Fighting Fleas


With fall approaching, fleas begin to migrate to warmer areas. Places such as out-buildings, plants around the house, within your house, garage and on your pets are all places you will find fleas.

To properly win the skirmish against fleas you have got to target the source first. It might be a enormous tree in your yard that accommodates flea-infested raccoons, or maybe that friendly neighborhood dog who never scratches but is a salt or pepper shaker spreading fleas each time he walks across your grass.

Flea control must involve all areas of infestation, your pets, your home and your yard, and it must involve treatment of all phases of the flea lifecycle, adult, eggs, larva and pupa.

Flea Control on Your Pet

There are several products on the market to treat and control flea infestations on your dog. Collars and spot-ons are the most up to date for long-term control. Effective ingredients are Imidacloprid (Advantage), fipronil (Frontline) and permethrin-pyriproxifen (BioSpot). If you should chance to use a spot-on it is advised that you not wash your dog the day of or one day after application of the spot-on treatment. As well as spot-on treatments, sprays and foams are available too.

You should include all cats you have in your flea control program regardless of whether they are exhibiting any issues because felines can easily carry fleas from your yard into your place. Cats are a lot more attuned to flea control chemicals (some products for dogs can't be used on felines ) so be certain to only use products that are totally safe to be used on cats.

Flea Control in Your House

Treatment of your house should be focused on areas where your pets spend the great majority of their time. It's smart to use an adulticide to exterminate the adult fleas and an insect growth regulator for the juvenile stages. There are plenty of premise and carpet sprays available. You need to also vacuum source points regularly and dump the bag, wash pet bedding in hot water and dry on extreme heat for about twenty minutes.

Flea Control in Your Yard

It is really important to treat source points in your yard in areas where your pets spend almost all their time and where immature fleas may develop. Areas to work on are shady, clammy areas that contain plant, sand or biological waste like under decks or around bushes and plants.