All About Flea's Ticks and Parasites

Flea Life Cycle

Understanding the life cycle of the flea is necessary in order to control it. The flea has several stages to its life cycle. Adult fleas spend most of their time on the dog or cat - they must be dislodged to leave since they will not do so voluntarily. Despite this, when the flea population on the dog becomes excessive humans tend to be an acceptable alternative to the flea. The average lifespan of an adult flea is probably about 6 weeks - but fleas can live as long as a year under certain conditions. A female flea can lay 20 to 28 eggs a day. She may lay several hundred eggs over her lifespan. These eggs fall off the pet and develop where they land. They are small and can even develop in the cracks in wood floors or other small crevices. A larvae hatches from the flea egg. It takes as few as 9 days to as long as 200 days to go through its growth stages. At this time is forms a pupae and waits for the right time to hatch. Fleas prefer temperatures of 65 to 80 degrees and humidity of 75 to 85 per cent. This range determines the period of time that fleas are a problem in your particular area. For some areas of the country, this is all year. In others, the flea season is relatively short. It is estimated that for every adult flea found on the pet, there are about 10 developing fleas in the pet's environment.

Flea eggs are pretty small and most people do not see them. The flea "dirt" associated with fleas is black in color and is actually flea feces. It tends to be a pretty uniform size with a sand like consistency if present in large quantities.

Flea Control

Since we know that the flea lays her eggs on the pet and they fall off, it is obvious that they fall off where the pet goes. This means that you must treat your house if your pet comes inside. Many people resist doing this, explaining that they never see fleas in the house. The flea egg does not move and it is very hard to see. The flea larvae does not have legs so it has limited movement. The pupal stage of the flea does not move at all. It is not likely that you would be aware of immature fleas --- until they grow into adults. At this point you will be overwhelmed and the problem will be very hard to control. It is possible to kill the pre-adult stages of the flea in the house. Outside, the flea eggs fall off in areas where the pet does things that dislodge them, like jumping around, sitting and scratching, etc. If these areas are warm and moist throughout the day, the flea can reproduce there. It is not necessary to treat large expanses of lawn that dry out during the day -- concentrate on areas the dog spends time, that stay moist and warm. Make sure you treat around the doors in and out of the house, where your dog or cat is likely to be waiting around and where flea eggs are likely to drop off.

There ar now several "once a month" flea control medications for makes control of preadult fleas easier than it has been in the past.  Advantage (tm) and FrontLine (tm) are  new medications that provide long lasting adult flea control. Advantage works for about one month to kill fleas and FrontLine works for one month in cats and up to three months in dogs. These are very effective products. While these products may be combined with Program (tm), their ability to kill adult fleas effectively may make it un-necessary. There are many other products that will kill the fleas on the pet. Shampoos, powders, and sprays tend to kill only the fleas present on the pet at the time of application. Mousses (flea foams) and flea creme rinse products tend to have some residual effect. Dips, which are usually used as pour-on products, have a slighlty longer residual effect and are more likely to be associated with toxicity. Proban, an orally administered flea killing pill has short duration of action but is made to be given twice weekly. There are "spot on" products as well, which have may have a longer duration of action. However, all of these products are more toxic and/or less effective than FrontLine (tm) and Advantage (tm).

Treating the house should involve a two pronged approach. To kill the pre-adult fleas it is necessary to use methoprene (Precor). This can be done by using this product alone, or in combination sprays with an adult killing ingredient. The ingredients that kill preadult fleas are generally effective for 3 to 4 months, indoors. Killing adult fleas can be accomplished using any of the pyrethrins (tetramethrin, pyrethrin, permethrin, etc.), or an organophosphate. The adult flea killing ingredients do not have a residual effect and retreatment every 2 to 3 weeks until the fleas are gone is usually necessary. These products come in sprays and aerosols (foggers). It is very important to read the directions, figure out the square footage you are attempting to treat and use these products properly. Foggers generally are ineffective unless one is placed in each room, so small size foggers may be the most economical approach. An alternative to this approach is to use a sodium borate product for flea control - such as FleaBusters. Some people use diatomaceous earth (food grade) in the house to control fleas.

Fleas can be controlled. It can be expensive to take care of a flea infestation but it is usually cheaper than dealing with the complications to your pet's health that fleas can bring about.

Fleas or Lice ?

Lice are small light colored (white to cream colored) parasites. The lice
themselves are visible to the naked eye but can be hard to find as they are
pretty small. Examination of debris from the haircoat with a magnifying
lens might help in identifying them. Their eggs (nits), which are attached
to hair shafts, are often much easier to find than the lice themselves. The
look like little white to yellow lumps on the hair and are often deposited
along the whole length of hair shafts that have nits. They can infect both
dogs and cats but are not commonly seen in veterinary practices in most of
the U.S.  Lice are susceptible to many of the products that kill fleas but
it may be necessary to clip mats from the haircoat and to use insecticidal
products for several weeks (4 minimum) to totally eliminate the lice.

Fleas are larger, reddish-brown to brown to black parasites that are very
mobile are often easy to find in the haircoat of pets that are infested
with them -- but which can be present on the pet or in the environment
without being easy to find due to the ability of pets to chew or sratch
fleas out of their haircoat. The new flea products, Frontline (TM),
Advantage (TM) and Program (TM) are all very effective in reducing flea
populations in pets and it is finally possible to almost do away with this
problem in most households.

Ticks

Ticks may be removed using one of the tick-pulling products or a forceps (tweezer). It is best not to touch the tick if possible due to the possibility of tick-borne diseases. If contact does occur, wash your hands thoroughly. There is a lot of fear of leaving part of the tick embedded in the dog when removing them but this rarely causes problems.

Ticks carry a number of diseases, some of which do have zoonotic potential (can be transmitted to people). It is best to use one of the products that kills the ticks continuously without much intervention on your part. The risk is not high but there is some risk for diseases such as Lyme disease, ehrlichiosis,when ticks are brought into the household by a family pet. (Frontline and Frontline Topspot Rx) seem to work well against both ticks and fleas

The material in this site is provided for personal, non-commercial, educational and informational purposes only and does not constitute a recommendation or endorsement with respect to any company or product. About makes no representations and specifically disclaims all warranties, express, implied or statutory, regarding the accuracy, timeliness, completeness, merchantability or fitness for any particular purpose of any material contained in this site. You should seek the advice of a professional regarding your particular situation.