A Gardeners Forum Forums General Discussion Plant pests and problems Fleas?

I was pulling weeds from between the bricks in my patio and started to notice little things jumping around. At first I thought it was just stuff being blown by the wind but on closer inspection they look like fleas to me. As I got closer to where some type of grass is growing kind of long, I noticed more and more of them. I remember my brother telling me once that they live in grass. Is this true? I'm pulling out all that grass, will this make them go away? We don't have any pets so I'm not worried about that but our neighbor/landlord has a dog and we've gotten fleas in our house before. I thought it was from them but now I'm not so sure. I'm concerned because fleas REALLY like me and I get litte rashes where they bite me and it itches so bad it wakes me up at night. What can I do, please help me!

There are other grass-loving jumping bugs. Did you get bitten when you were working today?
I dislike bugs that I don't know are helpful. And I am not necessarily an organic gardener. If there is a 'group' of something or a mass invasion, I spray.

I don't know yet if I was bit, I'll know by the time I wake up tomorrow. There are all kinds of things I'm finding out there that I don't know are good or not but it was only the flea like things that there seemed to be a lot of. I've never sprayed or used any chemicals. Not because I want to be an organic gardener but more of a letting nature take care of itself sort of thing. Plus, we have a lot of neighborhood outdoor cats. Now that the grass is all pulled we'll see if those bugs find another home or not.

Our neighbor had a problem last year with fleas in their yard. Luckily it was a neighbor across the street. Jeremy had told them to put lime on their yard to get rid of them. I don't know what that does to the grass or if it has any potential hazards to animals. You could do a search on the internet to find out. They did end up putting it on there and I didn't hear of them having any more problems after that. Their grass was already kind of on the patchy brownish side. I didn't notice any other damage to their yard. I would do some research on it first to make sure. It would definitely be easier getting rid of them while they're outside before they make their way in the house.

You may try getting one from the yard and taking it to a local pest control place or a vet clinic. They would be able to tell you quickly if it is a flea or not before you have to treat the yard and possibly the house.

you can put cedar chip's around in ur yard
if flea's they don't like cedar.

Jocyln, they were definitely jumping. They had that spring loaded jump that fleas have but they were quite big. I was wearing long pants, long sleeves, and gloves, and shook and patted myself a good one before coming in the house. So far I have no bites.

Thanks Rachel, I'll look into lime. Couldn't hurt the yard, I don't have one. It wasn't the yard kind of grass that you mow, it was the longer weed type of grass and I pulled it so hopefully that will help.

Bettyboop, I just may get some cedar to put over there, it would look nice. Thanks for the idea.

we put cedar in our dog pen and the fleas and flies don't live there. Smells good too.