With Flea Control for Dogs You Also Need Flea Control for Your Home

If your dog is allowed inside, sooner or later you will have to deal with a flea problem in your home. Fleas seem to be everywhere. And they seem to find dogs an irresistibly attractive host. The problem is that flea populations can become firmly established in the environment where a dog lives. If left they can multiply very quickly, especially in the hot summer months, and become an infestation. Then you may find that the problem goes beyond your pet, and you and your family start scratching and complaining. Fleas can be more than a minor irritation to people. After all, they were a crucial step in the spread of terrible bubonic plagues that killed millions of people in centuries past. Today they can still cause health problems, now more commonly dermatological conditions, especially in sensitive people. Even more serious, they can transmit tapeworms, which is a greater risk if there are young children in your home.

Your worst experience with a flea infestation may occur when you return to your locked house after a vacation. Their presence creates heat, vibrations, and pressure on the floor as you walk, carbon dioxide in the air when you exhale, and other indications to flea pupae that a potential meal is present, and they hatch. Suddenly, fleas seem to be everywhere. The important point to understand as a dog owner is that fleas settle in the environment where your pet lives, not just on the dog. While fleas lay their eggs on the dog shortly after eating, each flea lays perhaps 20 or more per day, these eggs soon fall into the dog’s living environment. That can be his bedding, where he often lies next to his favorite chair, where he plays or rests outside, on the carpet where he often comes and goes, etc. The eggs hatch into larvae, which feed on organic material, especially the small dark flea feces that drop from your pet in the same places and pet hair. Flea larvae are averse to light and are usually found under carpet edges, in bedding or rugs, in crevices, or under things like cushions.

Outdoors, they especially like to frequent dirt, sand, or gravel. The larvae develop into pupae, in a tiny silk cocoon. This cocoon is initially sticky. It often accumulates debris, making it difficult to detect, and it can cling to the fibers of carpet or bedding, making it difficult to remove. The pupae will eventually develop into an adult flea. However, it can wait in suspension for up to about eight months at this point in its life cycle, overwintering or until stimulated by the presence of a host to hatch. This is why an empty house or kennel can suddenly develop a flea infestation upon your return. They have been accumulating and lurking like pupae. Newly hatched adult fleas normally die in about 2 weeks if unable to feed, but after that they can survive in the environment for up to a year without other food. These hungry adults may also be on the lookout for your return. At any one time, only 5-10% of the flea population may be in adult form, with the other 90-95% in process, so to speak, as eggs, larvae, or pupae. Attacking your dog’s adult fleas only fixes 5-10% of the problem.

In your home, your vacuum cleaner is your first line of defense against fleas. It will pick up most adult fleas, eggs, and larvae from the soil, but it is not as effective against pupae that may have attached to the fibers. Regular, thorough vacuuming of areas your pet frequents, including under things like rugs and cushions, will encourage pupae to hatch and eventually pick up these fleas as well. You should also regularly change or wash your pet’s bedding. Combine those steps with one of the many flea treatments now available for your pet, and you can expect to quickly get the upper hand and take control of a flea infestation problem. But to completely eliminate the flea population, you should also consider using an insecticide treatment, inside your house and in your garden, or in the environment where your pet lives. There are many safe and effective products to choose from, and experienced commercial applicators are active in most cities. Finally, after all that effort, you should stop your dog from straying and put him on a proper flea treatment regimen, especially during the summer months, to reduce the risk of another flea infestation in your home.