Outdoor Flea Control
Outdoor flea control is an essential part of your overall flea control strategy. It doesn’t do any good to treat your dog for fleas if he goes to your backyard and picks up more. Fleas only spend about 15 percent of their life cycle on your dog. The rest of the time they are off the dog, hopping around and laying eggs. This means they are present in your yard and you must kill them outdoors if you wish to get rid of them for good.
Clean Up Your Yard
Before you start applying any products to your yard you will need to pick up things in your yard so fleas won’t have so many places to hide. You should remove piles of leaves, branches, and any litter in the yard. PIck up anything in the yard that gives fleas a place to hide.
Natural Flea Control
There are some very good methods of natural flea control to use in your yard that can destroy fleas. You can use desiccants, for example. These products include borax and diatomaceous earth. They dry out fleas when the fleas come in contact with them. Diatomaceous earth has a hard edge that rakes off the exoskeleton of fleas, leaving them exposed to sun and air, which kills them. These are good products to use because they don’t harm pets or people.
You can also use beneficial nematodes. These nematodes (Steinernama carpocapsae) are tiny worms which eat fleas. They only live at temperatures below 95 degrees and above 45 degrees so they have a limited effectiveness but if you live in regions where they can be useful, they can get rid of fleas for you.
Yard Flea Sprays
You can also use one of the very good yard flea sprays for your yard. These sprays are easy to use and very effective. In most cases you simply attach the sprayer to your garden hose and spray your yard. These are chemical sprays and some people don’t like to use chemicals on their yards, however. Make sure you buy a yard flea spray that is safe to use around children and pets.
Gardens
If you have a garden or flower beds around your house you may want to use cedar mulch. Cedar is a natural flea repellant so using cedar mulch in your garden and flower beds can help keep fleas away.
You can also plant flowers such as chrysanthemums, marigolds, and other plants in the chrysanthemum family. Chrysanthemums and related plants contain pyrethrins which are natural insecticides. In other parts of the world they are grown for use in insecticides and flea products. Most pyrethrins for insecticides in the world come from Kenya. If you live in a warm climate you can also grow citrus trees such as lemon trees and orange trees. Citrus trees are another natural defense against fleas. Limonene and other elements from citrus will kill fleas.
Where To Treat
You will need to treat your entire yard, as well as areas such as your garage, patio, and other places close to your house. Be sure to treat garden areas, too.
At the same time you are treating your yard for fleas you will also need to treat your house and your dog for fleas.
Conclusion
There are a number of good ways to get rid of fleas in your yard ranging from natural products such as diatomaceous earth and using plants in the chrysanthemum family to using good chemical yard sprays. The important thing to remember is that when you treat your yard for fleas you must also treat your house and your dog.
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