Is dichlorvos effective against fleas?

Dichlorvos in the most precise sense of the term is the name of a chemical compound that pundits refer to as dimethyl dichlorovinyl phosphate. This substance has a powerful insecticidal effect and a pungent odor, but it is relatively harmless to humans, at least if the instructions for its use are followed.

However, before we talk about using Dichlorvos to kill fleas, let's first, as they say, dot the i's.

In the chemical industry and especially in retail trade, Dichlorvos is also called a line of preparations for baiting insects, the main and only component of which is the substance of the same name. Recently, however, some manufacturers have begun to produce products that are called "Dichlorvos", but which do not contain the actual organophosphorus substance Dichlorvos. These modern drugs are often even more effective against various insects, including fleas, than the old Dichlorvos in its first version.

On a note

Moreover, today the word "dichlorvos" is often used in the meaning of "insecticide in a can" and when selling or using such ridiculous mistakes as "Dichlorvos Combat" or "Dichlorvos Raptor" are made. Understanding people know that Dichlorvos is Dichlorvos without different prefixes.

In general, we can say that dimethyldichlorovinyl phosphate (Dichlorvos) cannot compete with more modern insecticidal preparations based, for example, on pyrethroids. Thus, the typical Dichlorvos known to everyone since Soviet times is not produced today, and all products with the name "Dichlorvos" and various additional words (Neo, Super, etc.) are preparations based on more modern insecticides.

Instructions for using such an improved Dichlorvos from fleas as a whole differ little from the rules for using its original version. The price of the tool is quite low (60 rubles) and allows it to be used by almost everyone in need.

 

Such a different Dichlorvos: the entire product line

So, let's see what kind of Dichlorvos today you can poison fleas in an apartment or house:

• Dichlorvos Universal, designed to fight all insects in the apartment, including fleas, moths, cockroaches, bedbugs, ants. The price of one bottle of it is about 60 rubles.
• Dichlorvos Eco, characterized by the addition of lavender flavoring to the composition and therefore does not cause negative sensations when used. Despite the prefix "Eco", this drug helps quite well with fleas, because, together with a pleasant flavor, it contains all the same powerful insecticides. The price is also about 60 rubles.
• Dichlorvos Neo - perhaps the most famous of the Dichlorvos, which has no smell at all. It contains Permethrin, Cypermethrin and Piperonyl Butoxide. The price of a 190 ml bottle is about 55 rubles.

As noted above, traditional Dichlorvos based on organophosphorus is not produced today, since it does not have competitive advantages. Therefore, when figuring out how to use Dichlorvos against fleas, you should study the instructions for using exactly its modern versions.

Review

“Fleas pestered us all summer at the dacha. Probably, they entered the house with a local cat, and then they started biting us. We once got out to the regional center and there rushed to buy Dichlorvos, and they began to offer us all sorts of other cans. Somehow I don't trust them. With dichlorvos, everyone has always poisoned all evil spirits and will always poison. We found Dichlorvos Neo in one general store, they also doubted it, but they took it for lack of a real one. It worked well, the day after the treatment of the house there were no fleas in it. Maybe a couple of times over the summer they bit someone, but they didn’t cause any concern at all. Now, we hope, during the winter they will all freeze there.

Alexey, Ivanovo

 

Due to what is Dichlorvos effective?

The effectiveness of Dichlorvos against fleas and other parasites is based on the ability of its active substances to lead to disturbances in the nervous system of insects and their complete paralysis. Regardless of the version of the drug, all Dichlorvos are almost equally effective: true Dichlorvos, Permethrin, and Piperonyl butoxide have a similar effect on fleas.

The difference between the old Dichlorvos and modern drugs is only in the absence of strong pungent odors in the latter and their greater safety for humans and animals.

It is also important that Dichlorvos is effective against fleas also due to the form of release: all such products are available in aerosol cans. Due to the finely dispersed state of insecticides in an aerosol cloud, both adult fleas and their larvae are destroyed, invisible and living where a person cannot physically reach them - under floors, behind baseboards, behind carpets and wallpaper, in the trash. The aerosol will also penetrate here, and therefore, with proper use of fleas, Dichlorvos can be completely removed.

