The great bug battle

Yup, it's that time of year. The buggies are coming out again. I found a tick on Zeus yesterday. Eww eww eww ewwwww! I was wondering what everybody did to combat the little dog-eaters.

I don't use Advantage or anything like that. With two fairly large dogs, it costs a small fortune.I found that I only have a flea and tick problem for the first month of spring and the last month of fall. If I can keep my guys flea-free for that period, they tend to not get any bugs for the rest of the year. Kinda weird, but I'm not going to question it.

We spray our yard in the spring and fall, and I bathe the Horsemen once a week with flea and tick shampoo during our problem months. I also spray down the house (couch, upholstry, etc.), twice a year. That seems to be enough to handle the problem for us.

How about everybody else?

Well, Sierra being my first dog on my own, I'm still figuring out what our regime is going to be. I don't like to use chemicals on my pets unless absolutley necessary (I've only ever put Advantage or Revolution on the cats if they actually got fleas, and for one month after to clear it up for good) so I'm not sure what's going to be absolutley necessary for Sierra...

Here's something random: my mom's maltese tends to get fleas, but is sensitive to topical medications. Because of her sensitivity, Mom was hesitant to use flea shampoo on her.

A person on a maltese forum told her to use Head & Shoulders, the human dandruff shampoo. Mom said it worked great! Killed the fleas and didn't irritate her dog at all. I'd heard of Ivory dish soap killing fleas, but not Head & Shoulders. Has anybody else tried using it?

There are lots of holistic ways to combat them as well. A google search will yield lots of articles and home remedies that work.

I use Dial soap to kill fleas. It works great too! The orange kind. Let it sit for a few minutes, and rinse the dead fleas off.

Dial hand soap?? I like the smell of it..

I was looking at what I think was new (could have been there before but I never noticed it) on Petedge.com. It's a topical treatment that claims to be all natural. It's called Sentry Natural Defense and said it contains Octopamine, a neurotransmitter blocker that is deadly to pests, but completely safe for pets. Anyone here of this? I was thinking of trying it out this year instead of Frontline. Though I'm not done researching it yet before deciding whether it's safe or not.

heres some ALL natural solutions to keep the bugs away (works for people too and good for fleas ticks and mosquitoes!)
because its natrual the effects odnt last that long so i still suggest something stronger if your the type to go hiking ect...

some essential oils that keep bugs away...

Lavender
Spearmint and Teatree
Lemon Grass or Citronella

buy whichever human grade essential oil suits you best, ive found the lemon works best for us against the mosquitoes particularly well (im highly allergic to mosquitoes) however all 3 work well for all 3 types of biting insects.

dilute 1 part essential oil to 3-4 parts water (it should smell fairly stong but not strong enough to give you a migrane), mix in a squirt bottle turn to mist and spritz, the enssential oils will linger on the coat but wont do any harm (and wont realy hurt if the dog licks itself (though lavender tastes bitter lol)

make your own by steeping lemon grass or citronella plant in water...

plant lemongrass/citronella plants, spearmint and lavender around your doors and windows if possible to help keep the bugs OUT of your house.

this is what i use for mosquitoes, but since starting ive not seen a single flea or tick on any of the chis and i live in ct (deer tick central )


if theres plans for camping i used K9 Advantix, frontline doesnt work in our area and i dont trust any other brand topicals.

Pennyroyal helps, too, Foxy. Especially if you use an incantation

the problem with pennyroyal...its highly toxic if ingested...not the best choice for dogs or people whos pets like to like them...of if you have a partner who likes to nibble

least with lemongrass i wont kill my bf if he decideds to bite
however it works EXTREEMLY well (almost as good as deet!)

Hmmm . . . . I've never known pennyroyal to be toxic. I've even been known to drink pennyroyal tea to get a sluggish period to go ahead and start when I needed to get it over with.

Ticks are the worst. Of course we live on partially wooded property and Dixie just love to romp through the woods. During the summer, it's nothing to sit and pick 5+ ticks off her at once. She gets them under her collar where you can't see them.

I guess her treatment would be to keep her out of the woods. LOL. But that ain't gonna happen. I tried advantage and it doesn't seem to help. I think frontline does not kill ticks but I could be wrong. One of them doesn't kill ticks.

in small doeses in a helathy adult its not going to cause any real issues, but it has been known to cause some pretty nasty effects if consumed by pregnant women and because of that im very cautious about using it on dogs.

and gives me one big whomper of a migraine...i still swear by good old soap and water. Soap kills fleas if you drop one into a jar of water with a little dish soap in it you will see what i mean. If it isn't on long enough it still stuns them..enough for a good body search. I treat my home with borax working it well into the carpet and putting under the cusions. I have never had a flea problem that i didnt' move into. I can't bring myself to use flea treatments, they just make me so nervous and considering Mary's good health and long life, i think we will just keep it that way.

I found a tick on vic two weeks ago. When we go to the woods i always bathe the dogs the second we get back into the house as well as change my clothes completely and do a check on me. ONe battle with lyme is all i ever want to go through.

I use advantix a couple months out of the year, and when we're traveling.

During the off season, I use a rosemary/tea tree oil rinse following their usual baths.

The ill effects on pregnant women are essentially the same effect as jump starting a period. Back in the day, pennyroyal was used as an abortifactant. Taken in high enough doses it can cause spontaneous abortion. Contrary to what most people want to believe, abortion isn't something that came with modern medicine.

I've made decoctions with it and used it as a rinse for the dogs in the past. It did help with the fleas, and they smelled pretty good, too. I don't know if I'd use it on very small dogs though, since the concentration to size might conceivably be a problem. It's really been the only herbal flea remedy I've had any significant results from though. Even feeding them garlic and brewers yeast was pretty much a bust, and I still had itchy dogs . . . with the addition of really NASTY farts.

I use Frontline. I know it's expensive but it works. For my 4 dogs between Frontline and Heartgard, I spend $1,200 a year.