Flea Wars – Episode IV
The top two rectangles are both from the SpringStar, the circle is from the Victor, and last one on the lower right in the plastic bag is from the Enforcer. These glue boards prove a couple of the things: they all catch fleas, and I had a really big problem.
The reason I have two glue boards for the SpringStar is because the one on the left costs over $2, while the one on the right is a Real-Kill Household Pest Glue Board that I cut to fit in the SpringStar and it cost right at $1. Frankly if cash is tight and you don’t have pets, a small night light over a Real-Kill will attract fleas, and anything else with six or more legs.
If you do have pets, you need to have the glue boards in an enclosure. The reason the Enforcer board is in a plastic bag is because I put it in the bag to prevent the cats from getting stuck to it, and it is firmly stuck to the bag. You need mineral spirits to dissolve the glue.
If you have cats, the SpringStar is your best choice, with the addition of a couple of pieces of tape to keep the grill in place. The Real-Kill boards really pull down the cost.
If only have a medium sized dog, the Enforcer will work for you. It has a wide grill over it, but it will keep out dog noses and paws. It is also available at most Ace Hardware stores, unlike the others that I had to order over the ‘Net. It acts as a night light and uses an LED, so it uses less power than the other two that have always on 5-watt incandescent bulbs.
If you can keep your pets out of your kitchen, the Victor is the best all-around insect assassin in a pre-packaged form. There is a wasp, a lost roach. several spiders, flies and gnats on the circle of death. It also has the most expensive glue boards.
If you have pets and can use tools, you can save yourself some money by building an enclosure for the Real-Kill boards using hardware cloth and some scrap lumber. If you use ¼-inch version of the hardware cloth you can leave a slot at one end to slide the boards in and out. There are non-sticky ends on the glue boards that make it easier. It still needs a light on it to attract the fleas.
Of course the real solution is to do something about climate change so we can have a couple of freezes every year to kill the majority of the fleas.
5 comments
thank you for this!
I’ve been wondering how gluey the glue was, for one thing. also, I’ve got 1/4″ hardware cloth and scrap lumber left over from cat-proofing some other things, and I’ve got a couple of those small led booklights – I might try making something from scratch.
where do I get glue boards?
The Real-Kill boards are at most grocery and department stores, as well as hardware stores. I think I got the ones I used at Home Depot, but you might check the dollar stores.
The things really are sticky, and I have to use Goo Gone Pro to get it off the scissors I use to cut them down for the SpringStar. You will learn how sticky when you remove the backing paper, which is not easy.
Real-Kill apparently has a similar product for mice, but I wouldn’t use it. The little suckers would starve to death or die of dehydration if they got stuck on them. That is a little gruesome for me to take. I hate fleas enough, but I draw the line at small mammals.
yeah, the glue traps for mice are what had me wondering about the glue in the flea traps. i’m continually ranting that the local hawks aren’t doing enough to keep the local varmint population down, but I can’t bring myself to use the glue traps for mice. roaches and fleas, sure, but gruesome is the word otherwise.
That is the most impressive pile of fleas I ever hope to see!
I caught a mouse in the house on a glue trap… thought I had some sort of pest, so put some traps out before we went on vacation. Sorry to have killed it that way, but it was chewing up stuff inside the house and that’s where I draw the line of death. I won’t use them outside though, even though I’ve been having violent thoughts towards the mice, rats, possums, raccoons, and squirrels that have lined up to nom on my veggie garden.
I have considered lighting fire to the neighbor’s shaggy palm trees which house most of these effing critters though….
The fleas, Ellroon, are endemic to the area, unlike the fireants and Vietnamese termites which are foreign invaders. It would be great if we could still get the specialized nematodes that ate only the flea larvae, but everyone went for chemicals.
I can understand your use, and you weren’t there for the end, so that’s a matter of bad luck for the mouse. If they are chewing up your garden, you have to do something. I would probably try a terrier, but most of what you can get today have lost the keen sense of the type of hunting they were bred for, so they end up being being a bigger mess than the vermin. A friend has one, and the dog thinks mice are amusing, not something he is supposed to catch. Cats aren’t usually much good against raccoons and possums, and they would probably be taken by the hawks.
I would probably try a motion sensing sprinkler head or an electric fence to protect the garden. The problem with fences is that they often make it hard to work on the garden.
Good luck.