Indoor Flea Control

Indoor

Controlling cat fleas in buildings requires a variety of approaches. Before starting a control program, look through each room in the building to determine areas where larval development occurs. Flea populations are highest in places where dogs or cats regularly sleep. Flea larvae are not usually found in areas of heavy pedestrian traffic or locations that receive exposure to sunlight; they are likely to be present in areas where adult fleas have left dried blood and feces.

Sanitation. Thoroughly and regularly clean areas where adult fleas, flea larvae, and flea eggs are found. Vacuum floors, rugs, carpets, upholstered furniture, and crevices around baseboards and cabinets daily or every other day to remove flea eggs, larvae, adults, and food sources. Vacuuming is very effective in picking up adults and stimulating preemerged adults to leave their cocoons. Flea eggs can survive and develop inside vacuum bags and adults may be able to escape to the outside, so immediately destroy bags by burning or by sealing them in a plastic trash bag and placing them in a covered trash container. Launder pet bedding in hot, soapy water at least once a week.

Thoroughly clean items brought into the building, such as used carpets or upholstered furniture, to prevent these from being a source of flea infestation.

Insecticides. Several insecticides are registered for controlling fleas indoors. Sprays are only needed when you detect an infestation in your home. The most effective products contain one of the insect growth regulators: methoprene or pyriproxyfen. Fleas are known to build up resistance to insecticides, so always supplement sprays with other methods of control such as thorough, frequent vacuuming.

Use a hand sprayer or aerosol to apply insecticides directly to infested areas of carpets and furniture. Total release aerosols ("room foggers") do not provide the coverage and long-term effectiveness of direct sprays unless they contain an insect growth regulator. Treatments with insecticides other than IGRs often fail to control flea larvae because the treatment material fails to contact them at the base of carpet fibers where they develop.

Spray carpets, pet sleeping areas, carpeted areas beneath furniture, baseboards, window sills, and other areas harboring adults or larvae. Use an insect growth regulator (methoprene or pyriproxyfen) that specifically targets the larvae and has a long residual life. As soon as the spray dries, vacuum to remove additional fleas that emerge from the pupal stage in carpets and upholstery. Fleas will continue to emerge for about 2 weeks after treatment because pupae are not killed by sprays. Continue to vacuum and do not treat again for at least several weeks. Always seal and discard vacuum bags so fleas don't escape.

Outdoors

Outdoor flea populations are most prevalent in coastal localities and other places with moderate daytime temperatures and fairly high humidities. In Central Valley locations, populations can become very numerous in shaded and protected areas such as sheltered animal enclosures, crawl spaces where pets may sleep, or vegetated areas adjacent to buildings. If an infested outdoor location is not treated, the flea problem may reoccur if pets are reinfested. However, treatment of the pet with any of the preferred pet treatment products listed above will normally prevent reinfestation.

Outdoor sprays are not necessary unless you detect significant numbers of adult fleas. One way to do this is to walk around pet resting areas wearing white socks pulled up to the knee. If fleas are present, they will jump onto socks and be readily visible.

The best products for elimination of fleas outdoors are formulations that contain a knockdown material such as pyrethrin or permethrin plus an insect growth regulator (pyriproxyfen) to inhibit larval maturation. Avoid products containing diazinon or chlorpyrifos as these materials pollute waterways when they are washed into storm drains by rain, hosing, or irrigation.

Apply sprays directly in locations where pets rest and sleep such as doghouse and kennel areas, under decks, and next to the foundation. It is seldom necessary to treat the whole yard or lawn areas. Flea larvae are unlikely to survive in areas with sunlight exposure or substantial foot traffic.

Regular lawn watering will help destroy larvae and prevent development of excessive flea populations. If possible, open pet sleeping areas to sunlight by removing low-hanging vegetation

Review: The Most Effective Flea Control Products

Spot-on Flea Treatments
Spot-on flea products are applied to the pet. A few drops are placed on the scruff of the neck, under the fur. Most spot-on products contain adulticides designed to eliminate adult fleas from the pet within 24 hours of application.

Benefits of spot-on flea control

• Rapid relief from adult fleas on the pet
• Easy to apply
• Convenient monthly treatment

Oral Flea Treatments
Orally administered products can be used to eliminate both adult fleas on the pet, and flea eggs laid around the house.

