Bob Simon wrote:
> I apply Frontline to both my dogs monthly but one gets fleas anyway.
> Each night I pick off 10-20, which has been pretty effective at
> minimizing the number of bites I get. But last weekend, I walked
> barefoot into the back yard and within a minute I had at least a dozen
> fleas on my my feet and ankles so I decided to spray.
>
> I bought a 2 gal sprayer at WalMart and mixed around 10 oz Ant, Flea,
> Tick & Mosquito Killer (permethrin 2.5%) in 16 gal water for my 1800
> sq ft yard. This helped some but there are still fleas so I suppose I
> need to put down more insecticide next time. In addition, it took
> around an hour and a half to cover the yard. This was ok to do once
> but if I'm going to have to spray once or twice a month throughout the
> summer, I need to find a way to put down product a lot faster.
>
> Home Depot has a couple of 4 gal backpack sprayers and also
> insecticide that comes in a spray bottle that you attach to a garden
> hose. Will any of these delivery systems let me cover my yard in 20
> minutes or so?
>
> Also, I have some Dursban (chlorpyritos 6%) left over from a year or
> two ago. Is it more effective than permethrin in killing fleas? Is
> it likely to still be good now or do these chemicals degrade after a
> couple of years?
For the outside treatment I would just buy the pre-mixed product that
you attach to your garden hose and spray directly to the yard ($10-$20
bucks). If you don't (probably won't) use all of the product, you detach
the container from the hose then place it on the shelf until the next
time to treat. The development stage where the fleas are in a "cocoon",
they will be protected from your treatment and depending on what sort of
residual the product you are using has (doubtful more than a week) a
retreatment is almost always necesary, if not more than one retreat.
Maybe treat three times every ten days and see what happens. Doesn't
really matter what product you may use.
Lar
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