In your article detailing flea control measures, you make no mention of (as far as I saw) using products such as frontline and their impact on flea control. We are at week 2 of flea control measures and are already tiring of this long process.
In fact we make mention of this in our FLEA CONTROL article under the pet section. What we know is that fleas can live and breed on the pet, in the home and in the yard. Now if you have a cat or mostly “inside” dog, chances are you won’t have to worry about the outside yard area.
But for homes with pets that are mostly inside, when treating for fleas you will have to treat the pet and the living spaces for sure. The reasons for this are many but here are the main ones.
First, if you or any other member of the household goes outside and picks up just one flea and comes back inside, this flea can bite that person, hop off and start laying eggs. This will cause the home to get infested. In fact this happens all the time and with people that don’t even own pets! They always seem surprised when they come to us asking for help but since we see this 25-40% of the time, its clear that fleas will readily infest homes that don’t have a pet so clearly the pet is does not have to be the main nest site.
Second, since you and other people in the home aren’t taking Frontline or any other flea treatment and just one flea biting you can generate hundreds of eggs, the infestation can sustain itself indefinitely whether you have a pet or not. So even if nine of ten fleas in the home jump on your pet and die, the one of ten that bites you or someone else can readily supply plenty of eggs to keep the problem active.
Third, treating the pet with Frontline is one pet treatment option but realize its for the pet only and will not stop fleas from breeding in the other two areas (home and yard). So even though the pet will have protection, as the pet moves around in the home and picks up fleas, it will continue to be itching and scratching.
In the end, you’ll need to treat with one of the options we have listed in our Flea Control article.
And in our judgement, the best option is the ONCE-A-YEAR FLEA GRANULES applied to carpeting and under furniture cushions. It goes on dry, is easy to apply and doesn’t create a mess. Plus its super safe.
Also, installing FLEA TRAPS is always smart since they will help get the flea pupae to hatch out thus breaking the cycle that much faster. As our article explains, the flea pupae cannot be killed so only when all have hatched will the problem be gone and since Flea Traps will help expedite this process, having these in place is a great way to help to speed up the process.
Lastly, in some cases treating outside will be required but again, this is usually the least important area unless your pet spends a lot of time outside. A good way to tell is to go out in the yard with some white tube socks and walk around (wearing shoes of course). If you pick up 2-3 fleas in the yard, you’ll need to treat there for sure.
Here are links to these items in our cart. Please show your support for our business by purchasing the items we recommend from the links provided. Remember, this is the only way we can stay around and be here to answer your questions and keep this valuable web site up and running. Thanks for your business!
First Defense: https://bugspray.com/catalog/insecticide/dust/drione-demise-dust-6-oz
Flea Trap: https://bugspray.com/traps/electric/flea-trap
And here is a link to the section of our flea control article which discusses the use of these treatments on pets:
https://bugspray.com/article/fleas.html#flea-control-for-pets
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