Flea Control

Do you have flea control blues. Have fleas or ticks got you down? Do fleas own your home and you just live there? Getting rid of fleas is no easy task. First you must do your homework and know a little about the pesky pests. Never fear we have compiled some very important facts about controlling fleas that will help you in your flea treatment. Most traditional insecticides will do very little to elevate your flea or tick problem. A flea infestation must be treated comprehensively. You must treat not only the animal or host, but its environments within the home as well your yard and all areas traveled by your animals.

Flea control facts

• Fleas have hard bodies flattened from side to side and piercing, sucking mouthparts. Their legs are powerful, adapted for fast movement and jumping, enabling them to find new hosts as well as to escape quickly the attempts of the hosts to remove them. Adult fleas can survive away from a host for several weeks without eating.
• There is no breed of cat or dog that attracts more fleas than others, but there are cases in which certain animals have natural immunities which will allow the animal not be as affected by fleas as other dogs & cats.
• Fleas should not be confused with ticks, which are related to mites, spiders and scorpions. Ticks are oval in shape and suck continuously on their victims, hanging on at one spot; fleas go from spot to spot.
• Fleas are strong also having great leaping ability for their size. Scientists have found that fleas can jump up to 13 inches.
• A flea can live from a few months to more than a year. There are four stages of a fleas life cycle. First, egg hatches. Second, larva feeds on debris, dried blood. Third, it spins itself into a cocoon until it becomes an adult two weeks later.
• The same thing that attracts people to certain climates warmth and moisture is what attracts fleas. For fleas to breed, temperatures must be between 70 and 80 degrees, with humidity between 60 and 70 percent.
• A female flea can lay up to 50 eggs each day. Before laying eggs, a flea must find a blood meal, not an easy quest. Fleas have poor eyesight and rely primarily on air currents and carbon dioxide to locate hosts. As your family pet trots by, a tenacious flea jumps up and down, sometimes thousands of times, before it hitches a ride. Once on board, a flea secretes saliva onto the target area to soften the skin and make the blood flow readily. It's this saliva, not the actual bite, that causes an allergic reactions in pets and humans.
• After her blood meal, a flea begins laying eggs on her host. Pets usually remove some eggs while grooming themselves; others fall off as animals move from place to place. In about 10 days, a larvae will emerge.
• Fleas & Ticks are parasites. A parasite is an animal that obtains its nutrition at the expense of another organism (usually a different species). Unlike predators, parasites generally feed on what are effectively nutritional reserves of their hosts (as opposed to vital organs); thus they do not usually kill their hosts.
• The most common flea is the cat flea. It is found mostly on dogs & cats. Because these fleas feed on blood from their host, they are able to carry immature tapeworms - which live in blood - from one animal to the next. Host animals consume a flea while grooming itself and a tapeworm develops in its intestinal tract.
• For complete control of fleas, it is important to break the cycle of infestation by killing all the adult fleas and the eggs.

Flea Control Products-Advantage Flea Control