What are fleas?

Fleas are wingless insects in the order Siphonaptera who use their mouths to pierce skin and suck blood as an external parasite of warm blooded mammals. There are different species specific to humans, cats, dogs, and other animals, but the fleas can pretty much bite and annoy just about any mammal they come into contact with. Fleas are notoriously difficult to catch and to kill as they can jump quite adeptly and withstand a lot of crushing pressure. To kill a flea, you basically have to burn or drown it. The flea life cycle is fairly fast, with adults maturing from eggs and larvae within a few weeks. A single female flea can lay almost 1000 eggs in her lifetime, making the flea spreading potential quite scary.

Are flea bites just an annoyance and an irritating source of itching?

Fleas will attack just about any sort of warm-blooded animal and in most cases their bites will result in reddish bumps with a bump in the middle. These bites will be very itchy and that can be a source of annoyance for weeks. The flea bites can become inflamed and remain itchy for weeks, and hard scratching of the bites can damage the skin.

In more severe cases, some animals or people have allergic reactions to either the bite itself or to the saliva of the flea, resulting in rashes. More severe cases of reactions of flea bites include psychological trauma or anemia.

As further considerations of fleas, they have also been known as vectors to carrying other dieases. In history, it was actually the flea that spread the bubonic plague virus Yersinia pestis from infected rodents to humans. Fleas have also been known to carry murine typus fever and transmit tapeworms.

All these points and items highlight the importance of protecting your pets, yourselves, yours homes from fleas. Fleas and their bites are simply more than an itching annoyance; they can effect much more serious health and medical problems.

Do you have some solutions and treatments for pet flea problems or advice for flea control?

For humans, treatment for flea bites is usually symptomatic to address the itching and irritation. Common solutions used are antihistamine or hydrocortisone creams, baths with TCP and bicarbonate of soda, or taking of any itch and allergy medicines.

For pets, there are different medicines and treatments available. Each of the name brand medicines might differ in their exact mechanism of action, but all will disrupt the flea life cycle in some way. The brand Program flea treatment inhibits the larvae’s ability to produce chitin to stop development. Other medicines are acetylcholinesterase inhibitors which can also be dangerous if used incorrectly. Other topical flea medicines such as Advantage, Advantix, Frontline, and Frontline PLUS do not have these inhibitors. The newest types of flea treatment products are Promeris, Comfortis, and Vectra 3D. For each brand and type of flea treatment medicine you are considering, you should talk it over with your veterinarian to discuss efficacy, safety, instructions, and dosage as well as check online reviews for user experiences and feedback.

For the home, there are some tips such as keeping the home dehumidified as larvae require certain levels of humidity to hatch. You can also spread diatomaceous earth(DE) around the home and on your pets as they will dehydrate the fleas and kill them; be aware that DE will also be extremely dehydrating for your pet’s skin. You can also contact exterminators and pest control experts who can come spray your home to curb flea infestations.

How do I pick the right flea treatment or flea control product for my pet and home?

For picking the right safe and effective pet flea control treatment for your pet and home, the first place to start is with your veterinarian. Your veterinarian can recommend a safe and effective flea treatment product brand along with the right doses and instructions for usage. If you have any questions about any particular product or solution, be sure to ask your veterinarian and another appropriate expert. You can also ask other pet owners, friends, and family for their experiences with certain flea treatment medicine and get their recommendations.

Another way to approach is is you can also read reviews of the different flea treatment products on the web and see which ones pet owners have had success with and would recommend. Reading web reviews is also a good way to identify pet flea control products that people have not had good experiences with. We had a reader submit a review on the a pet flea product called Sentry Pro XFC that he bought at Petsmart thinking that all their products would be safe. His dog had such a severe reaction to this product (wheezing, trouble breathing, and general body aches leading to insomnia) that he rushed to wash the product off and take him to the emergency room. When he searched for the product on the web later on, he found that there were many pet owners complaining about the dangers of this product; if he had done this research ahead of time, he could have avoided this potentially dangerous and fatal pet flea product.

To help out with flea problems or infestations inside the home you can think about some of the products mentioned about. The best approach is probably to find different pest control and exterminators companies to get their expertise. Many of these flea control companies will send a technician out to your home or place of business to assess the problem and offer quotes for different solutions they have. Some pet owners will opt for regular monthly or periodic flea spray services for pets that are particularly prone to flea issues or live in areas that may have more fleas. You should also ask friends and family for their experiences with different pest control or flea exterminator companies to get their impressions, experiences, and recommendations.

Getting all the information you can about certain flea treatment medicine and flea control solutions will allow you to make the most educated decision you can about picking the right solution for your pet and home.

How do I get the best deal for the flea treatment and control product that I choose?

Our best suggestion is to shop, shop, shop around. Once you know what product you want, there are so many different retailers and stores especially online. You can shop around to get the best prices and look for special deals like quantity discounts, automatic reordering, free shipping, coupons, price match, or any other special deals. One word of caution: you need to also be aware of disreputable web companies which may sell fake, expired, or imitation doses of different flea treatment products. It is often difficult to distinguish these from the real thing. So, the only thing to consider is not price only. You want to be sure you are choosing a reputable seller with a customer service and reputation. A good place to check out certain companies, distributors, and websites is to verify their status with the Better Business Bureau to make sure that there are not outstanding complaints against them and that they strive to resolve any customer disputes.