Flea Prevention
Some Facts About Flea Prevention
The easiest way to protect your pet from fleas is to exercise flea prevention. Managing fleas requires that you look at the big picture – your entire home and yard – and not just the little picture – your pets. If you know your combatant, where it breeds and what it likes to eat, that arms you with better information to wage war against fleas.
Sanitation is an integral part of flea prevention. If your yard area is unkempt, you stand a better chance of fleas propagating there and infesting your pets. A solid program against fleas will take into account infested wildlife or stray dogs and cats that may enter your property. Tall weeds and grasses are a perfect hiding place for fleas or animals carrying fleas.
Inside your home, vacuuming is one of the first lines of defense against fleas, and one of the least expensive means of flea prevention, since you do it anyway. Vacuuming picks up debris like carpet shreds or pet hair where the flea develops. Careful cleaning of the areas where your pet rests and plays, as well as the rest of your house, reduces the debris that fleas require, to mature in.
You can have fleas in your home even if you have no pets. Adult fleas attach themselves to your shoes, pants or socks, and in this way gain access to your home. Outdoor flea issues will quickly develop into indoor flea issues, even if you don't have pets.
Preventing fleas on your pets is just as important as treating your grounds and your home. If you treat everything except your pets, the life cycle will just pick up where it left off, with the adult fleas living on your pet. Flea prevention means stopping fleas before they start to infest your home or your animals.
Pet shampoos are an effective flea killer, and some companies make shampoos that will also act as a repellent against fleas. Even pets that live strictly inside can be exposed to fleas, from insects that find their way into your home on your clothes or on a visiting animal.
Spot-on products are valuable to keep any adult fleas on your pet from reproducing. You might want to use a product which actually kills the adult fleas too, to make your pet more comfortable.
It's a good idea to use the best flea prevention products that are available in your area, in order to prevent an infestation before it ever has a chance to occur. If you take a wait-and-see attitude towards fleas, I can tell you what you'll probably be seeing soon on your animals or in your home – fleas.
It is way more expensive in time and money to eradicate a flea infestation than it is to exercise a sound plan of flea prevention.