For most people, a dog is like as a member of the family. This means he or she is allowed free access throughout the home. You probably even find yourself letting your four-legged friend sleep in the same bed with you from time to time. While there is nothing wrong with this, it can become a major problem if your pet has contracted fleas. Fleas not only affect pets, but they can affect humans as well. If you have ever dealt with fleas in the past, you probably already know controlling and eliminating them can be a multi-step process. In fact, for every flea that you find on your pet, it likely means that there could be hundreds more in your carpet, bedding, and even in your yard. So, how exactly do you go about dealing with these pests? Below, this is exactly what you are going to learn.
Controlling Your Indoor Environment
In order to properly control fleas in your home, you have to be able to remove all forms of fleas from the environment. This means that you must be able to kill out adult fleas, larvae, and pupae. Of course, this is much easier than it sounds. You first want to start by vacuuming below the drapes, under the furniture, and anywhere your pet lounges around. Vacuuming is an excellent way to remove fleas from the home. In fact, it is estimated that vacuuming in the proper areas can remove anywhere from 50 to 90 percent of flea eggs from the environment. After you are done vacuuming make sure that you pour the contents into a sealable bag and discard it into the outside trash immediately.
Once you have completed the above steps you want to next take advantage of any fogger, powder, or spray that will kill out the remaining flea population. While there are tons of options available, make sure that you are doing proper research to discover which ones are toxic and non-toxic.
Eliminating Fleas On Your Dog
Once you have the indoor environment in check your next task will be to tackle the fleas on your pet. Capstar tablets are a product that is becoming extremely popular amongst pet owners. Not only are they 100 percent safe, but also they are fast acting. These pills are simply just given to your dog orally and they are capable of eliminating an entire flea population in less than just six hours. The medication can start working in under half an hour and can last as long as 24 hours, so it is easy to understand why they are growing in popularity.
Controlling Your Outdoor Environment
Eliminating fleas in your yard might be a bit tougher than eliminating fleas inside the home or on your pet. However, if your dog sleeps in a kennel or dog house outside, this is probably the most likely place to start. Other places that fleas tend to dwell are moist areas, shady areas, and places where organic debris can be found. Start by taking away any organic material like leaves, straw, and grass clippings from the area. After that apply a flea killer to the area and try to keep smaller rodents like chipmunks, raccoons, and opossums out of the yard, because they can carry fleas, as well.
