Understanding flea control
We all know how frustrating a flea problem can be, so here is some information about flea control and a few tips to hopefully help you combat those furiously ferocious fleas!
A few flea facts
- Fleas have four life stages - eggs, larvae, pupae and the adult flea; the live adult fleas that you see on your pet only make up 5% of the flea population!
- Adult female fleas can lay up to 50 eggs a day! These eggs drop off your pet into the environment and lay dormant, ready and waiting to hatch.
- Adult fleas can jump 150 times the length of their bodies!
- After landing on a new "host", it takes only 60 seconds for a flea to start feeding.
The flea lifecycle
After being laid by an adult, flea eggs hatch within 8-10 days, and turn into larvae. These larvae like to hide in dark, moist areas such as deep down in the carpet, under pet bedding, in the garden or under the house. Once the larvae have found an ideal hiding place, they weave themselves into a cocoon and become pupae. This process takes approximately 5-11 days. The pupae remain in this state for anywhere between 7-184 days, waiting for the right conditions in which to hatch into an adult, and the cycle begins again!
Stopping the cycle
As we can't always control external factors in the environment, "best practice" is to use a good quality flea control product on our pets which will help to break the cycle in our homes. Flea treatments should be applied as instructed on the packaging and should be applied all year round. While there is a slight decrease in flea population over the winter months, it is still warm enough for fleas to survive inside our homes and flea eggs will still hatch. Also, make sure that you treat all the pets in the household at the same time.
Is the flea treatment working?
Topical flea treatments do not provide an invisible barrier against fleas - they need to jump onto your pet in order to be poisoned! Hence, you will still see the occasional flea on your pet and if you are treating in accordance with the product's recommendations, it is most likely that these fleas are new ones, emerging from the environment. Most flea products aim to kill fleas within 24 hours, before they have a chance to reproduce. If you are still seeing a continual emergence of fleas it would be sensible to treat the home environment also. This would include washing bedding and furnishings, thoroughly vacuuming the house and possibly using a flea bomb.
Please do not hesitate to contact us for any further advice on flea control and the best product for your particular situation - we will be happy to help.