 

How to use Dichlorvos correctly to accurately remove fleas?

For the total extermination of fleas in an apartment, Dichlorvos should be used only after the cause of the appearance of parasites has been eliminated. As evidenced by the reviews, Dichlorvos from fleas gives a reliable result only after cats or dogs living indoors are pickled from fleas. If the apartment itself is processed, and the parasites on the cat or dog are left, in a few months the whole epic will have to be repeated.

In accordance with the instructions, Dichlorvos should be sprayed on all surfaces in the apartment, especially carefully - the floor, wardrobes with clothes, shelves with various rubbish in the closets. Before this, you should close all the windows in the house so that the aerosol does not erode. For flea treatment of a large apartment or house, several cans may be required.

Review

“I saw fleas in large numbers once in my life, after moving. Prior to that, only in the student body bugs in the hostel poisoned. And here is a new apartment, and the former owner is a cat lady. Left us parasites.We poisoned them with Dichlorvos, Eco is called. We needed three cylinders, one cylinder for the room and one for the kitchen. But we must admit - the insects were completely etched. There was not a single live flea in the apartment the next day.”

Elena, Ryazan

At the time of processing, all residents and pets must leave the premises.

After spraying the product, the apartment is closed and infused for several hours. During this time, the aerosol penetrates into all the cracks and under the furniture, where fleas and their larvae die rather quickly.

After a few hours, the apartment should be ventilated and wet cleaned in it. The components of modern Dichlorvos are relatively safe for humans and animals, so even if some of its quantities remain somewhere, this is not critical.

In rare cases, when the apartment is very heavily infested with fleas, the procedure has to be repeated after two weeks. In this case, insecticide-resistant pupae and eggs survive during the first dressing, and larvae and adult fleas hatch from them in a few days. After two weeks, all surviving parasites will be completely destroyed by re-treatment.

 

Safety when using Dichlorvos

It is important to remember that Dichlorvos should never be used to treat pet hair. Despite the fact that the composition of the drug often includes the same substances that work in drops and sprays for dogs, their concentration is different here. If Dichlorvos gets on the body and in the respiratory tract of a pet, it can lead to serious allergies, and if the animal licks its fur, it can lead to intoxication.

The treatment of the premises with Dichlorvos should be carried out with gloves and a respirator.It is even better to add a cotton-gauze bandage to them. If the product gets on the mucous membranes - in the mouth, nose, eyes - they should be rinsed with running water as soon as possible.

Review

“After we poisoned the dog’s fleas, we treated the apartment with Dichlorvos. The effect is excellent, the fleas died, but then I felt dizzy for several days, and the little one was generally sick and refused to eat. I was afraid that I would have to repeat the procedure, because there were too many insects, but it passed. My summary: Dichlorvos is a reliable thing, but you need to handle it very carefully.

Irina, Tyumen

 

Alternative flea remedies

We should pay tribute to the modern chemical industry - the choice of a flea fighter today is extremely wide, and there are a lot of alternative means that are not inferior to Dichlorvos in terms of efficiency and safety. Among them:

• Combat is a line of drugs for the fight against domestic insects. Most of the products in it are also scented with the smells of lavender, eucalyptus and mint.
• Raptor is also a large complex of insecticidal preparations.

In addition, many concentrates of insecticidal agents are produced for dilution and subsequent spraying from a spray bottle. In terms of the ratio of effectiveness and price, such drugs in most cases surpass aerosol products.

The following flea preparations produced in the form of concentrates (sometimes also called emulsion concentrates) can be noted: Medilis Tsiper, Get, Agran, Lambda Zone, Tsifoks, Cucaracha, Taran, etc.

For example, Get is a rather powerful microencapsulated preparation, relatively safe and practically odorless, which allows you to kill fleas in one go.

Review

“We are used to poisoning all kinds of parasites with Dichlorvos, and we were looking for it from fleas. But they didn’t find it, but they persistently offered us the Raptor, and we decided to try it. The tool is good, effective, compared to the caustic old Dichlorvos, it’s generally magical - it smells like mint in the apartment after it. The fleas are really gone, which is great. Although I think that the manufacturers of Dichlorvos today should also release their drug in such a form that it does not stink very much.

Yana, Zarechnoe

 

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