Gary Nunn wrote:
I grew up in the country and lived on and around farms for most of my
childhood. I have NEVER seen fleas as bad as the ones I have seen
this year.
My ex-wife bought our daughter a Yorkie mix mutt, and I am amazed at
how many fleas he attracts and how quickly they infest him. I haven't
seen any fleas in the carpet or around the house, but I treated the
carpets anyway. I bathe him in flea shampoo, give him the recommended
flea spray, change and treat his bedding and the areas on the carpet
he likes to sleep on (I treat the whole carpet, but do extra in his
favorite spots), but yet, 3 or 4 days later he is crawling with them
again. He is an inside dog, with only potty trips outside.
I even tried the stuff that only the vet can dispense, that is
supposed to work 3 months, and it worked for about a week.
We have had a couple of mild winters and I'm sure that's why the
fleas and insects are so bad this year.
Any suggestions on flea control? (shaving the dog completely bald is
an option, but not terribly realistic!)
Try feeding the dog brewer's yeast & garlic.
This is what we were using for awhile:
http://www.biconet.com/pets/garlicBits.html
The page cited above says it's not noticeable to humans, but we noticed
an increase in flatulence with one of our dogs when we were feeding this
to them. (And she was capable of some pretty extreme flatulence at
times, so that part of it wasn't pleasant. But it was nicer than having
fleas in the house.)
The fleas are a major annoyance, but the spiders have driven me
crazy. I truly HATE spiders. I can deal with the little ones and
Daddy Long Legs, but the big wolf spiders scare me almost to the
point of immobility.
A few months ago, my daughter started screaming that there was a huge
spider in the living room. I assumed she was exaggerating and went
down to check it out. I moved a toy to look, and this huge spider
was sitting there (see link below) . I couldn't move. Then it
started doing that slow Hollywood spider walk across the floor
towards the couch. The only thing that scared me more than this
spider in front of me, was this spider hiding somewhere in my house.
I first thing I could lay my hands on was a glass mixing bowl. I
made the maintenance guy come in and get rid of it and fix the hole
that I think it came in.
http://tinyurl.com/btsoz http://makeashorterlink.com/?Z211528EB
http://www.europastation.com/gary/spider-1-june15-2005.jpg
I looked it up online, and I am reasonably sure it was a Wolf spider.
The only two poisonous spiders that are indigenous to Ohio are Black
Widows and the Brown Recluse, and this was definitely neither. The
good news, I learned during my research, was that it probably came in
from the outside because there isn't an adequate food source of
insects in my apartment to support a spider of this size. I hope.
I realize that there are much bigger spiders, but I have NEVER seen
one this big in Indiana or Ohio - except in a glass cage at the zoo.
Yuck!
Gary
~ the arachnophobia poster child.
I don't know what to tell you about the spiders, except that you're more
arachnophobic than I am. :)
I leave the smaller spiders alone in the house, because if they spin
webs under the cabinets, they'll get some of the smaller scorpions.
(We've had one or two "bigger" scorpions in the house this year; it's
been significantly more than that in past years. Of course, I haven't
cleaned out the storm shelter lately, so who KNOWS what's in there?) As
long as the spider isn't a black widow or a brown recluse, eh, it's not
hurting much of anything. Now, what scares ME are the scorpions.
My three scariest scorpion stories involve the twins being in close
proximity to the situation. Tommy got stung by one on one of those
occasions. (At least now I know what to do if one of the kids gets
stung.... Administer Benadryl and call the doctor, and keep an eye on
the kid for a couple of hours and call 911 if there's difficulty
breathing or massive swelling. Always, always, always have Benadryl
syrup on hand if you have a kid and live in Texas. The quick-dissolve
tabs work if the kid will tolerate them, and those are a lot more
portable than a bottle of syrup. Handy to have on hand in case you
encounter previously unknown food allergies, as well.)
Julia
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