Is the borax/salt combo bad for pets? Like will they lick (off of paws) and get sick?

I have heard, and subsequently found, that "Over and Out" for fire ants has a chemical in it that kills and repels fleas. This past weekend I cleaned out the entire yard and spread this product. Then I watered it in. No apparent fleas in the yard anymore. Now to get them out of the house.

I had a flea infestation last year. I had never before encountered fleas, and it was a nightmare. I thought that exiling my cat to the garage would help, but then the starving fleas really started to attack us everywhere. After researching for days and days online, I came up with a home solution (my son was 9 months and crawling at the time, so I didn't want to use a bug bomb or get an exterminator). Here's what I did:

1. Vacuumed every day for about two weeks. I have a Rainbow vacuum that traps what gets sucked up in water, which was perfect.

2. Washed all bedding, bath mats, etc. thoroughly.

3. Hand scrubbed all of our hardwood floors with Dawn dishwashing detergent and hot water, making sure to scrub all of the crevices.

4. Sprayed the couch and rugs with salt water.

5. Sprinkled Borax all over the rugs and couch, left for 24 hours, and vacuumed.

6. Left flea traps (desk lamp over a bowl of soapy water) in all of the areas where my cat like to hang out, every night until the fleas stopped appearing).

After about two weeks, we were basically flea-free (there were a few stragglers but they were obviously really weak because they were really easy to catch). In the meantime I put Frontline Plus on my cat and finally let him back in house.

This year I started Frontline in April. All was well until last week, when he started scratching, and I noticed that there were some flea droppings around the house (looks like pepper until you check it out up close, then you see that they are little curly poops, really gross). So he's back out again and I am going to go through the entire process again. I talked to the vet and she said that a delay of even a couple of days in applying Frontline can cause fleas to jump back on, and he should be fine since I last applied it last week. But I'm not taking any chances so am going to sterilize the house. It's a pain but at least my house gets super clean in the process and I can avoid using pesticides.

Hi, I am a new member. I have a problem with fleas, and found your tip about the light and the bowl of soapy water very useful. I did use the fog fumers and although they seem to have worked in some rooms, the fleas are still in my bedroom. So I set up the bowl n lamp. Yesterday I had 30-40 fleas in the bowl. Today only about 10 so far. So fingers crossed they are going down. * Do remember tho peeps take care if leaving lamps on all day and night especially if u out at work)*

I also so put bright paper under the bowl (as the fleas get abit camouflaged in my carpet), and if u av the time u watch c a flea, pick up with tissue n throw in ur bowl.

Thanks again for the help, hope this helps others too. Babs.

A friend came to visit and brought her cat.. When she left
I started to see small black dust on my daughters bed where she sleeps with her dog. At first, I didn't think about it but then our dog started scratching and biting on her paws. This was about ten days after the visit. When I examined the dog 7 fleas. I brought her to the vet and got frontline. However, she is only 3lbs so I gave her just a few drops. I am afraid this will not be effective. And how do I get rid of them in the house. My skin is crawling with disguest.

Gina

I have been infested with fleas since last week. I can't stand bugs, so this was particularly awful for me. Little bugs crawling everywhere that you can't see or kill!!! YUCK!!
I bombed twice with two different brands and it seemed not to help at all. Then a friend told me about Bengal Flea Killer and Bug Bombs. She said that Bengal all she has ever used and has never had bugs in her home. I bought the Full Season Flea Killer Plus, that says it has a money back guarantee. After using two other brands I was sceptical. I used it Saturday and bleached all the floors (I have hardwood throughout the house). I have put out the dish detergent bowls each night and seen fewer and smaller fleas. 20 the first night, 10 last and about 4 tonite. I am sure I will have to do it again when the life cycle repeats, but I think that will be it. I am a believer!!!!!!!!! I wanted to share my success with all of you having flea problems. It is just awful!

i used to have good luck with the foggers but nothing i'm doing now is working. i've tried all the off-the-shelf poisons with no results. the vacuum seems to keep them at bey for about 5 or 6 hours. i have a professional service coming in a couple of days. i've got my fingers crossed for them. right now i'm spraying my legs with that "Off" bug spray. it actually keeps me bite free.

To begin, I've never encountered a problem with fleas before. I've owned several pets and they never once had a huge problem with fleas. My dog of 8 years just passed no more than a week ago and suddenly fleas sprang up everywhere. He stayed mostly donwstairs. We applied frontline to him regularly so he wouldn't have a flea problem. Im totally baffled as to where all of these annoying pests are coming from. I didn't notice until I started getting bitten regularly and didn't no what the source was until saw the little bugger hop off of my foot. I've tried a powder that is supposed to kill the larva stage and a spray that should eliminate the adults. I have yet to see results and plan on giving it a little more time. You could say the biggest annoyance is that they have infested the lower level of my home the area in which I reside and the ajoining room. For goodness sake they have even forced me out of my room. I don't want to try a fogger because there is an infant in the house. The infestation hasn't reached upstairs just yet and I am trying to keep it from doing so.

Can anyone offer any infant safe methods that would quickly irradicate the problem before this becomes an issue through out the home?

Natural flea control does exist and it does work and long term it's more effective. However, it is more work than what most people have become accustomed to under the chemical regime we're moving away from.

Diatomaceous earth works really well. At Dirt Works you can download free instructions from the site before you buy to make sure it's the right approach for you.
DE works by physical action so the pests can't become immune to it like they do when you use chemicals to kill them and it's totally safe and non-toxic. Constant spraying with toxic, synthetic chemicals only makes the problem worse over time and the chemicals they make for applying directly to the animals have the same effect. We get calls from people every day telling us that they aren't working anymore and they need something better.

You see, most people aren't aware that whenever you treat insect pests with synthetic chemicals a few always survive. The survivors, in turn, have the genetic material to produce offspring that are immune to the chemicals as well and then we invent and use stronger chemicals and then the new survivors breed some more super bugs and things get worse and worse. That's where we are right now. Many of the bugs alive today are genetically engineered by nature to resist the chemical sprays we've invented and we're killing ourselves and damaging our immune systems using more and stronger versions of them.
So check out diatomaceous earth at Dirt Works.net. It just might be the solution you're looking for.

About a week ago we noticed we had a few fleas in the house. 2 days later we see that we have a whole entire army of fleas. Bad thing is, we don't have any pets in the house. Haven't had a single pet in the house for over 2 months!!! What do i do?

Is there a difference between how you treat for cat fleas versus dog fleas?