so. So any fleas on Lacey bite her and die. Then the fleas that are in the house jump on her, bite her, and die. As eggs hatch, they look for a host (Lacey or one of the cats) and jump on for the ride. They bite and die from the Advantage. This process continues until all the fleas are gone(either death by borax in the carpet and being vacuumed or biting said treated dog). Basically, Lacey is a flea mop for the house.

Doesn’t seem quite fair, does it?

Oh well. She and the cats brought in the fleas, they can certainly host their extermination. And way better than a chemical bomb in the house, right?

I also read that fleas can be sucked up into a vacuum cleaner bag (using a vacuum cleaner of course). The key is, you have to get rid of the vc bag right away (the web site I was reading talked about burning it. Hm, that’s all I need. To have to tell the fire department and the insurance company that I burned down the house to get rid of the fleas.)

I will bathe her in Sunlight one of these days to get rid of the fleas on her in the moment. And hopefully Kevin will get the yard sprayed before he leaves for a month-long trip. Did I mention that the Sunlight yard bath is also good for roses?

Anyway, I’m determined to get these mongrels under control without harsh chemicals.
Will keep you posted.
Anna

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 16th, 2006 at 4:12 pm and is filed under Health & Nutrition. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.