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FLEA CONTROL

Understanding the flea

• Fleas only hop onto an animal to get a feed.
  
• Fleas spend 95% of their time in cool dark places e.g. bedding, carpets, cracks, under housespet and can survive up to 6 months in the environment.This means if you find 5 fleas on your pet, there are 95 other fleas.
  
• Each flea can lay up to 50 eggs a day.
  
• Each egg hatches into an adult- each adult laying 50 eggs a day.
  
• Net effect = 50 x 50 eggs a day

And that’s only one life cycle for one flea!

It is not surprising that houses become inundated with fleas

For each flea alive today, there will be 50 adults
in 10 days time laying a total of 5,000 eggs a day

Add another 10 days to this and there are now
5,000 adults laying a total of 500,000 eggs a day

One flea today represents 500,000 eggs in 20 days.

Flea Life Cycle

Eggs

• Approx. 0.5mm diameter, white with pearly sheen, smooth.
  
• Egg production is higher at night when pets are sleeping.
  
• Larvae hatch from the egg in 1 to 10 days.
  
• Eggs are easily shed off the pet’s coat during movement and are deposited in the environment within 8 hours of being laid.
  
• the pet is like a "salt shaker" leaving flea eggs all around the place.

Larvae

• Move away from light, towards the ground and towards organic matter.
  
• In the house, they will migrate away from major traffic areas (up to 1 metre).
  
• The larval stage lasts 5 to 11 days before they form pupae.

Pupae

• Location of pupae (e.g. deep in carpet pile) means that sprays/bombs are physically not able to reach them.
  
• Adults are stimulated to emerge from pupae by the presence of a passing animal– it takes less than 1 second for an adult flea to emerge and jump in the direction of the passing animal.
  
• Pupae can remain dormant for up to 184 days, while waiting for an animal to stimulate the adult to emerge.

Adults

• Fleas can jump up to 48cm in length and up to 17cm high to catch a passing animal
• Once on an animal, it begins to feed almost immediately (0-60 seconds).
• Do not normally transfer from one animal to another.
  
• Mating occurs on the host in the first 8-24hrs, with egg production beginning within 24-48hrs of their first blood meal.
  
• It reaches a peak of 40-50 eggs/day

Starting off on flea control when you first see fleas on your pet is not going to produce results for up to 6-8 weeks no matter which product you use.

You certainly kill any adult fleas that jump on (the pet becomes a "flea vacuum") but eggs that were laid over the last 6-8 weeks are still going to hatch, mature, turn into adults and appear on your pet.

Fleas you see on your pet today are going to be dead tomorrow.

New adult fleas will be seen on your pet the next day.

All flea products take several hours to kill adult fleas.

Starting a flea control product when you first see fleas on your pet is like you built a dam across a river. You stop the water behind the dam (the current adult flea burden) but there is still a lot of water below the dam (immature fleas and eggs) that have to flow away before the dam is working at full capacity.

Important Points

• Flea free animals do not pick up fleas through contact with infested animals; rather they pick up adult fleas through contact with infested environments.
  
• A ‘flea nest’ may be a small part of the total environment that the animal lives in, a favourite spot or bedding.
  
• One flea can produce 2000 eggs in its lifetime.
  
• Fleas breed all year round.
  
• All animals in the household must be treated.
  
• Fleas can re-infest the pet from other sources.
  
• Flea control must be used at the correct dosage and at the correct dosing interval.

Flea control
Aim of Treatment

• Relieve the pet’s discomfort– kill the adult fleas (see Flea outbreak)
  
• Eliminate infestation in the premises– eliminate immature stages
• Prevention
  

Note:

• The elimination time range for all flea products is 18-24hrs.

In other words, adult fleas are not killed immediately.

• Remember pet infestation starts from an infested environment.

Break the Life Cycle

• Kill fleas before they can reproduce (within 24hrs of being on the host)
  
• Directly inhibiting reproduction

Killing Adult Fleas

No product kills 100% of fleas for 30 days within 24hrs.

The rate of flea kill slows (i.e. >24hrs) during the 3rd and 4th week (break point). Under-dosing and bathing/swimming can reduce the level of insecticide.

Killing Immature Fleas

Residual products– Insect Growth Regulator (IGR)

Work by killing developing flea embryos or altering larval development.

Modern flea control– Integrated Flea Control

The modern approach to flea control is to:

• Limit environmental infestation
  
• Kill the majority of adult fleas (adulticidal)
  
• Stop reproduction process (ovicidal)

By killing the adult fleas, immature fleas are still present in the environment (yard) but no new eggs are being laid.

By using a flea control product on your pet, you turn it into a ‘living flea vacuum’ whereby any fleas that jump on get killed.

Fleas on the pet today will be dead tomorrow, but new fleas are emerging daily.

Eggs that are already present hatch in 2-4 days.

There are no more larvae after 2-4 weeks.

1-2 weeks later, there are no more pupae.

Therefore in 3-8 weeks the infestation in over, occasionally longer depending on the temperature.

Interesting facts

• The worse cases of human flea bites are seen when clients remove their dog or cat from the environment e.g. put them outside. They no longer have the ‘living flea vacuum’ inside killing adult fleas as they jump on for a ride.
• To speed up flea control, vacuum the house daily.
• Emerging fleas can live 7-12 days without feeding.
• Fleas seen today, came from eggs laid 1-2mths ago.
• Fleas hitch hike on human clothing.

Which product to use

The best flea control package consists of combining a knockdown product with an Insect Growth Regulator (IGR). The two products compliment each other extremely well, and ensure low flea egg populations in the house and yard.

It is essential that all animals in a household are treated against fleas and not just the ones showing a skin irritation.

The most effective knockdown products are:

Dog Flea Knockdown Products	Cat  Flea Knockdown Products
Advantix (NEW) Advocate (NEW) Advantage Frontline Plus Revolution	Advocate (NEW) Advantage Frontline Plus Revolution

Use one of these products for a quick knock down effect on fleas that jump on pets for a ride. The pet becomes a "flea vacuum" killing all those that jump on board.

The most effective IGR containing products are:

Sentinel Spectrum

The all in one heartworm, intestinal wormer and flea control product. Its IGR flea control ingredient is Program (Lufenuron)

Program (Luferuron)

Either oral or injectable route in catsand oral in dogs. Most dogs would be wiser to go onto Sentinel as it contains Program.

Frontline Plus

It contains an IGR which coats the pet's hairs. Wherever hairs drop off e.g. around the bed, becomes a flea sterilisation zone. The other active ingredient, Fiprinol, is a knockdown product. It also kills paralysis ticks for 2 weeks in dogs. For this reason, Frontline Plus is our most popular product.

If you already have an infestation in the house i.e. you are getting bitten, then you need to set off some flea bombs which contain an IGR.

Flea control for small exotic mammals
Frontline
Not in rabbits.
Dose: 10mg/kg
Use cat formulation, draw up with syringe (comes in 100mg/ml).

Advantage
Dose: 10mg/kg
Use cat formulation, draw up with syringe (comes in 100mg/ml).
Once every 2 weeks.

Revolution
Dose:  10mg/kg
Use cat formulation, draw up with syringe (comes in 60mg/ml)
Once every 2 weeks.