It has been suggested to get rid of fleas, to place a bowl of soapy water with a floating candle in the middle at night. The fleas are supposed to be attracted to the light and jump into water and they will die.

I'm hesitant to use this method because of the candle. What do you guys think?

Also if have any ideas to get rid of fleas. I'd be glad to hear of some.

I'm no expert on this but... if it's just the attraction to the light, could you use a Beeswax Tea light, where the fumes aren't harmful? If the birds are in a different room and it's at night when they aren't out of their cages, then I don't think it would be a problem.

Others should have some more thoughts!

You shouldn't have problems provided you use a high quality non-scented candle with a cotton core/braid or paper core wick (almost all beeswax candles will have cotton core or cotton braided wicks incidentally).

As far as I understand, it's the chemicals from scenting candles that cause the danger... the other danger comes from the fact that some wicks are zinc core wicks - you actually burn a strip of zinc when you burn the candle. The zinc makes for a really hot flame so you can A. Make bigger candles, B. Get your wick straighter inside your piller or moulded candles and C. Burn a lower quality wax because the high heat flame will take care of pretty much any wax. This makes it a popular choice for companies that want to make cheap candles or thick pillar candles. Some tea lights can also have lead in them... Ikea tealights were recalled some time ago because they could accidentally expose you to lead.

I wouldn't burn the candles under your bird's cage or anything, but a single tealight burning in another room shouldn't hurt anything. Just make sure it's a high quality candle. Comparing the burning of a single tealight with having fleas in your house... my personal opinion is that it would be the lesser of two evils. I'd imagine the fleas and flea born diseases are a lot more dangerous to a QP Can anyone here shed some light on that for me?

I use the small tealights that Ikea sells with no problems.

Where can I find a good quality beeswax candle?

Also I have also heard of sprinkling salt on carpet to get rid of fleas.

Anyone know if this works?

You can also use soy candles. These are supposed to be non toxic to birds. My sister makes candles so if I tried this I know she would make me some small ones.

personally if I have a flea problem in carpet I sprinkle flea powder all over the carpet and let it set for a day or two then Vacuum...do it again in a week so to get any eggs or new hatches...just make sure NOT to sprinkle the powder with the birds in the room I do this after they go to bed...once in the carpet it will settle down in it and shouldn't become air borne at this point...I would also NOT vacuum it up with the birds in the room either. JMO and this has worked for me in the past. As long as your pets have fleas you won't be able to rid the fleas 100%..best to get them on a good flea program like Advantage etc. good luck again this is just my Opinion

The one thing to understand is the lifecycle of the flea so I found this website
http://www.howtogetridofstuff.com/pest-con...t-rid-of-fleas/

It also has some natural ways of getting rid of fleas and even a flea trap but the most important thing is to get rid of as many flea eggs, fleas and larva as you can before even trying any sort of trap etc... The article will explain how.

I am also a big fan of 20 mule team for insect control but I would never let pets walk on areas I sprinkled it on until I vaccumed and mopped it up really good. 20 mule team when sprinkled on a carpet for example dries the eggs, larva and fleas out but you have to leave it on the carpet for a few days. I would only suggest this if it was a real bad infestation or a last resort tho.


good luck

That's right, you have to break the cycle...that means for a period of several months to be safe, every 7-10 days you need to do something to kill the larvae and the nits (for lack of better word) and the eggs Other wise the problem just continues....You also need to spray your yard and around the base of the foundation As well as rid all your other critters. Advantage is an excellent product and they have it for both dogs and cats. Which reminds me, I need to do it again! Danged fleas anyway!

Thanks for the ideas.

I'm hoping to get rid of them without having to bomb. I plan on picking up some flea product for my dogs today along with anything else I think will work.

Remember, anyplace the dogs lay (couch, chairs, floor etc) needs to be treated...

Even with Bombing it won't always kill the eggs or larvae so you'd need to do it again in just a few days...

