Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Because of my cats, I now have fleas in my room, where I keep my ball, corn, and leopard gecko. I wasn't sure about using those flea bombs because you have to leave the house for something like a day, and I figured those would probably kill my snakes, even if I took them out of the house, I'm paranoid the fumes would linger. So I got this stuff called diatomaceous earth to kill the fleas. It's NOT going in the enclosures, just around my room, but I don't know if this is harmful to reptiles or not. I'm wary because I remember reading a post here a few months ago about someone's whole collection being wiped out because they vacuumed their house, and some chemical was in and released in the air which the snakes breathed, and thus all died. If this stuff is no good, what else can I use to get rid of the fleas in the house without harming the reptiles??
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0.1 ball python (Kilimanjaro)
1.0 amel corn snake (Houdini)
0.0.1 leopard gecko (Charlie)
1.1 cats (Kitty & Milo)
0.1 mouse (Creepers)

DE or diatomaceous earth are the skeletal remains of single celled organisms or Diatoms. Although not a chemical.......if this stuff becomes airborne it can be harmful to anything that breaths it in. As for it being toxic.........not at all.......DE is used in some fish tak filters.....I personally own a Diatom filter and i works wonders fo rmy fish tanks to polish the water.......

Wh not try Provent-a-mite, Black Knight or go to your local Walgreens and get RID lice spray...it has the same active ingredient ( Permethrin ) as the other bug killers and it causes a serious muscular contraction , basically causing their bodies to contract ( hearts, brains, muscles ) causing a quick death in insects........

Just my opinion....

Jared
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~ ASK ME ABOUT MY BALLS ~

I agree with Jared. DE should not be harmful but i would try PAM first. Speaking of DE I had to bypass a DE filter on a pool system I was switching it over to a pond and the DE filter would not release the pressure even after bumping it several times. I tought it would errupt and hurt someone. Sorry off topic. Not everyday you get to turn someones inground pool in to a pond. LOL exciting.
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Thanks and Take Care
Thomas Jones
Thomas@rockinreptiles.com

I would agree with Jared. But if you look at the active ingredients on some of the household sprays to kill fleas and ticks in your home, some of them also use permethrens.

Steve

DE is very harmful. I work as a professional brewer. We use DE as our primary filter medium and wear masks whenever using DE, even in an enclosed environment. It can cause ulcerative bleeding of the lungs in anything that breathes it. DO NOT use it under any circumstances.

Thanks. I appreciate everyone's responses, but if there's even a chance my animals will breath it and be harmed by it, I'm not using it. I already know about PAM, however I'm not trying to get rid of fleas in the snakes enclosures, just fleas in general in the house. I just want to use something for the fleas in the house that is not harmful to reptiles.
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0.1 ball python (Kilimanjaro)
1.0 amel corn snake (Houdini)
0.0.1 leopard gecko (Charlie)
1.1 cats (Kitty & Milo)
0.1 mouse (Creepers)