Upswing in fleas lately?

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One lady said she covered her yard in salt to get rid of the fleas.

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I’m sure the new low ph environment is very eco friendly.

Not fleas but ticks. Ticks everywhere. I think they drink permithrin for breakfast.

Found out I had a flea infestation in my shop on my first floor. I've not used it for a few months after foot surgery and went in there a few weeks ago to work on my mower.

I go down with a sandal on one foot and a walking boot on the other and not 10 seconds time passed before I felt things crawling on me. Looked down and I'm loaded with fleas.

Fill up the pump sprayer with insecticide and spray the entire floor area until it was damp and locked the door. Checked 3 days later and STILL had some fleas, so I set off 3 of those aerosol foggers and that seems to have taken them out.

Here's the kicker. My shop has been locked for months prior with no people or animals getting in it, but I still had the infestation.

They always show up this time of year at my house and the main culprit is a neighbors house with a dirt floor in their basement and it not being secure enough to keep animals out. It's a double with the side closest to me unoccupied and under sporadic renovation and nobody using the basement area to know about the problem.

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Here's the kicker. My shop has been locked for months prior with no people or animals getting in it, but I still had the infestation.

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Yeah, we have no animals, but have stray cats and an open crawlspace. I know that we have oppossums under there and probably typically vermin.

I never walk in the house without checking my socks.

Spray imidacloprid once a week for 3-4 weeks. Only the adult fleas are affected so you have to keep spraying to kill them as they hatch and grow.


If they’re in your house then treat everything with Precore 2000.

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Is this a surfactant or something? What's the point?

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It helps it last longer. More effective. The oil doesnt evaporate as quickly as just the water alone mixture.

The greater the coverage area the more fleas you'll kill. Spray entire yard. Otherwise more eggs hatching in your yard.

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Crop oils are generally made of 95 to 98 percent paraffin or naphtha-based petroleum oil and 1 to 2 percent surfactant/emulsifier. Crop oils promote the penetration of a pesticide spray either through a plant’s waxy cuticle or an insect’s tough, chitinous shell. Traditional crop oils are more commonly used for insect and disease control and rarely with herbicides.

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If it is a new problem your natural nematode population has dwindled. Extended times of dry weather will kill them off. Most of the SE had some degree of drought last summer/fall.

You can buy them and put them back in your yard.

LINK

Do you use a hose sprayer to distribute these? I’d like to try this, but one of my dogs would probably enjoy a buffet of nematodes. She’s always bug hunting in the grass.

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If they’re in your house then treat everything with Precore 2000.

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Seeing one or two per day on our legs…
Ordered two cans of Ultracide a couple days ago.

When you say “treat everything”….
Every inch?

We have two very small kids so naturally I’m worried about that.