Boarding birds? fumigating?

[zebsoc]

Has anyone boarded their birds?
Who used - vet, pet place?
I live in California USA

I worry vet place can have fleas, lice, diseases etc from all the animals they see.
Same with pet places.

I plan to use Ortho and boric acid
As well as bomb fumigate my apartment

Has anyone bombed before?
How long before brought birds back inside?
I have 3 society finches

Ortho for bugs safe on floor near birds?

[wildbird]

Those products are not safe around birds. Boric acid dust is also toxic to them.

[Sally]

I would use Avian Insect Liquidator on the birds when you bring them back home.

[Sojourner]

wildbird

The point is that she needs to fumigate the place and board the birds somewhere in the meantime.

The question being, when will it be safe to bring the birds back.

The outside of the building is also being bombed/treated at the same time so regardless of what goes on INSIDE, the birds still need to go somewhere else until the outside stuff is over.

zebsoc

Boric aid will not harm the birds as long as

1) you don't let your birds out so that they might get into it
2) you don't apply it while they are present in the room
3) you don't apply it where you will have to vacuum once they are back home.

http://npic.orst.edu/factsheets/boricgen.html#wildlife

I have typically used boric acid down behind walls (such as through the hole left by a wall fastener) or under cabinets or appliances. Behind the range. Basically anywhere only bugs are likely to get into.

It should be applied sparingly in a thin coat. Use a bulb duster. As long as the birds are not in the same room while you are doing it, they'll be fine. Heck, I don't think it would bother them EVEN IF they were in the same room, but its always better to do these things when pets aren't in the same room.

I can't speak to the actual chemical poisons in bug bombs and what not. But the boric acid won't be a problem - unless you are dusting the birds and/or their food, and maybe not even then.

[zebsoc]

Sally - thank you for the info about
Avian Insect Liquidator
I hadn't heard of it before

Sojourner - thank you the info on the boric acid
Will be careful around the birds but good to know it's ok to use

What duster do you use?
I was trying to get some behind the cabinet and around the baseboards tonight in my room but it doesn't want to come out of the duster I have

[Sojourner]

zebsoc

I don't know. I just used whatever I had at the time. Where I am now (desert) roaches just aren't a problem. If the one you have isn't working, you might try checking Home Despot or Lowe's.

I'm pretty sure the last time I used it the Boric Acid came in a squeeze bottle - had a tip on the top so it was sold in an applicator bottle.

Here's an applicator that looks a lot more sophisticated than anything I used in the past.

http://www.domyownpestcontrol.com/bg-bu ... r-769.html

[zebsoc]

Sojourner - thank you for the link, great looking duster and with variety of tip applicators, this duster I should be set to dust away the bugs

I thought desert meant lots of bugs and roaches. Warm weather but no roaches boy I want to move to Nevada!
I thought roaches were the price I had to pay for warm summers.

[Sojourner]

Well roaches need water. If there isn't standing water for them I don't see how they survive, LOL! All I know is they don't seem to be a problem here.

But then I haven't lived in an apartment complex so ... maybe the situation would be different in an apartment. I've heard of apartment complexes here where they have MOLD. How the heck you get mold in a DESERT is beyond me.

No mosquitoes here at all, either, and hardly any flies. And it does get cold enough over winter so they don't survive outside to come in.

Now anywhere where you don't get hard freezes at all, where its warm all WINTER - now you're not only talking roaches, you're talking GIANT FLYING ROACHES. When I lived in Puerto Rico I specifically got cats to kill the giant flying roaches. Ditto Florida. You can call them "palmetto bugs" till the cows come home. They're STILL roaches!

I have a horror of roaches. I grew up in a very old farmhouse that was infested. You had to shake your shoes out in the morning. I wouldn't even THINK of going into the bathroom without a can of Raid in my hand. Until my dad drilled holes in the walls and started putting down the Boric Acid. Pretty soon they were all gone. But that period right when we first moved in, before the boric acid had a chance to work ... scarred for life!

