OK I have no pets, besides my girlfriends small dog that comes over on occasions. Last night was one of those nights, we were in the backyard smoking 3 racks of the best ribs your have ever put in your mouth, and the dog ran to back side of the yard and comes back with 20-30 flea's all over him. WTH..... I have never had fleas..


What's the best treatment and frequency to nuke these little basstards back? Backyard is mainly bermuda with a gravel roundabout.

Have a ton of neighborhood cats that roam all over so Im guessing thats where they came from. Neighbors a couple houses down have backyard dogs that haven't been around.

Ortho Bug Clear. It's a combo of Bifenthrin and Zeta-Cypermethrin. Bif has a quick knock down power and the zeta has a long residual.

https://www.lowes.com/pd/ORTHO-32-fl-oz-Concentrate-Lawn-Insect-Control/1002373752

Not meaning any disrespect of your knowledge of fleas but if you are having the infestation of aphids out your
way as we have in the metromess, there is a species of aphids that looks like a flea.

Just a thought beings you have not had a flea problem and I am at war with the aphids, about to go spray as
high up the trees I can with soapy water.

I had the same thing at the lake last fall. I had not taken my dogs down there in about a year, but the neighborhood cats like to roam...when I got into the fenced area of my yard the fleas covered my legs. I used the stuff Derek posted and it worked great! I had to do 2 treatments during my stay (I was there for 6 weeks), but after that we didn't have any more of those freaking jackwagons!

If your GF lives in an apartment, that is a potential infestation spot as well.

Study up on the flea life cycle. There are 4 stages: eggs, larva, pupae, adult. Lots of products are effective against the larva and adults. Eggs are tough to kill. The pupa is basically a cocoon and it is almost impossible to kill at that point. What this means is that you can kill all the baby worms, and all the adults and be flea free. But the eggs and pupae will hatch after about 10 days and you will start all over again.

Whatever treatment you choose, you need to repeat it three times, two weeks apart. That way the hatched eggs are killed before they enter the cocoon, and the newly emerged adults are killed before they lay more eggs.

Addendum: this is if they get inside the home. I believe the stuff Derek posted above is residual in the yard and may work without having to repeat. That said, I'd probably still double down on it because I hate fleas.

Agree. There are a ton of insecticides out there. I would run one a couple/few weeks apart and then switch to a different active ingredient. If you run the same active over and over the insects can/will grow a resistance to it. A really good idea would be to apply a Imidacloprid early in the season. This ties into the sap thread on the OT. I do a soil drench of Imidacloprid to my Crepe Myrtles and I get no aphids or leaf hoppers. And before people complain, I've talked to multiple bio chemist and applicators with college degrees on it and imidacloprid does not enter the bloom when done as a soil/drench application.

Derek, I think 7 dust works too right?

We use to put 7 dust in sox and Dust all around legs and arms when we were in the woods for an extended time

I know it works for ticks

Sevin "Dust" is still Carbaryl I believe and legit. The other Sevin products, i.e. hose end, concentrate are now Zeta-Cypermethrin.

This

Fish Killer, I sure hope they didn't get into your house. If they did, go scorched earth on them inside, and vacuum the hell out of every square inch.
If they doggy is not there for them to feed on, guess who gets to be their next blood meal while they are laying eggs.
If that first batch of eggs in the house hatches, your looking at multiple timed foggings to get the cycle broken.

Nothing has gotten inside Pup was outside the entire time when we found them and got a fresh bath on the back porch before we came in

I got one treatment down this week and going to do it every other week for a while. I’m out there all the time and have never picked up a flea on my person So hopefully it’s a simple out break

Now I just need to find out if there are any options for all the dam neighborhood feral cats running around

If you house is pier and beam, which I'm pretty positive it is make sure there is no place the cats can get under it. I had similar thing at one of my rental properties and it was a total pain in arse.

Yep all the vents are in place I toss a couple of bug bombs under there a year just for good riddance