Reptile & Amphibian Forums

So my roomates dogs have terrible fleas, and our house is becoming overrun with ants.. and were going to set off one of those bug bomb things to try and kill all the stuff. I was thinking I needed to take my snakes out while I do this but it would probably be fairly stressful to move them for a few hours and then move them again not to mention I dont know what I would put my 5'er in. Has anyone does this with herps in the house? would it be ok to just close my door and put a towel under it so fumes dont get in?

Thanks,

J
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"It's my snake, I trained it, so I'm going to eat it!" - Mad Max, The Road Warrior

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Hey,
Where do you live, and do you know someone that can take the herps in for a couple of days for you.? The short and long of it, is, that I would not set off a bomb, in the house without knowing for sure if the herps will survive the chemicals. Chances are they might not, so why risk it. Wait till you can get someone to take them for you, a border, a pet shop or someone. Call around!
-Angel
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"Until we lose our self, there is no way of finding our self."
-Henry Miller.

Yes thats what I was planning, just checking to make sure I wasn't being over cautious as I so often am. I would be a little nervous about leaving them with someone as well but it seems like the lesser worry. Hopefully it will actually get rid of the fleas.. but there pretty rampant.

J
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"It's my snake, I trained it, so I'm going to eat it!" - Mad Max, The Road Warrior

Hey J,
Nip it in the butt!
-Angel
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"Until we lose our self, there is no way of finding our self."
-Henry Miller.

As for the ant a bug bomg will only kill the ants in the house. The rest of the colony will be back in a day or so looking for more food. To really rid yourself of the ants you need to destroy the colony. Follow the ants to the source and wait for night fall set off one or more bug bombs directly down the hole. Hopefully this will fumigate the whole colony including the queen. Or at least make the colony move to a new location. Night is the best time as ants all return to the colony and are pretty much inactive and you can get them all.

Now the fleas are a whole 'nother matter. The bug bomb will kill adult, sub-adult fleas but not the eggs residing in your house and yard. Again you may have a day or two of respite but they will be back. The last dying thing adult fleas will do is lay eggs. Farnum/Bio Groom makes a flea spray with IGR(internal growth regulator called BioSpot) this will prevent fleas from reaching adult hood once they hatch. No adult hood=no egg laying. This would have to be sprayed on carpet, wood flooring, baseboards, any place the fleas may go to lay their eggs. The yard can be treated with crystal type of incecticide, used to be able to get Diazanon but that's been taken off the market, I'm not sure what's available now. Check the garden department at your LHIC and read labels for what will kill fleas. Best to use the crystal type as opposed to the liquid, it can be applied with a garden spreader. The crystal has a longer residual effect and will kill the fleas as the eggs hatch. Use according to directions. BTW the dogs need to be bathed and treated with the BioSpot also.

Or you can ignore this post bomb the house and see what happens.

Either way move the snakes/herps out.
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Hope this helps.

BigT

Thanks T that helps I think they were planning on spraying some sort of flea stuff and then bombing. I know it wont kill the colony but we did it to the house before we moved in 2 years ago and it cleared it up.. they just slowly came back, but we will probably be gone before it becomes a big problem again. I keep telling them to do something to the yard to.. but they dont listen. There not my dogs so I'm not paying for any of the flea stuff, but they think they can just put stuff on the dogs and that will be the end.. theres always people with other dogs coming over and strays walking around so they will definately be back no matter but there pretty bad right now so we just need to do something.
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"It's my snake, I trained it, so I'm going to eat it!" - Mad Max, The Road Warrior