How to get rid of fleas

John seems to have fleas in his house. He got a great tip about how to get
rid of fleas. Fill a deep bowl with water and put a little dishwashing
liquid in it. The fleas literally jump in and drown. John tried it and
*wow*! It works! He had to do it several times (and he set another bowl
out on the front porch porch). But how about that? No pesticides, no bug
bombs, no sprinkling of 20 mule-team Borax powder (which is hazardous to
cats). Just plain water and dishwashing liquid. It surprised the heck out
of both of us. But it works!

Jill

In article , "jmcquown" wrote:
John seems to have fleas in his house. He got a great tip about how to get
rid of fleas.

The cynic in me suspects that it will kill those in the immediate area, that
happen to be doing their thing and land in the water. But I can't see fleas
on the other side of the house going "oh boy ... let's go over and check out
that big bowl. Maybe it's a cat!".

The dishwashing liquid is simply a wetting agent that minimizes the "suface
tension" of the water. Otherwise the fleas, being so light, would never sink
through the water. The best wetting agent I've encountered is the Amway
(yecch) product L.O. C. There's an impressive demo where one pours water onto
a piece of cardboard, such as a cardboard box, where the water will, of
course, just sit on the surface for quite a while. The tiniest amount of LOC,
say on the tip of a pencil, put on the pool of water will cause it to
instantly soak into the cardboard.

Art

"Arthur Shapiro" wrote in message
...
In article , "jmcquown"
wrote:
John seems to have fleas in his house. He got a great tip about how to
get
rid of fleas.

The cynic in me suspects that it will kill those in the immediate area,
that
happen to be doing their thing and land in the water. But I can't see
fleas
on the other side of the house going "oh boy ... let's go over and check
out
that big bowl. Maybe it's a cat!".

Don't ask me how it works. I think the fleas are all concentrated in the
living room by the front door. When John was visiting me, he had a woman
who was cat-sitting and she let Precious go outside. (Before that she'd
been an indoor-only cat.) Now he can't get her to come in. But when he did
convince her to come in, she brought fleas and flea eggs with her. He's
been treating her with Frontline and she's losing the fleas. But thanks to
his cat-sitter who took it upon herself to let Precious be an outdoor cat,
John can't get Precious to come in anymore. But the fleas did.

Don't ask me what makes this work. He dumps the bowl several times a day,
repeats the process and a few hours later it's always filled again with dead
fleas. I'm not going to question it. It works!

Jill

jmcquown wrote:
John seems to have fleas in his house. He got a great tip about how to
get rid of fleas. Fill a deep bowl with water and put a little
dishwashing liquid in it. The fleas literally jump in and drown. John
tried it and *wow*! It works! He had to do it several times (and he
set another bowl out on the front porch porch). But how about that? No
pesticides, no bug bombs, no sprinkling of 20 mule-team Borax powder
(which is hazardous to cats). Just plain water and dishwashing liquid.
It surprised the heck out of both of us. But it works!

Jill

Another pesticide free solution to insect invasions is cinnamon for
ants. It's a little messy, because you have to leave it around for a
while, but sprinkle cinnamon on their trails, and on the food item
they've infested, and they all disappear, leaving the food item and your
kitchen free of both ants and ant corpses. (They just plain don't like
it, big time!)

Arthur Shapiro wrote:
In article , "jmcquown" wrote:
John seems to have fleas in his house. He got a great tip about how to get
rid of fleas.

The cynic in me suspects that it will kill those in the immediate area, that
happen to be doing their thing and land in the water. But I can't see fleas
on the other side of the house going "oh boy ... let's go over and check out
that big bowl. Maybe it's a cat!".

The dishwashing liquid is simply a wetting agent that minimizes the "suface
tension" of the water. Otherwise the fleas, being so light, would never sink
through the water. The best wetting agent I've encountered is the Amway
(yecch) product L.O. C.

Why "yecch"? The folks who make a lifestyle out of selling Amway can be
a royal PITA, but the products are actually pretty good (if expensive).

A friend of mine had an infestation at his house. We took white plates
and shallow bowls, filled them with water and a dash of dish soap, and
put a desk lamp near each one, shining in to it, but far enough away to
not get knocked *in* to the water should it fall over.

We then sat back and watched fleas jump to their death. The lamps
provided warmth which attracted the fleas, and in they went. I'm not
certain the whiteware was entirely necessary, but it made it easier to
see how many fleas "went towards the light". The plates and bowls were
deep enough that the fleas couldn't get out before they drowned.

We put down four or five "stations", and within about a week the flea
population was pretty much gone. We left the lamps and plates around
for a few weeks more, just to entice any newly hatched critters.

One of his dogs was allergic to flea collars/treatments, so having this
alternative made everyones life easier.

Purrs for a flea free household!