Insect Growth Regulators
When a pet is treated with an oral insect growth regulator, it circulates in the animal's bloodstream. Then, if a flea bites the pet, it ingests the insect growth regulator and passes it on to its eggs, rendering them unable to hatch.

With these products, you can have confidence that even if you do see adult fleas on your pet, they will be unable to infest your house with flea eggs. This removes the need to spray insecticides around your house, and makes them ideally suited for preventative flea control.

In fact, oral insect growth regulators can also be used to eliminate an existing household infestation. In this case, once you start treating the pet, any fleas already in the house will hatch, leap aboard the pet, and die without laying any more viable eggs.

These products are available in liquid form for cats and as tablets for dogs, from veterinary surgeons only. They are given in-food once a month.

Benefits of oral Insect Growth Regulators

• Effective prevention / removal of fleas in the home.
• Protection for the home without the need to use household insecticides, vacuuming etc.
• Easy to give, in food.
• For dogs, there is a combined insect growth regulator / worming treatment available.
• Convenient monthly dosing.

Adulticides
Capstar is an oral adulticide specially developed to offer the fastest removal of adult fleas from a pet. It starts working within as little as 15 minutes, and removes fleas for 24 hours thereafter.

This means that Capstar is ideal for using 'if and when' adult fleas are seen on the pet, in combination with long term use of an insect growth regulator.

Because it kills fleas so fast, Capstar can also be especially useful for those pets that are allergic to fleas.

Benefits of oral adulticide

• Fastest relief from adult fleas on the pet.
• Especially useful for the removal of fleas from pets that are allergic to them.

Injectable Flea Control
An injectable flea control product is available for cats. It contains an insect growth regulator which prevents fleas from being able to lay viable eggs around your home for a full six months.

When a cat is treated with an injectable insect growth regulator, it circulates in the animal's bloodstream. Then, if a flea bites the cat (which it will), it ingests the insect growth regulator and passes it on to its eggs, rendering them unable to hatch.

With this product, you can have confidence that even if you do see adult fleas on your cat, they will be unable to infest your house with flea eggs. This removes the need to spray insecticides around your house, and makes the product ideally suited for preventative flea control.

In fact, injectable insect growth regulators can also be used to eliminate an existing household infestation. In this case, once you start treating the pet, any fleas already in the house will hatch, leap aboard the pet, and die without laying any more viable eggs.

Benefits of injectable Insect Growth Regulator

• Long term household flea protection from one application.
• Protection for the home without the need to use household insecticides, vacuuming etc.
• No need to remember monthly treatments.
• Ideal for people who have difficulty giving or applying other forms of flea medication.

Household Flea Sprays
To kill fleas, we obviously need to know where they are. That’s the difficulty with household sprays. Flea eggs will be dropped around the house wherever the cat or dog goes. Problem is, you won’t always know where that is.

There is only one place we know with absolute certainty that fleas MUST spend part of their lives, and that's on the cat or dog.

That’s why it is always better to treat the pet, not the house.

Pest Control: About Flea Infestations

There are over 2000 species of flea in the world. Thankfully, only the cat flea and the dog flea (Ctenocephalides felis, Ctenocephalides canis) are important to dogs and cats. Despite the name, cat fleas infest dogs just as much as they infest cats.

The problem is that fleas breed in stupendous numbers. Each female can lay as many as 200 eggs, which immediately fall off the animal, all around your home.

This is why scientists the world over agree that Integrated Flea Control, where you use one type of insecticide to kill fleas on the pet and another to kill their eggs, is the most effective way to eliminate fleas.

The degree to which you need to control fleas will vary from person to person, and from pet to pet.

You might think that a pet kept entirely indoors would be at no risk of catching fleas. But don't forget that it only takes a visit from one untreated animal to trigger an infestation in your home, so even housebound pets may require flea control.

Pets that routinely go outdoors will likely come into contact with fleas from time to time, and require regular treatment. Finally, some pets are allergic to relatively small numbers of fleas, and may need particularly stringent flea control.

Discuss the most appropriate level of flea control with your veterinary surgeon. Before you do, though, it is important that you have a basic understanding about fleas.

