A Flea Control Summary

If your dog (cat or any other pet) has fleas, you need to know a little bit about fleas, the flea life cycle, flea medications and flea control (what you can do about it). This article is a summary of some of the basic flea control methods to prevent flea problems and methods that have worked for a flea infestation problem in our own (multiple dog) situation.

Flea Control - Prevention

If you do not have a flea problem, you will want to keep it that way with preventative flea control measures and if you have a small flea problem, you will want to get it under control before it becomes a full blown flea infestation.

The popular flea medications sold online and in stores are great at preventing flea problems (or getting a minor flea problem under control). The flea and tick products from Frontline, Advantage, HeartGard, etc. are available online and are great at helping to control fleas (and ticks). See Pet Medication Online for some great online resources and additional product information.

You will need to know a little more and do a little more to help get a full blown flea infestation under control.

Flea Control - For an Existing Flea Problem or Infestation

There are several ways to kill fleas and break their life cycle. Some are synthetic chemicals, some are more "natural". Both work with varying degrees but no one method is 100% effective. You will almost always have to combine several approaches to resolve an existing flea infestation problem.

If you have an existing flea problem, you will need to use multiple products and approaches and you will most likely need to repeat your applications to break the flea life cycle (depending on the products that you use, how effective they are and how bad the flea infestation is).

First of all, keep in mind that there are only a small number of fleas on your dog (pet) at any given time relative to the much larger number of fleas in your dogs environment (i.e. your house, your dog bed or your pets favorite locations, etc.). In addition to killing the fleas on your dog, you must kill the fleas in your home or in your dogs living area. You must also break the flea life cycle and kill the fleas that are in your house (or pets environment).

The Flea Life Cycle, from egg to larvae to adult is between Three to Six Weeks. To get rid of fleas in your home and/or dogs environment, you must break this cycle. If you are using flea killing sprays or powders for your carpet, furniture, etc. you will need to do multiple applications within the life cycle. It is also good to include a good flea killer in your vacuum bag to kill the fleas and/or eggs that get sucked into your vacuum.

What Worked for Us:

As I have mentioned above, you will probably need to use multiple products and approaches. What worked for us was:

Kill the fleas on your dog/pet:

Drowning the fleas in a bath: I'm not referring to "flea baths" but just drowning the fleas in a regular bath by submerging your pet in water. You can give your dog a "flea bath" (with the appropriate perticides), but many people (including ourselves) do not want to subject their pets to the harsh and potentially harmful chemicals.

We found that submerging our dogs (medium sized, fortunately), in bath water, worked great at immediately killing most of the fleas on the dogs (for the time being anyway). There were always plenty of dead fleas in the bath water when the bath was over!

Flea Control Products:

Select your favorite flea medications for flea (and tick) problem prevention (Frontline, Advantage, HeartGard, etc.). In our case we used a flea collar, but there are many more selections available online and in stores today.

After the (flea) bath, you can apply the appropriate flea control products to your pet (flea collars, etc) for further flea (and tick) prevention.

Killing the fleas that you find (catch) on your pet: OK, I know, if you have a serious flea problem, this seems pretty futile... but when you are getting it under control (or prior to having a bigger flea problem), you can inspect your pet for these little bast****s. They are extremely small and fast and can jump like crazy (3 feet, I believe!). If you do manage to find and catch one, they can still be really hard to kill and can get away pretty easily. You need to crush them very hard (between your fingernails works pretty well). This is a small part of the flea control process, but it does take persistence in everything that you do!

Kill the fleas in your home/dogs environment:

This is not an option. You must do this! We used carpet powders and sprays for our carpet and furniture and also for the vacuum cleaner bag.

As with flea bombs, many of us are hesitant to use pesticides and chemicals except in extreme situations. If you do have a more serious flea infestation problem you will probably need to use the appropriate chemicals to kill the fleas in your dogs environment. Read and follow all precautions on the labels for these products and use them only as needed.

The important thing here is to be sure to kill the fleas in your pets environment, where your pet resides the most... (his/her dog bed, favorite couch or rug, etc.)

Other Flea Control Methods:

Foggers (flea bombs):

Foggers can be effective, but many people (including ourselves) do not want to spray the entire house (or specific rooms) with chemicals (from the flea bomb). Foggers also have a problem in penetrating enough to do a real good job. They don't always reach under furniture and other inaccessible places.

What are the best sources for flea tick control online?

Pet Supplies Online Resource has researched and selected the best online sources for flea tick control medications to help you find the best selection online fast and easy and at great prices.

See Pet Medication Online for the best online resources!

Best Selections Online

See Pet Medication Online
for the best selections flea control products online