Treating fleas in mammals and keeping reptiles safe.

[Cruciform]

I found a flea in the snake room tonight, so the whole house is going to get the treatment.

Obviously the cats will have no problem with most of the treatments available out there, but should we look for anything specific to prevent toxicity to the snakes.

I don't want to dose the carpets only to find out that a chemical in the flea treatment poses a serious danger to reptiles in the vicinity.

I'll be moving them upstairs when we treat the basement, and back down again when we do the upstairs. I just don't want to get burned if even the tiniest amount of residue causes problems.

Any recommendations?

[Stockwell]

Mike, most flea compounds wont be a problem to herps. You might find some contain the same stuff used in reptile mite treatments anyway namely pyrethrin or permethrin in fact in the old days flea collars were used in Reptile cages to kill mites, and this was deemed safer than vapona, but I never tried it myself. I suspect flea collars might contain dichlorvos the same thing as vapona.
I'm not sure what the active ingredient is in flea powder

I have however used prevent a mite to completely irradicate fleas and mouse mites from the rodent room. That stuff is also the best darn ant killer.

Tropical fish and any insect colonies are likely more of a worry than the herps when it comes to consumer flea powder. My parents say it doesn't work very well anyway and resorted to tossing blocks of Vapona under their couch

[Cruciform]

I went looking for Prevent-a-mite and Sevin Dust, and the pet shops (Petsmart and SuperPet) had no clue what they were. Where's the best place to get em in Southern Ontario?

We got a bottle of the squirt stuff in the meantime, but I wasn't overly fond of it when I had to clean out an infested apartment. It caused muscle twitches in me, so smaller animals might have trouble.

[Asian Jon]

Cruciform:
I'm not sure how far you want to travel, but the Superpet in London has some. I've some some provent-a-mite cans in the Superpet on the corner of Exeter Rd. and Wellington Rd. I go there to buy crix and I've always been able to spot the cans when I browse around. They are around $40 :eek: (I forget the exact cost). You can probably order some online, but I haven't looked into that so I don't know what the prices are like.

[Cruciform]

I was actually at Superpet today and two staff members in Customer Service said they'd never heard of either product. I tried Prevent/Provent on them as well as the Sevin dust.

Guess I'll have to try again. :)

[Asian Jon]

LOL! Most of the workers there are totally oblivious that they are even selling the product. I asked one staff member who didn't know what it was and she asked a second staff member who showed me where it was on the shelf. When I went to pay for it up front the cashier asked me if I got the can from one of THEIR shelves. The provent-a-mite cans should be in the same aisle as the calcium supplements for reptiles, crested gecko diet etc...

[Cruciform]

Found it! Thanks :)
It doesn't have a bar code she could scan so that's probably what confused her :)