Flea Eggs
Whoever first coined the phrase 'breeding like rabbits' clearly didn't know much about fleas! Where a wild female rabbit may give birth to 30-40 young in a year, a female flea can lay 30-40 eggs in just one day.

Once on your pet, adult fleas take a blood meal (bite) and mate. Within 24 to 48 hours, the female starts laying her eggs. These eggs fall off the animal, wherever it goes in your house.

A typical female flea may lay 200 eggs over a period of five days. They'll hatch in a further 4-12 days, depending on the temperature and humidity.

So, two important facts here:

1. For every flea you can see on your cat or dog, there may be another 200 eggs around the house.

2. This is why experts the world over agree that the most effective flea control involves using 2 types of insecticide: one to kill adult fleas on the pet, and the other to prevent fleas reproducing.

Flea Larvae
Flea eggs hatch into worm-like larvae which move away from light and downwards. This means that they are usually found deep in the carpet pile. They tend to accumulate in areas where the pet rests, but have been observed to crawl as far as 20 feet while in this stage of the life cycle.

The lessons for effective flea control are:

1. Whilst household sprays can certainly help, it can be difficult to be sure that you've treated all the hard-to-get areas that flea larvae congregate.

2. Flea prevention is better than cure. In other words, far better to treat your pet before it catches fleas, than end up chasing possibly hundreds or thousands of flea larvae around the house.

Flea Pupae
After 7-18 days, flea larvae pupate. Not the latest dance fad, but the process by which they spin a protective cocoon around themselves and develop into adults.

Inside the cocoon, fleas are almost impervious to insecticides. In fact, about the only thing that will get them during this stage of their life cycle is a blowtorch (which is perhaps a bit extreme for most people!).

It takes between 5-14 days for fleas to develop inside the cocoon, after which they are triggered to hatch in response to vibration (being stepped on), or the carbon dioxide exhaled by a passing host. But in the absence of a trigger, they can survive inside the cocoon for up to nine months.

So, what does this mean for successful flea control?

1. There are no chemical sprays on the market today that will penetrate the pupal cocoon. So, if you have pupal fleas in the house, you will need to start your flea control programme and accept that it may be weeks before they hatch and can be completely eliminated from the house.

2. Once again, prevention is the best approach to flea control. If you treat your pet before it comes into contact with fleas, you won't end up with flea pupae around your home.

Adult Fleas
A flea can hatch from its cocoon, jump on a passing pet, and begin feeding in as little as 7 seconds.

Unfortunately, scientists believe there is no such thing as an effective flea repellent. It seems that fleas are not repelled by garlic, citronella or brewers yeast.

Adult fleas are permanent ectoparasites. In other words, once they have landed on a pet, they'll stay there until they're removed by grooming or die. That's logical. After all, if you're already sitting in the best restaurant in town, why move?

Adult fleas usually live for a matter of days on a cat or dog, unless swallowed by the pet, or killed by an insecticide. They account for only 5% of a typical flea infestation at any one time (the rest existing in the egg, larval and pupal life stages).

Once again, some important flea control lessons here:

1. Remember, the objective is to kill fleas, not repel them!

2. Whilst it's adult fleas that make most people squirm, they are in fact the smallest part of the problem. Before they die, adult female fleas will lay hundreds of eggs around the home. Effective flea control means using a combination of 2 different types of insecticide: one that kills the fleas on your pet, and the other to prevent fleas laying eggs around your house.

reports from here

safest flea control for pets

Ask Dr. Watts - Dr. Michael Watts, Vet Care, clevengerscorner.com

Published: April 26, 2009

Q: What is the best flea control product to use on my pets?

A: The answer to this question depends on several lifestyle and risk factors. For example, the best product for a dog that likes to swim may be different than the best product for a house cat. The answer may also depend on other parasites you are concerned about. For example, some flea products also protect against ticks, heartworm, mites, or intestinal parasites.

