Flea Help Please

[Catahoula]

I've lived in Central Florida for 17 years and have NEVER had a flea problem. I guess since this past winter we didn't get a hard freeze, the bugs are out in full force... including the fleas.

My mother and I are next door neighbors and our animals frequently visit each others houses. Because of this I need to treat 2 houses and multiple animals. The animals between the 2 houses are 3 dogs, 3 cats, 2 guinea pigs, 2 lizards, and some fish.

My game plan so far is to dose all dogs and cats with Capstar. It kills adult fleas on the animals in 4-6 hours, but only stays in their system for 24 hours. Can be dosed everyday as needed, but I figured they'd probably only need a day or 2 if I tackle the rest of the plan the right way. Secondly, all dogs and cats will get a topical flea med such as Frontline or Advantage. Not sure which is the best, so would love recommendations.

Both houses have carpets, so I plan to use diatomaceous earth. I've never used this stuff before. All I know is I'm supposed to get the food grade version. Also, all dog bedding and linens will be washed.

Outside can be treated with diatomaceous earth as well, or another product recommended to me was Seven Dust. Not entirely sure what I need to do, but I'm still reading up on everything.


So here's my questions...

1) Do I need to worry about the guinea pigs getting fleas? I haven't seen any, but that doesn't mean they aren't there.

2) What product would I use on the GPs if I wanted to treat them for fleas as well?

3) Can the diatomaceous earth in the carpets hurt the GPs? My cage is about 3 feet of the ground, so I'm not worried about direct contact. Is there fumes or inhalents that could hurt them?

4) Anyone know how long to keep diatomaceous earth in the carpet before vacuuming it up?

Please feel free to add in anything I might have missed.

 

[meggymoomoo]

Ok so I remember coming upon this post a while ago and thinking this looks great! Well Unfortunatly I can't tell u anything about fleas I can give you this - https://www.guineapigcages.com/foru...maceous-earth-good-pigs-also-kills-mites.html
Hope this helps your worrying ~ Meghan

 

[bpatters]

Sevin is a strong insecticide -- I don't like using it if there's absolutely any other choice.

There are no inhalants in the DE, but nothing living should inhale it. It's about as bad on the lungs as asbestos, I've read, so you have to be careful with it. It works like borax does (which I actually prefer to DE) -- you put it on the carpet, take a stiff broom and work it into the carpet very well, leave it 24 hours, and then vacuum it up. It acts by dehydrating the fleas. If you've got a lot of carpet, you'll have a big job ahead of you -- working it into the carpet takes main strength and hard work.

I'd only treat the GPs if they have fleas, and then I'd probably use something like Revolution.

Once you've gotten them all killed, you'll have to put them on some sort of maintenance program to keep them away, or they'll just come right back. Our dog gets Sentinel once a month for both fleas and heartworms, and it works really well to keep them at bay. We had a bad flea infestation when we first moved here, and that took some effort to get rid of. But the monthly treatments have worked very well since then.