"I used to work for a couple who started their own business killing
fleas in other people's homes. They did this after their first baby was
miscarried right after a several week seige of horrendous fleas after
they moved into an older home. The exterminator did his thing, wife
became deathly ill, and the tiny infant died by spontaneous abortion.

The father is a professor at the School of Pharmacy at a well known
southern university. He determined that he would find a product that
would only kill fleas, not people.

When he found this combination, it worked so well he started a side
business (I was the office mgr/sales) that was extremely successful
until the drugs that you put on your pets skin to kill fleas overcame
the need for home treatment. They packaged their formulation and
retailed it and got out of the "extermination" business so wife could
home school the kids.

The formula is 1 part borax, 1 part boric acid, one part TSP (Trisodium
Phosphate). Mix well in a large pail with a tight fitting lid (save the
left over for next time)

If you have carpet in your home, you must vacuum vigorously tow or three
times the day before you treat the carpets. This vibrates the eggs
embedded in the carpet (that fell off the cat or dog) and removes some
of them and some of the "flea dirt" that also falls off the dog or cat
and remains in the carpet to feed the larvae that hatch. This reduces
considerably the number of fleas that end up having to be killed later.

Shake the powder over the surface of the carpet until it looks like
frost on grass! Not too much, not too little. Now get the broom and push
it, groom it into the carpet.If you have little ones or crawlers, be
vigilant to keep them off the carpet until you next vacuum. The longer
you can leave it the better...but after three or four days it is ok.
Then vacuum each day for a week to remove the dead fleas, dead larvae
and any excess powder. Some powder will remain deep in the carpet,
killing any eggs that fall into it and hatch. It also kills any larvae
or adult fleas that come into contact with it as it injures their bodies
and they become dehydrated and die.

The couple used to guarantee this treatment for a year, but I know that
some people were able to go as long as three years without any signs of
new infestation. Some even steam cleaned their carpets and still no fleas!

All of this without treating the dog or cat at all. If you care about
your pets, you would not want to hurt them with poisonous commercial
pesticides would you?

If you have hardwood floors, purchasing a few remnants of pile carpet,
and treating them yearly worked just as well. You can just roll them up
and store them until next year!

Those who had berber and tightly woven carpets sometimes needed a finer
milling of the ingredients so that the treatment could penetrate to the
backing of the rug more easily.

If you want to vacuum every day, vigorously....you could probably
eliminate all but a few fleas....but who has time to do that! And you
would have to vacuum every inch probably. Most infestations are so
severe by the time you notice them (bites on YOU, fleas and flea dirt in
pet's fur). Just vacuuming a lot just stirs them up!

Just do this treatment once every year or so. Easier!"

Organic Churchlady

On Sep 5, 12:06*pm, Char wrote:
"I used to work for a couple who started their own business killing
fleas in other people's homes. They did this after their first baby was
miscarried right after a several week seige of horrendous fleas after
they moved into an older home. The exterminator did his thing, wife
became deathly ill, and the tiny infant died by spontaneous abortion.

The father is a professor at the School of Pharmacy at a well known
southern university. He determined that he would find a product that
would only kill fleas, not people.

When he found this combination, it worked so well he started a side
business (I was the office mgr/sales) that was extremely successful
until the drugs that you put on your pets skin to kill fleas overcame
the need for home treatment. They packaged their formulation and
retailed it and got out of the "extermination" business so wife could
home school the kids.

The formula is 1 part borax, 1 part boric acid, one part TSP (Trisodium
Phosphate). Mix well in a large pail with a tight fitting lid (save the
left over for next time)

If you have carpet in your home, you must vacuum vigorously tow or three
times the day before you treat the carpets. This vibrates the eggs
embedded in the carpet (that fell off the cat or dog) and removes some
of them and some of the "flea dirt" that also falls off the dog or cat
and remains in the carpet to feed the larvae that hatch. This reduces
considerably the number of fleas that end up having to be killed later.

Shake the powder over the surface of the carpet until it looks like
frost on grass! Not too much, not too little. Now get the broom and push
it, groom it into the carpet.If you have little ones or crawlers, be
vigilant to keep them off the carpet until you next vacuum. The longer
you can leave it the better...but after three or four days it is ok.
Then vacuum each day for a week to remove the dead fleas, dead larvae
and any excess powder. Some powder will remain deep in the carpet,
killing any eggs that fall into it and hatch. It also kills any larvae
or adult fleas that come into contact with it as it injures their bodies
and they become dehydrated and die.

The couple used to guarantee this treatment for a year, but I know that
some people were able to go as long as three years without any signs of
new infestation. Some even steam cleaned their carpets and still no fleas!

All of this without treating the dog or cat at all. If you care about
your pets, you would not want to hurt them with poisonous commercial
pesticides would you?

If you have hardwood floors, purchasing a few remnants of pile carpet,
and treating them yearly worked just as well. You can just roll them up
and store them until next year!

Those who had berber and tightly woven carpets sometimes needed a finer
milling of the ingredients so that the treatment could penetrate to the
backing of the rug more easily.

If you want to vacuum every day, vigorously....you could probably
eliminate all but a few fleas....but who has time to do that! And you
would have to vacuum every inch probably. Most infestations are so
severe by the time you notice them (bites on YOU, fleas and flea dirt in
pet's fur). Just vacuuming a lot just stirs them up!

Just do this treatment once every year or so. Easier!"

Organic Churchlady

Thanks, on the boric acid and borax idea. I've experimented
with the idea around the house on sugar ants with some
success. It add something I've seen used and that I've
used against fleas on hard surface floors. A bucket of
water plus a small amount of kerosene. I've seen floor
hopping with newly hatched fleas cleared. I've used this
on the dog as well. On the other hand, I've seen fleas
literally hopping out of flea pesticide powder that was spread
on an infested floor. I cured my nephews floor and dog
in the manner I just mentioned. The biggest risk was
cleaning up the pesticide powder I suspect.

In recent years I've used several Frontline doses spread through
the years on my dogs. I figured it was safer for me than
the other commercial means of killing fleas. But I wondered
about the risks of Frontline for the dogs.

Comments welcome.

Trig

PS.
I no longer feed my dogs food or even dog vitamins.
They do get some grains (mainly rice and oats) and soy
protein though but at least it is human grade. Additional
I give the dogs a rather large dose of vitamin D3.
This seems to be a big help on the oldest dog as it
clearly helps with muscle strength just like in elderly
humans. And further I was surprised how well
the dogs like veggies such carrot both cooked and
raw, parsley cooked in ground beef, and broccoli
cooked in ground beef. I've yet to try a raw meat diet
on the dogs.