Our dogs are not allowed in the main part of the house. We have an enclosed back porch (at least thats what we call it)that has a dog door and we have the refrigerator back there. So I'm thinking thats how we are bringing them into the house. None of that area (back porch) is carpeted, so it should be fairly easy to treat. It's the main house that I'm having a hard time figuring out how to treat it. Since the birds are in that area. Hopefully I can get it taken care of.

Well I have used the flea powder. I moved all birds to my bedroom and shut door. The stuff was pratty strong smelling, smelled like lemons. So I freaked out and vaccumed it up after 15-20min. And aired out the house by opening all windows and turning on fans. Well this seemed to help at the time, but now that it is 1:30am and all windows are shut. I am smelling it in my room. Will this be a problem? PLease tell me it won't be. If there is anything I need to do different, let me know.

One kind of neat thing Ive seen are what is called a flea trap - which is basically just a warm lightbulb attached to a glue trap. Theyll jump to anything that generates heat. So all you need is a lamp or other lightbulb that generates a noticeable amount of heat - set it up over a small, broad dish or pan filled with soapy water. The fleas think theyre jumping on your dog or cat - and they end up stuck in the water instead.

Eucalyptus Leaves
You can get them at any craft store. For some reason the fleas don't like the smell of it. Putting cedar chips along your bird room will keep the fleas from spreading around the house or visa vera.

and finally: put water in a pie tin, and a squirt of dish soap. Sat it under tables or beds or anywhere. Fleas are stupid. They jump in and drown. Many little flea bodies will be inthe bottom of the tin by morning.

with the weather being so nice I would take the fids outside for a while - in their cages if possible and supervised of course and let them get some fresh air and sunshice while the flea powder sits in the carpet - then vacuum it up and bring everyone back in.

what if you just put a flashlight standing up in the water? if you duct tape the end the batteries go in, they're water proof.

Thanks for all the suggestions. We had a really bad infestation and ended up having to bomb the house along with treating the yard and dogs twice. Since the first time didn't work.


We had thought about this, but we have had so much rain lately that the mosquitos are rampant here(not sure if rain had anything to do with the fleas too, maybe) that I just didn't want to chance them being bitten by one. I'm not even sure if it would bother the fids or if mosquitos bite birds, but didn't want to take the risk.
But hopefully we have taken care of the fleas.

Yeah mosquitos are a huge danger now depending on where you live. We live in Maryland and even though people are no longer getting sick from the west nile virus we are still finding dead song birds. two weeks ago it was a scarlet tanager. The west nile virus is much more dangerous to birds than humans. Although I don't think it has gotten to california yet I know it has made its way to texas already.

I am guessing that since your dogs have flea problems you are probably using flea collars or dips/powders. Most of these are not really good for the dog or people, and do not work nearly as well on ticks or fleas than the new products that are applied once a month. You probably want to think about ticks even if you don't see them me, my husband, and my sister have all gotten lymes this year and it is miserable. If it is not caught soon there is permanent neurological damage, I have seen both dogs and horses put down because they were in so much pain.

Advantage: just fleas, but pretty good at that.
Frontline: fleas for 2-3 months depending on how frequently you was ticks for 1 month

Advantix: ingredients found in advantage plus permethrin it claims to do ticks, fleas, and mosquitos for 1 month.

I have never used advantix because permethrin (an ingredient that used to be in people bug spray before they found out it can be toxic it is still found in anti-insect clothing) can cause illness in dogs particularly small thin skinned dogs(the company has actually put out a warning to vets), and since the stuff is designed to be absorbed into the skin and remain there if your dog has a bad reaction there is not much you can do.

I bathed my dogs in Dawn soap, and then applied Frontline spray. I have never used a flea collar or have had them dipped. But thanks for the info.

Yeah, same here Catherine

The recall was about 3-4 years ago... apparently one piece of the candle holder wound up being made of lead because it was cheap and they recalled them as a precaution because people might handle it. I don't remember a whole lot about it other than my mom being mad because she'd bought about 5 bags of 100 tealights each not a week or two before they announced they contained lead