Oh yeah - and remember - at the time my mom was a breeder. We had I-don't-actually-know HOW many birds. Seemed like hundreds, was probably more like dozens. It's hard to be realistic about it 50 years on, LOL! Especially since I was chief feeder-and-cage-cleaner. At any rate, LOTS of birds, and not a single one lost with the advent of the roach-killing boric acid. In fact I'm pretty sure it was the presence of the birds that prevented the use of a more obviously deadly chemical arsenal in the War on Bugs.

[MisterGribs]

You guys would hate it at my place. I have some of those massive 5 inch long hissing cockroaches from madagascar. My favorite one is named Ursula, and you wouldn't believe it but they make excellent lap pets.

My birds and the roaches are mutually terrified of each other, lol.

[Sojourner]

You guys would hate it at my place. I have some of those massive 5 inch long hissing cockroaches from madagascar. My favorite one is named Ursula, and you wouldn't believe it but they make excellent lap pets.

*runs screaming*

Of all the images I did NOT need, you chose the most scarring!

LOL!

*still screaming inside*

[zebsoc]

MisterGribs
I will avoid Finland for both living and visiting. No way I want to go near ur cockroaches!

Sojourner - I sympathize and share ur fear of cockroaches. Would gladly have gone all my life without seeing one.

When I lived in northern California most of my life, I hadn't a clue what a cockroach was.

Central Valley California is Cockroach central (And tons more kinds of bugs then up north)

FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) --The on-going drought has caused a boom in the bug population. You may have noticed more roaches out seeking water and a place to stay....
The water drain is also a popular spot. From your yard the roaches like to scamper towards your home to get into the walls....
Turkish roach is a dark red and black color while the American roach is more of an orange, brown color. But they're both unwelcome visitors.


Since I moved here I've learned about cockroaches. I didn't realize they came in under one's front door every night. I had to have sticky pads in front of my door. So each morning I got to see what cockroaches had come in under the front door during the night.

They water the grass in front in the summer
and each time it rained in winter cockroaches really increased also. So no break from them no matter what the season.
I sprayed Ortho in the back porch under my sliding door and kitchen window last summer. The next day there would be dead cockroaches lying around. Took a week to stop having dead cockroaches. I really like Ortho.
Last summer it got so hot, up to 108, I had to have the doors open all night front and back. I put boric acid and DE across the front doorway. And sprayed Ortho each night around both doorframe and entryway.

[Sojourner]

zebsoc

OMG, zebsoc, do you not have AC? I like heat but there comes a point where AC is not just a convenience, its a medical necessity. And 108 DEFINITELY lands square in medical necessity territory.

Do you not have screens in the windows? Is there not a sweep on the front door? I'm counting my lucky stars on having a doorsweep at this point, after reading of your trials and tribulations.

At least they freeze to death in the winter here!

[zebsoc]

Sojourner - I found a pet sitter for my birds when I fumigate next month. Thank you so much for the bird club idea.

I am worried about the society finches being able to survive the heat this summer.
The fumigation
and the summer coming with its heat
was why I had put them for sale under marketplace.

My apartment single pane windows that I can't open is really not helpful with the heat (there is 1 i can open but the sun hits it in the afternoon so it doesnt help. The ones that would do the most good r stuck). The walls and attic seem to have no insulation at all, it's an old 1950s building.

I did lose 2 finches last summer, even tho these 3 survived. But can they survive again. It would be very hard to give them up but it would be harder to have them die.

[zebsoc]

I do plan to give the birds lots of baths in the afternoon and to use box fans this summer.

[zebsoc]

Sojourner - what kind of doorsweep do u have?

My door doesn't have a 'sweep' part, so it leaves a gap.

Could u provide a picture of urs that keeps the bugs out?

I could show ur picture to the manager and try to get one installed.
I tried to get one installed when I moved here but they said it wasn't necessary it wouldn't stop the cockroaches from coming in.
Since I'd never dealt with cockroaches before it seemed like nothing would stop them coming under the door.