Last summer we had quite a flea problem at my house and went through just
about everything to get rid of them.  I came to a couple of conclusions
about how to deal with them.  It's more difficult than dogs or cats, since
you can't use flea collars or "Program."
 
Firstly, bathing a ferret with regular water and shampoo will not drown the
fleas.  They can swim.  You have to use a flea shampoo with insecticide.
Everything I've read about ferrets recommends strongly against the use of
flea collars.  I don't know about the herbal kind, but whatever herbs are
in it are likely to be eaten by your ferret when he gets the "snake" off
his neck and drags it under the bed to kill it.  The Program pill as far as
I know is only for dogs (maybe cats?), and not tested or used on ferrets.
I've also heard rumors that it has harmed some dogs, so I wouldn't
recommend that.
 
So how did we get rid of the fleas last summer?  After bathing and powdering
Sebastian constantly for a couple of weeks (Marshall flea powder for
ferrets), we finally flea bombed the house a couple of times.  Our method
was to vacuum and dust and clean like hell, then close off rooms so the
ferrets couldn't get back into them until they were confined to the
bathroom.  Then we would give them a flea bath and stuff them into their
carrier.  Finally, we trigger all the bombs and get out of the house.
Repeat in two weeks.  During flea season I also got in the habit of giving
them a quick flea powdering, bath, or comb if they went anywhere I thought
there might be fleas (the vet's office is a good place to find them).
 
I hope this helps.  We haven't had any fleas around here, yet.  But this
summer I'm prepared.  My advice is don't fool around with half-baked methods
like herbal collars.  This only gives your flea population the opportunity
to get established in your carpets.  Nip it in the bud and annihilate those
little b*#%ards before they annihilate you.  Rah rah go team yay!
 
-Catherine
 
(Oh, I forgot to mention, when we were flea bombing we also sprayed down
the carpet and bedding and some other flea harboring areas with a little
indoor household flea spray, then washed that and just about everything
else portable in hot hot water :)
[Posted in FML issue 1587]