[Tsettimi]

I live on western TN and this is the first year owning my own house. I have inside and outside dogs. Ok now to the questions. I have a massive amount of spiders around the outside of my house. I can not walk out my front or back door without walking into spider web or the spiders themselves. The smaller ones have actually made a home out of my front door in between the panes of glass. How can I get rid of them without harming the dogs outside. The inside of my house is covered with fleas. Should I just get the dogs outside and bomb the house, bathe the dogs and spray my backyard? Is there a way to spray my backyard without using the harsh chemicals? Also how can I get rid of flies? They come in whenever I open my door and bombing doesn't kill them all. Any tip to get rid of them would be greatly appreciated.

[Catsmine]

Welcome to the joys of home ownership. We'll address these one at a time.

Spiders: This is the height of the season for them. They need to catch an enormous amount of food to lay eggs. If you deprive them of the means to catch that food, they will go elsewhere. The big box hardware stores, and possibly your local hardware, carry web brooms designed to sweep down spiderwebs. They're fairly cheap and well worth it.

Flies: Traps are by far and away the safest method for controlling these. Old fashioned fly strips should also be available at the hardware store.

Fleas: Flea control is the most labor intensive of these three. Not only do you need to get the dogs treated, you need to get the house treated and get the pesticide to the fleas. Fleas pupate inside a cocoon just like moths and butterflies and they only hatch out of the cocoons as adult fleas when it's time to bite. Studies have shown that the best way to get those cocoons to hatch is to fool them into thinking there's a host animal nearby which they sense by vibrations. The beater bar on your vacuum is the best vibration source you have, so you need to vacuum twice a day for three weeks after treatment.