Flea Problem

rkehockey16 · #1 12/18/2007, 05:24 PM

My dog has brought fleas in to the house, and i need to get rid of them. what would be the best way to get rid of the fleas and not harm the fish tank. i thought of shutting off the protein skimmer and putting plastic wrap to cover the tank and sump below. the tank is located in the finished basement. i will flea bomb the 1st floor and i need help with what to do in the basement.
please help, i am wanting to do this asap!!
thanks
Paul

J. Montgomery · #2 12/18/2007, 05:43 PM

Cutting off the air supply to the tank by wrapping it in plastic wrap could potentially cause some serious damage. I haven't had to personally deal with this problem, so I'm not sure of what to recommend. I've seen the question pop up multiple times, I just don't remember exactly.

Did you ask in any of the large forums like the "Reef Discussion" or "Reef Chemistry" forums?

NbMaxx13 · #3 12/18/2007, 06:07 PM

Fleas came into my house a year and half ago by the porch upstairs from me ... I covered the tanks and bombed away ... I didn't have anything die.. I floated styrofoam and covered the tanks with a sheet.

dadyoj21 · #4 12/18/2007, 06:12 PM

tough problem to deal with, I have a solution but it wont be easy.

you could enclose the entire system in a make shift tent, using a painting tarp/plastic sheeting. You can get those for a couple of bucks anywhere and seal with duct tape

Then get a supply air trunk made up of plastic sheet tubing. Not sure where to find this stuff in town but I have plenty at work. Hook the supply up to a fan and use as a blower with fresh air from outside. this will blow your tent up like a balloon and all leakage will be from the inside of the rent into the house. You can use duct tape to seal it up as best you can.

This sounds kind of crazy but we use similar controls for radioactive contamination and airborne all the time where I work. And the materials shouldn't cost more than about $10 assuming you can get your hands on a decent fan.

vetdog · #5 12/18/2007, 06:57 PM

You don't have to bomb the house anymore as there are many products that will eliminate the fleas on your dog and anything he/she really comes into contact with. Use something like Frontline on your dog and vacuum the house like crazy over the next week or so. that should take care of the fleas. Make sure to use something like frontline from your veterinarian as the products like Hartz and others like that available over the counter like at Wal/Petsmart, etc. have been shown to be toxic to some dogs.

rkehockey16 · #6 12/18/2007, 07:09 PM

i put frontline on her the first of every month, and they still crawl all over her. has anyone ever used revolution?
Eric, so let me get this straight. you took sheets of styrofoam, floated on top of the water and them covered it with a sheet. did you use the bomb or a carpet powder?

thanks guys for your thoughts

NbMaxx13 · #7 12/18/2007, 07:31 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by rkehockey16
i put frontline on her the first of every month, and they still crawl all over her. has anyone ever used revolution?
Eric, so let me get this straight. you took sheets of styrofoam, floated on top of the water and them covered it with a sheet. did you use the bomb or a carpet powder?

thanks guys for your thoughts

I overdid it and used both ...
I will say though that Vetdog is a Vet-student and his opinion is very valid here....

But as for me I grew up in a place that had way too many bugs so now that I am a grown man I can't stand even a little infestation , so I tend to go over board.... I used the Frontline Flea and tick for cats as well. (which on its own would have probably been sufficient) ..I bombed in every room , used carpet powder throughout the house and then had professionals come in after all of that....

NbMaxx13 · #8 12/18/2007, 07:33 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by rkehockey16
i put frontline on her the first of every month, and they still crawl all over her. has anyone ever used revolution?
Eric, so let me get this straight. you took sheets of styrofoam, floated on top of the water and them covered it with a sheet. did you use the bomb or a carpet powder?

thanks guys for your thoughts

P.S. I only used the styrofoam to keep the sheets from touching the water... Didn't really serve any other purpose..

vetdog · #9 12/18/2007, 09:04 PM

Revolution is good too but if you are using a monthly heartworm preventative you will want to stop using that preventative and use revolution only as it is a preventative for both fleas and heartworms.

manderx · #10 12/19/2007, 12:10 AM

frontline and daily vacuuming has always done the trick for me. though the frontline might take a few weeks and a second dose to do it if you are really infested with lots of eggs in the carpet. make sure you don't give your dog a bath for a week before the frontline. it relies on the oils in the skin to spread it around and a bath washes that away.

reefdadx2 · #11 12/19/2007, 12:52 AM

we got our frontline from www.petmeds.com. I would be afraid of the bomb with the tank. Your call.

Michael R

NbMaxx13 · #12 12/19/2007, 08:15 AM

The only thing with vacuuming is the mistake people make afterward. Most people leave the bag in the vacuum and the vac in the house, lol You have to remove the bag immediately from your house.

Eric and I (this is Candace, btw ...) had a nest outside the apartment. That's why we had to do so much because they kept coming back. We spent hundreds and hundreds of dollars trying to get the fleas out of our apartment. Finally, an exterminator had to come out and that did the trick. But we bombed several times with the sheets over the tanks and never had any problems. Make sure you air your house out after the applicable hours have passed once the bomb has been set off. We also covered anything out in the house that we or the kids would touch, i.e. kitchen, remotes, etc.

I. hate. fleas. Ick. I hope you have better luck than we did in this process, lol

rkehockey16 · #13 12/19/2007, 08:35 AM

thank you to every one who helped. i covered the tank and used carpet powder and i will bomb the upper level. hopefully that will do the trick.

coolfish5 · #14 12/19/2007, 08:43 AM

I'd like to add that I've had much better luck using Advantix, than Frontline on our dogs. Advantix can not be used on cats, so if you have cats and dogs, you'd have to seperate them for 24 hours when you apply it. I use regular advantage on the cats, as they don't go outside I haven't had a tick problem. Having 5 dogs and 3 cats, we go through quite a bit of flea preventative.

manderx · #15 12/19/2007, 11:44 AM

just stumbled across this:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20071218/...leas_vacuum_dc

HOC · #16 12/19/2007, 08:37 PM

Our vet gave our dogs something that killed the fleas on the dogs fast, then put them on Frontline to keep them from multiplying. They were gone within a couple months. I'd have to ask what that initial product was. I know it wasn't real cheap.

vetdog · #17 12/22/2007, 11:53 PM

It was probably Capstar

AIMFish · #18 12/23/2007, 07:16 AM

Capstar is nuts! I used that on my last cat a few years ago. She was an indoor cat so I didn't think fleas would be an issue but then I found one after checking her. The vet suggested keeping her in the bathroom for about 20 min after I gave her the pill so I could collect all of the fleas. Seemed odd but I did it anyway. She was an all white cat and about 15min after giving her the pill the fleas started rising to the surface of her coat twitching and dying. It killed all that were on here within 15-25 min. Powerful stuff!