 Pet Talk - Pet Health by Dr. Fran Good, DVM July 11, 2003
In order to get a handle on how to get rid of them we had to learn about how they lived. You may not care about that, and if that's the case skip this section and jump right on down to the different kinds of ways to treat for fleas. Or if you're reading this as it's published, you'll have to wait til next week for specific flea treatments. You might as well read this. You're already here.  photo by Gigi Pilcher And for those of you who always need to know why you're doing something, this is the 'why' part. Fleas spend most of their lifecycle on your animal, eating blood meals and pooping flea dirt into the environment - that's your house, remember - but they do this so they can procreate. And that's what they're doing when they're not eating and pooping - they're laying eggs. Thousands of them. All dropping off of Cosmo, and into your couch. Into your easy chair. Into your bedding if you let Cosmos on the bed (Reason Number 8745 not to let your dog onto the furniture). Into the carpeting when he lays down. Into your curtains, when Cosmos shakes. And these eggs then hatch into larvae. These larvae like soft cushy places, out of the light. So now they burrow more deeply into your furniture, your bedding, your window treatments, your carpeting. They're eating environmental debris, but I guess I wouldn't rely on them to clean your house for you. The stuff they eat is microscopic, and besides, they like the flea dirt droppings better anyway. So your house is now infested. And these are pretty hardy little buggers. The eggs don't have to hatch right away. They can sit in the environment, waiting until conditions are right (i.e. when something warm with blood in it starts hanging around) for up to a year. And once they're hatched, the adults can go without a blood meal for two weeks, explaining why pet owners often report new little itchy bug bites on their ankles, when they come home after a vacation. Welcome home, Mom, Dad! We've been waaiiting! We're huunnngggry! This is why treating Cosmo isn't enough. Technically, with some of the new applications, that kill different phases of the flea lifecycle, you could conceivably wait them out, But you'd be waiting for all the environmental babies to hatch and jump onto the treated pet, in order to come in contact with the treatment and die, and that could take up to a year to accomplish. If Cosmos's itching that badly, you don't have that kind of time handy. Treat your house. Next: Flea extermination treatments E-mail your comments
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