How to get rid of flea's.?

Question

I was wondering how I would go about getting rid of flea's. What products would you recommend me getting to fully remove fleas from my home. How much of each product should I look into getting; with 2 labs and a yorkie. I also have 2 ferrets that I believe have a few fleas now as well.

Answer 1

I HIGHLY recommend "Frontline". It's available for dogs and cats. (smaller animals) It's a little pricey, but SO worth it. It's easy to apply and harmless to your pets. It gets rid of fleas on their bodies AND wherever they walk and hang out. Indoors AND outdoors! It's great!! And it's waterproof!

Answer 2

Frontline them all. There are specific packages based on the weight of your dog. Ferrets can also use frontline but i would contact your vet.
Frontline or Advantage work as a topical preventions you apply it between the shoulders once a month. It won't kill the adults but in a few days they will be dead and no more fleas can attach to your dog. In the meantime vacuum like crazy especially where they sleep. Also no flea baths, they don't work with frontline and they only get rid of the ones on the dog and doesn't prevent reinfection. Don't worry about bombing your house if your pets are treated and you vacuum you will be fine. Dog and cat fleas won't infect humans.

Answer 3

Frontline for the dogs. Not sure about the ferrets. I would ask a vet about them. As for fleas in the rest of the house, use boric acid. It's in powder form. It's mostly used to kill roaches. Sprinkle it over all carpeting and then push it into the carpet with a broom. Sprinkle it on furniture also. Push it into the fabric. Leave it be for 10-14 days. Then vacuum everything. Make sure you empty the vacuum cleaner bag afterwards. Also, wash all bedding, especially dog bedding, in hot water.

We had a terrible flea problem last summer. We tried everything. Boric acid was the only thing that finally got rid of them.

Good luck.

Answer 4

Frontline your animals. Wash the bedding and flea bomb the house. I used flea bombs a couple of times and they worked really well. You might need more than one depending on how bad the infestation is. You just need to leave the house for a couple of hours, place the bombs in strategic spots in the home. Close the doors where you don't want it to go. Remove pets until it's over. You come back, there is no smell but you open windows anyway, and do a vacuumm. It worked for me.

Oh..and the bombs also kill any other crawlies that may be around.

Answer 5

For ferrets I think there is only 2 kinds, the bio spot made for ferrets, which my vet said it was too harsh for ferrets. The other kind is Marshall's ferret flea&tick spray, use that.

For your dogs, use what you were using before, or what really works good is that flea&tick spray that the vet uses. they sell it too. You spray it on daily until the fleas are gone. I've used the vet spray a couple times when my dog was around another dog w. fleas. We tried everything to get rid of them & that spray really does the trick. My vet sells it & it's called vet, the brand.

Call them & they can tell you what would work best & what would be safest for use around your animals.

Answer 6

Just get a product from a vet and stay away from store-bought ones. Frontline, Advantage and Revolution are all good - you'll have to check with a vet as to which you can use on ferrets. With 4 dogs, it'll probably be cheapest to use Frontline. It comes in different packs depending on the size of the dog, so you'll need two different packs, the vets can give you the right ones.

Housesprays I recommend are Indorex, Staykil, Acclaim or Skoosh, or most things you can get from a vets.

Chalice

Answer 7

NOt sure about the Ferrets, but I recommend Raid flea killer with the purple lable. It kills fleas in rugs and pet bedding, including the eggs, and you can spray it directly on your dogs as well. I use it on my Yorkie 3when the fleas are extremely bad inthe summer and it isn;t time for another once-a-month application.

Answer 8

If your dog has fleas I'd strongly assume you have the fleas in your home and/or your car, and in anybody else’s home or car in which your dogs have spent any time. You'll almost never see the eggs or the larva, they are soo soo very tiny, about the size of a grain of salt.

Adult fleas (the biting stage) spend almost their entire life on the dog, not in the carpet. Eggs are laid on the dog's fur and fall off into carpeting, under cushions, and wherever else your dog sleeps, lies down or spends time. They can lie dormant for many months until the conditions (moisture, temperature) cause them to hatch (eggs incubate best in high humidity and temperatures of 65-80 degrees). After hatching, the eggs transform into larvae, pupae, and eventually adults to renew the cycle.

Nearly 60% of the fleas in someone’s home at a given point are in the larval stage. Larvae are like little caterpillars crawling around grazing on any flea dirt in their area. Flea dirt is the feces of the adult flea, which also falls off your dog along with the eggs.

After molting 3 times, the larvae spin a little cocoon and become pupae, eventually developing into adult fleas. Pupae are impervious to all available home insecticides. Pupae hang around (read: months) until the conditions are right... then when they sense a footstep, they hatch and jump onto a warm body (you or your dog) to complete the cycle.

If your dog has terrible allergies to fleas, how about using one of the products like Program (Just for fleas) or Sentinel (For both Heartworm and fleas). (One or the other, not both.)

Both of these products contain Lufenuron, which works by preventing eggs from hatching. This breaks the life-cycle of the flea. Once used, you'll never get more than a couple of adult fleas on the dogs, and any eggs they produce won't hatch. Both Program and Sentinel must be given on a full stomach in order to work!

Another product that works in the same way is the egg stopping collar. It works the same way in preventing the egg from hatching. Unlike conventional flea collars, these contain methoprene or pyriproxyfen which prevent egg hatch for several months. Thus, the overall effect is much like Lufenuron.

One brand available through veterinarians is the Ovitrol/Ovitrol Plus Flea Egg Collar; OTC brands include the Fleatrol Flea Egg Collar and Relieve Collar, which are supposedly sold in pet stores and discount chains. Carefully read the package of the collar to verify that methoprene or pyriproxyfen is present.

Once put on, the egg-inhibiting substance releases from the collar and distributes over the hair of the dog, killing flea eggs on contact. This breaks the life cycle and infestations never become established. These collars are said to be 100% effective at preventing flea eggs from hatching for at least 6 months on both dogs (and cats).

I have no experience with using the collar, but I have used the Lufenuron (Both Program and Sentinel at different times) and it worked great.

To get rid of adult fleas off of your dog right away, you can give him a flea bath, or use a product called Capstar. Capstar is an oral medication that begins killing fleas in 20 minutes. It does not last beyond the few hours that it is in the pet’s system.

Combine these approaches with a topical insecticide (like Advantage, Advantix, Frontline or Frontline Plus) to kill adults and you probably wont have problems with fleas. Any fleas that do jump on your dog (from other dogs or the environment) will not produce more fleas, and the insecticide will kill the adults pretty quickly. With our non-allergic dog on Sentinel, we never had to have a collar or other insecticide for fleas -- just for ticks. But that's another page.

Answer 9

Frontline- for all pets. Yes, we administer it to ferrets too- following the weight guidelines.

Also, bathe everyone in the home, vacuum and dump the bag to avoid a reinfestation in the home.

Answer 10

well I can help you with your flea problems on your pets. if you will bath them with baby shampoo and leave them lathered up for 5 minutes it will kill all the fleas and flea eggs on youe pets even ferrots. as far as killing them in your home there is a HomeGuard flea and tick powder that you cansprinkle on your carpets and let sit for 20 minutes then vaccuum our floors and you will vaccuum up the dead fleas and powder.