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Had enough of your Schnauzer for one day. Then sit back, relax and put your feet up. You can let off a little steam here about things unrelated to your four-legged schnauzer.
Monday night I noticed Jasper was covered in fleas, hes had an occasional one in the past which Ive just searched and popped to get rid of them, but we must have picked and squished 50 fleas off him. Didnt know if it was from cliff walks or in the garden. He has a little fenced bit where he can go anytime then the rest is lawn and some left to go wild bits. I've kept him in the fenced bit and avoided the cliffs this week to try to find out where they came from and there haven't been anymore. Hubby let him in the main garden bit yesterday as a test and he was covered in fleas again last night
How do you get rid of fleas in the garden ?
I dont give Jasper any chemical flea treatments and didnt give Barney any either and in all this time they never got fleas like this, I'm at a loss. He's so infested and with it being our garden I'm considering giving him a treatment to make sure they dont breed on him and end up in the house
Our first family dog
Barney - Pocketpark Biali Eyebright 6/2/13 - 8/3/19 Gone too soon Motto for owners who groom their own Schnauzers -"Never mind it'll soon grow back"
Poor Jasper. You can try Diatomaceous Earth Powder. Mix it in a water solution and spray it on the lawn. Should kill the fleas and is not harmful to humans and animals. It is not fast acting, so may take some time. An alternative is to use nematodes. You get a variety for lawn fleas, which is probably what you have. Similar process of spraying it on with a MiracleGro hose sprayer.
Hope you manage to get it sorted. It's probably because we had such a wet winter / spring.
Dean (Dog dad)
Rupert, black mini, 24/12/10 - 01/03/24
Watson, black mini born 21/02/12
I offer my advice freely, but I am not an expert, breeder, groomer or behaviourist. It is simply my experience of raising pups in a way that seems to make sense.
That does sound awful - I think the changes in the climate are affecting all kinds of things from plants to mammals, birds..and fleas. It may have been a particularly ‘good’ year for fleas where you are perhaps. Horrible to have to deal with though.
Generally speaking as far as I know eggs laid on a dog will be shaken off to go through development stages in the environment rather than remaining on the skin/fur. It is a worry that the home will be affected and we have a couple of times over the past decade had to resort to chemical treatment in the house to clear eggs and developing fleas when we had a problem with the dogs although nothing as bad as you describe with poor Jasper.
As regards treating the dogs themselves we have used Cedarcide brushed through the fur and also sprayed on their bedding. It does have a noticeable cedar wood scent but is non toxic to dogs and people and our dogs do seem to have tolerated it well. You can buy as just a spray bottle or with a special brush. The product is produced in the USA where they do have an outdoor product for treating outside spaces but I haven’t seen that offered by any U.K. outlets. We did use the spray on an infestation of ants on the patio and it does work outside but not really practical for a large area I would have thought.
There are a few links here to this with more information:
Another natural product that will kill a range of insects including fleas outside is diatomaceous earth. The only issues I could see with this is that in dry windy weather it may blow around and can be irritating to the lungs if it is inhaled and I don’t know whether it would affect other creatures who are beneficial to the garden.
We did get him flea free last night. He went for a swim in the sea and they all migrated onto his head and neck to avoid drowning Poor Jasper was then shivering to death as around another 50 were picked off and squished on the beach Thank goodness he's white and they're easy to see. Grooming him this morning I didn't see one.
I have got diatomaceous earth so I'll try the spray in the fenced bit as I'm sure there are some there too. The wild bit and lawn area is large so without knowing exactly where they are it would be difficult to treat with nematodes etc I am going to chop it all down this weekend as that's perfect environment for them and cut the lawn extra short. Just a shame about the other wildlife living in it but I want him to have access to the garden.
I've got lavender essential oil to put drops on his collar when he goes out so I'll look for some cedar oil too.
It just weird how theyve appeared he hasn't had any fleas previous to Monday and he goes in the garden multiple times everyday. For now he's confined poor boy he keeps going to the gate wanting to go for a run and a mooch.
Our first family dog
Barney - Pocketpark Biali Eyebright 6/2/13 - 8/3/19 Gone too soon Motto for owners who groom their own Schnauzers -"Never mind it'll soon grow back"
Poor Jasper was then shivering to death as around another 50 were picked off and squished on the beach 
Thank goodness he's white and they're easy to see. Grooming him this morning I didn't see one.