Chris, Hazard and Oreo

On 06/29/2012 04:28 PM, jmcquown wrote:
John seems to have fleas in his house. He got a great tip about how to
get rid of fleas. Fill a deep bowl with water and put a little
dishwashing liquid in it. The fleas literally jump in and drown. John
tried it and *wow*! It works! He had to do it several times (and he
set another bowl out on the front porch porch). But how about that? No
pesticides, no bug bombs, no sprinkling of 20 mule-team Borax powder
(which is hazardous to cats). Just plain water and dishwashing liquid.
It surprised the heck out of both of us. But it works!

Jill

"jmcquown" wrote in message
...
John seems to have fleas in his house. He got a great tip about how to
get rid of fleas. Fill a deep bowl with water and put a little
dishwashing liquid in it. The fleas literally jump in and drown. John
tried it and *wow*! It works! He had to do it several times (and he set
another bowl out on the front porch porch). But how about that? No
pesticides, no bug bombs, no sprinkling of 20 mule-team Borax powder
(which is hazardous to cats). Just plain water and dishwashing liquid.
It surprised the heck out of both of us. But it works!

Jill

For some reason neither of my cats or any of my dogs ever had fleas. Don't
ask me why because I don't know. I groomed them most days so maybe that did
it.
I have never had fleas on my cats or dogs.
Boyfie gets a spot-on treatment now and again as a precaution
but he doesn't need it. He never has fleas.

"Chris H" wrote in message
...
A friend of mine had an infestation at his house. We took white plates
and shallow bowls, filled them with water and a dash of dish soap, and put
a desk lamp near each one, shining in to it, but far enough away to not
get knocked *in* to the water should it fall over.

Oh! I forgot to mention the light! YES! You have to put a lamp over the
bowl of water with the dish soap.

We then sat back and watched fleas jump to their death. The lamps
provided warmth which attracted the fleas, and in they went. I'm not
certain the whiteware was entirely necessary, but it made it easier to see
how many fleas "went towards the light". The plates and bowls were deep
enough that the fleas couldn't get out before they drowned.

Thank you for validating my point. My mistake for forgetting to mention the
lamp/light to attract the fleas. And they really do march towards it.

We put down four or five "stations", and within about a week the flea
population was pretty much gone. We left the lamps and plates around for
a few weeks more, just to entice any newly hatched critters.

One of his dogs was allergic to flea collars/treatments, so having this
alternative made everyones life easier.

Purrs for a flea free household!

Chris, Hazard and Oreo

On 06/29/2012 04:28 PM, jmcquown wrote:
John seems to have fleas in his house. He got a great tip about how to
get rid of fleas. Fill a deep bowl with water and put a little
dishwashing liquid in it. The fleas literally jump in and drown. John
tried it and *wow*! It works! He had to do it several times (and he
set another bowl out on the front porch porch). But how about that? No
pesticides, no bug bombs, no sprinkling of 20 mule-team Borax powder
(which is hazardous to cats). Just plain water and dishwashing liquid.
It surprised the heck out of both of us. But it works!

Jill

"Christina Websell" wrote in message
...

"jmcquown" wrote in message
...
John seems to have fleas in his house. He got a great tip about how to
get rid of fleas. Fill a deep bowl with water and put a little
dishwashing liquid in it. The fleas literally jump in and drown. John
tried it and *wow*! It works! He had to do it several times (and he set
another bowl out on the front porch porch). But how about that? No
pesticides, no bug bombs, no sprinkling of 20 mule-team Borax powder
(which is hazardous to cats). Just plain water and dishwashing liquid.
It surprised the heck out of both of us. But it works!

Jill

For some reason neither of my cats or any of my dogs ever had fleas.
Don't ask me why because I don't know. I groomed them most days so maybe
that did it.
I have never had fleas on my cats or dogs.
Boyfie gets a spot-on treatment now and again as a precaution
but he doesn't need it. He never has fleas.


A human example. I rarely get bitten by mosquitoe, even though they are
abundant where I live. My mother used to get eaten alive by them. She'd
spray bug repellant all over herself. When she moved to SC she realized
Avon's Skin So Soft lotion repels mosquitos so she started using that
instead of bug spray. (Thank you!) My point is, it's chemistry. Doesn't
matter if it is dogs, cats or people. My mom used to tease me I'm not sweet
enough to attract mosquitos Some animals don't attract fleas. I don't
attract mosquitos.

Jill

On 6/29/2012 4:28 PM, jmcquown wrote:
John seems to have fleas in his house. He got a great tip about how to
get rid of fleas. Fill a deep bowl with water and put a little
dishwashing liquid in it. The fleas literally jump in and drown. John
tried it and *wow*! It works! He had to do it several times (and he set
another bowl out on the front porch porch). But how about that? No
pesticides, no bug bombs, no sprinkling of 20 mule-team Borax powder
(which is hazardous to cats). Just plain water and dishwashing liquid.
It surprised the heck out of both of us. But it works!

That same technique got rid of a fruit fly infestation I had one time,
too. Only I used diluted wine because they seemed more attracted to
that. I think with fleas you can get them quicker by putting the bowl
under a lamp because I think they're attracted to the light or the heat.