11 Fleas: Treating Outdoors Areas
Description
This article is from the Fleas, Ticks, and Your Pet FAQ, by tittle@zmall.com (Cindy Tittle Moore) with numerous contributions by others.
11 Fleas: Treating Outdoors Areas
When treating the area surrounding your house, remember that fleas are
not found in your driveway gravel or in the open. The larvae do not
survive high temperatures. They are found in shaded areas, like under
porches, decks, car ports, at the edges of woods, and especially in
places where your pets lay down outdoors.
Dursban:
You can use Dursban for ridding the yard of fleas. Home Depot
will have the generic stuff. Spray according to the directions
on the label. This is fairly toxic stuff. The generic name is
Chlorpyrifos.
Nematodes:
This is a new product for outdoor treatment. "Bio Flea Halt"
and "Interrupt" are two brand names -- probably others exist.
Nematodes are bugs that eat fleas. You apply it to your
backyard with a pump sprayer; hose sprayers will also work.
[Not sure about details of application: do you apply to grass?
dirt? what about decks? effect on existing plants?] Toxicity to
humans/dogs is non-existent, early studies show a good degree
of effectiveness.
For those with outdoor pets, diatomaceous earth, boric acid and silica
aerogels can be used to treat your lawn for fleas and ticks. These
chemicals were lauded by the Apr 92 Sunset magazine in their list of
least toxic chemicals, sprays and dusts, which were discussed for
those people who want to control pests more naturally. These are not
poisons, and kill by clinging to, scratching and and destroying the
waxy exteriors, or dessicating the pests. Sunset does point out that
these chemicals should not be inhaled as they will irritate or abrade
the lungs in the same way (which isn't a big problem once they've
settled into your lawn). Diatomaceous earth is an abrading agent (much
like borax). Use natural grade rather than pool grade diatomacious
earth. Boric acid is also a abrading agent. Silica aerogels are
dessicants, and kill the insects through dehydration. It is
recommended that these chemicals be used in powder form to kill fleas
and ticks.
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