Help With Fleas

Here are some helpful hints to get rid of those pesky fleas that drive us all crazy!

• Treat your animal monthly with a product like Advantage, the fluid goes on their back and kills the fleas when they bite the animal.
  
• In the early spring, and as often as indicated, you should put residual granules down in your yard that treat for fleas, ticks and ants.  You can find them at Home Depot or Lowe’s.
  
• If you have carpeting, you should also treat inside of your home.  You can set a bomb off and leave the house while it works, or spray the carpet with a good pesticide carpet spray.  Always use these products as directed.  If you use a bomb, be sure to spray a flea preventative under big pieces of furniture, like couches and beds.  They like to hide under things and can be hard to get rid of if you aren’t thorough.
• Wash all of the bedding where the animals live regularly with hot water and bleach if possible to kill the fleas
• If you have large amounts of carpeting and want to use something that is safe in your carpeting, try sprinkling Mule Team Borax in the carpeting.  The baby fleas will eat this soap when they hatch out and it will kill them.
  
• When you treat for fleas, try to do all of the flea preventative treatments at once, on the same day.  If you bring your dog to  me to groom, we can get rid of the fleas with spray and shampoo, but you need to wait a couple of days before applying the monthly treatment on their back.  It works better if they have a bit of their natural oils back in place.
  
• Persistence is the key, and try to stay on top of things or you may end up infested.  They are much harder to treat then!  If you have been doing all of these things and they are still getting on your animal, try switching the fluid you apply monthly to another brand.  Sometimes the fleas get resistant.
• Flea collars aren’t the best for your animal, they put a lot of toxic chemicals around your animal’s face and nose, and don’t do a very good job repelling the fleas other than around their neck!  I don’t recommend them.  There are a lot of “natural” products out now for treating carpeting and the animals.  I don’t have a lot of experience with them, but they may work well too.  If you find something that works really well, let me know and I will post it on here for others!  Good luck!!