June 20, 2012
Posted in Flea & Tick Preventatives

Still seeing fleas, even after treating your pet with dog flea meds? Before you blame your dog’s flea meds, you should know that it takes a complete flea-control program to completely eradicate those pesky fleas from your home and your pet. While fleas have four different life stages (adult flea, egg, larvae, and pupae) only the adult flea actually lives on your pet; only about 5% of a flea’s entire life cycle is spent as an adult flea. If you are seeing adult fleas on your dog, you can be sure there are many more flea eggs, larvae and pupae in your home.

During its lifetime, a single flea can lay hundreds of flea eggs. These flea eggs drop off your pet and can be spread throughout your house, onto your carpeting , upholstered furniture or your pet’s bedding. Dog flea meds only treat the fleas actually on your dog, and are useless against fleas in your home. Therefore, while your dog flea meds may be working perfectly to control the fleas on your dog, once the flea eggs in the environment hatch, you will see fleas again. For most effective flea control, apply dog flea meds such as Frontline Plus or K9 Advantix that treat all stages of the flea life cycle. In addition to using dog flea meds, it is important to treat your home for these flea eggs with a room fogger or carpet spray.

Even if you have eradicated all fleas in your home, your pets can also pick up new fleas from the outdoors. In addition to using dog flea meds on your pet and treating your house, for best flea control you should also treat your yard with a yard spray. If one pet has fleas, you should assume all pets in the household have fleas.  Be sure to give dog flea meds to every dog in the household. Don’t stop treatment once you think the flea problem has been resolved; you should apply dog flea meds every month.

It is much easier to prevent fleas than to try to resolve a flea infestation. Simply applying dog flea meds to your pet will not keep your home flea-free. Using a three-part approach with dog flea meds, home flea treatment and treating your yard will interrupt the flea life cycle and ensure effective flea control.

Related posts:

1. Non-Prescription Dog Flea Meds
2. Tips for Applying Topical Dog Flea Meds
3. How To Effectively Control Cat Fleas
4. Pet Armor: Part of Your Total Flea Control Program
5. Why aren’t my dog’s flea pet drugs working?

Tags: dog flea meds, flea control