Another Weapon in the Arsenal?

  Years ago, I gave the dogs brewer's yeast with garlic to help combat fleas.  My vet at the time said it was an old wives tale that it worked and that I was just wasting my money.  Since we weren't battling  fleas then , I stopped the supplements but still kept the idea in the back of my mind.
  With the severe problem we've had this year, I've been willing to try just about everything and anything to get rid of these pests.  A recent column in the paper by Dr. Fox made me reconsider the garlic.  I bought garlic supplements from Costco and started adding one pill to each of the dogs' breakfast bowls.
    The dogs were a week or so away from their monthly topical flea treatment and had started scratching and I was seeing fleas here and there when I started the garlic. Within a couple of days, the dogs stopped scratching!  I looked on bellies and legs and didn't see one pesky flea.  I think the garlic is working!  Coats are growing in nicely and everybody is happy.  Lauren will often spit her garlic pill out and I did find a few fleas on her the other day.  But, a dose of K9 Advantix and she's flea free once again.  I'll keep the topical treatment in readiness, but a bottle of garlic pills is much cheaper than several doses of Advantix!
  Our annual fall pest, the stink bug, has taken up residence in the kennel this year.  The outside walls are covered, dead stink bugs are always in the dogs' water buckets and I'm being dive-bombed as I feed the dogs their dinners.  I was going to keep the shop vac outside and try to reduce the numbers by vacuuming each evening (stink bugs congregate at the end of the day) but then learned about a spray called Talstar when I attended a Barktoberfest yesterday.  The vendor said she had used it her farm last year and it was so effective that she only needed one application.  It also kills fleas which is a very nice bonus!
  I had planned on working in the kennel today, fixing some fencing and painting door ways.  I'll add spraying this treatment to my chore list and hope the vendor is right!  The weather is forecast to be beautiful today.  The dogs will get to play all day in the yards and have a tidy and pest free home by the end of the day!