Flea control takes a multipronged approach. Treating our pets is only part of the solution. Fleas love to hide in sheltered dark places, but that does not simply mean hiding deep within our pet’s coat. As fleas reach peak numbers in the fall season, you should also be asking “Is your house a flea magnet?”Most of us know to treat our pets with appropriate topical flea products, such as Frontline Plus or Revolution for cats and Revolution for dogs, or with newer oral medications for dogs, such as NexGard. However, when trying to control fleas, don’t forget to look at the environment in which your pets lives, plays and sleeps. The flea life cycle enables these critters to escape easy detection and control. A female flea will start producing 40-50 eggs per day once she takes a blood meal from Fluffy or Fido. Flea eggs do not stick to our pets. They fall off wherever our pets happen to wander. So think about the sofa, the carpet, the baseboards along a wall, cervices between hardwood floor slats, and pet beds as areas of high flea egg numbers. Using flea products on your pets, such as Frontline Plus, with a growth regulator, can help ensure the eggs from those fleas biting your pets will be infertile. This helps to break the flea life cycle. Don’t forget to treat everybody, not just the cat that spends the most time out of doors. Fleas readily jump from one tasty pet to another. They can even enter our homes on our clothes or through a window screen. Outdoor flea control involves cleaning up leaf litter, and allowing as much sunlight as possible to reach those shady nooks where fleas are likely to hide.
All those flea eggs falling off your pets into your home eventually hatch to release flea larvae. These are tiny little worm like creatures that crawl into dark cool areas, such as under your bed or deep into the sofa cushions and carpet fibers. Household treatments, such as Siphotrol Plus II Area Treatment can attack the eggs and larvae that have fallen off our pets into our homes. The advantage of a household spray over the older foggers is you can direct the spray under objects and treat more effectively. The larvae eventually form into pupae, sort of like very hard cocoons, which are difficult for most chemicals to penetrate. Frequent vacuuming is often the best weapon against this flea life stage. Be certain to empty your vacuum bag or canister out of the house so trapped immature fleas life stages don’t come crawling back out into your home. Within a couple of weeks, left undisturbed, the immature fleas hatch from the pupae and get ready to fed on our pets again.
So you can see that consistent use of these household flea control methods can readily reduce the numbers of flea eggs, larvae, pupae, and immature adult life stages. The final result is fewer adult fleas to bite your pets. Those which do bite cannot reproduce, and the flea life cycle is broken. Don’t stop here! The fleas are still lurking out there, on other warm blooded animals and in the environment. So you must remain vigilant. While you may have a quiet winter, with returning warmth and humidity in the spring, the fleas will again start to reproduce. The goal is not to let this happen in your house and on your pets. Begin you topical treatments BEFORE your flea control is out of control again.
Keep in mind that some of our pets can be highly flea allergic. One flea bite can cause a massive itching reaction and skin infections. You may not actually see fleas crawling on your pet (or you) when your veterinarian discusses the possibility of a flea problem for your pet. Think of this as being similar to a person who is bee sting allergic. There is a severe whole body reaction, even though the stinging insect is long gone and the actual size of the sting is very small. Flea sensitivities and flea allergies need to be seen by your veterinarian and appropriate medications given to control the reaction and return the skin to health. Specific treatments tailored to your pet and household will be recommended.
The best defense against flea infestations is to prevent them from ever getting a foothold. However, even in bad flea infestations, with appropriate treatment of all your pets and their environment, you can regain the upper hand. Gone are the days when we used massive doses of toxic chemicals with less than optimal effectiveness. The topical and oral medications available today, along with better environmental control products can help give you and your pets a happy healthy flea-free fall season.