Your family veterinarian is the best person to formulate the ideal flea control program for your pet. Veterinary-quality flea control offers the best possible safety for your pet and efficacy against fleas. There are many brands and types of veterinary-quality flea control. Here is a summary of the most popular monthly spot-on products:

-Advantage – quickly kills adult fleas with some activity against flea larva

-Advantage-Multi – same as Advantage with added medication to prevent heartworm and some intestinal parasites

-Frontline – kills adult fleas, ticks, and lice

-Frontline Plus – same as Frontline with an added flea “birth control” that interferes with the fleas’ reproductive ability

-K9 Advantix – same as Advantage with added medication to kill and repel ticks and mosquitoes; extremely toxic to cats

-Promeris – dog product kills fleas, ticks, and some mites; cat product not labeled for ticks

-Revolution – similar to Advantage-Multi with added benefit of killing some ticks and mites; my favorite product for most cats

There are also several oral medications your veterinarian may recommend to help prevent or control flea infestations. They include:

-Capstar – a daily tablet that quickly kills fleas after they bite

-Comfortis – similar to Capstar, but administered monthly

-Program – a flea “birth control” given as a monthly pill in dogs or a six month injection in cats; prevents fleas from reproducing, but does not kill them

-Sentinel – Program pill combined with heartworm and intestinal worm prevention

Q: Why should I purchase my pets medication from my veterinarian?

A: As pet owners spend increasingly larger amounts caring for their companions, many corporations are seeing profit potential in pet medications. There are several good reasons pet owners should continuing purchasing from their local veterinarian.

First, and most importantly, the proceeds from a sale at your local veterinarian go directly to improving the quality of care for your pet. Dollars spent in the office pay for salaries for the caring staff you know by name, updates in medical equipment used to cure sick pets and continuing education to keep your veterinary healthcare team current. When you purchase from a corporation, your money leaves the local economy and only leads to more shareholder dividends.

Secondly, you can have confidence in the quality and storage conditions of the medications you purchase from your veterinarian. The FDA, EPA, and many state pharmacy boards report complaints about counterfeit medications, ineffective products, and improperly labeled drugs coming from mail-order companies. Many manufacturers are even invalidating guarantees on medications that are not purchased through a veterinarian. You can trust that your veterinarian goes to great lengths to ensure the safety and effectiveness of every medication she supplies.

Finally, purchasing medications through your family veterinarian helps to keep other medical costs down. In human medicine and in veterinary referral hospitals, doctors do not sell medications directly to patients. As a result, all the costs of running a medical facility are charged to patients through high service fees. An examination may cost $200. Surgery easily runs into thousands or tens of thousands of dollars.

In contrast, your family veterinarian’s service fees are substantially subsidized by medication sales. If a significant percentage of pet owners choose to purchase medications through other sources, family veterinarians will be forced to significantly raise service fees to pay for the operation of their offices. By saving a few dollars with mail-order medicine, owners may ultimately find it significantly more expensive the next time their pets become ill or injured.

Pest Control for Fleas

Vacuuming of carpets - it is essential for carpets and timber floor areas to be thoroughly vacuumed especially in low traffic areas - under furniture - around edges of rooms - hallways - concrete pathways - before commencement of pest control flea insecticidal treatment.

Insecticide treatment - in severe cases there may be no practical alternative to insecticide treatment of likely habitat areas - particularly low traffic areas of carpeting - around the edges of timber flooring - dog or cat resting areas.

FUMAPEST uses a low hazard IGR synthetic pyrethroid insecticide - a light spray to carpet areas and upon drying it is brushed further into the carpet pile with a straw broom.

Insect Growth Regulator IGR - a ultra low hazard insecticide that acts specifically to inhibit development of the flea at the larva stage of their life cycle. The IGR interfers with the flea moultnig process. Fleas moult several times from larvae to adulthood.

The flea larva is a small "grub" that lives in carpet, in cracks or joins of timber flooring and in soil areas. A readily accessible supply of organic matter, such as shed skin flakes from humans, is essential for it's development. This is the critical point in the life cycle of the flea.

With a heavy infestation of adult fleas the affected rooms should be fumigated with a similar insecticide dispensed through a fogging machine. This will provide immediate relief (like a flea "bomb") but with not kill the larva or egg sacs. The carpets and other areas should be treated as noted above with an IGR synthetic pyrethroid insecticide.

To help prevent reinfestation we recommend the home owner regularly vacuum carpets; regularly wash your dog or cat with shampoo containing a flea control product; and restrict access of your dog or cat to any sub-floor areas, particularly during the humid summer months. If your dog or cat regularly plays with stray dogs or cats then the transfer of fleas eggs is virtually certain during the hot humid months of the year.