my dog has fleas?

Question

the dog got fleas gave them to the cat and now they are in the house. i put the pwder on the carpets and swept the floors and vacumed the couches. how do i get rid of them in the house. does anyone know the life cycle of a friggin flea.

Answer 1

Here is what I found.

Understanding the life cycle of the flea is necessary in order to control it. The flea has several stages to its life cycle. Adult fleas spend most of their time on the dog or cat - they must be dislodged to leave since they will not do so voluntarily. Despite this, when the flea population on the dog becomes excessive humans tend to be an acceptable alternative to the flea. The average life span of an adult flea is probably about 6 weeks - but fleas can live as long as a year under certain conditions. A female flea can lay 20 to 28 eggs a day. She may lay several hundred eggs over her life span. These eggs fall off the pet and develop where they land. They are small and can even develop in the cracks in wood floors or other small crevices. A larvae hatches from the flea egg. It takes as few as 9 days to as long as 200 days to go through its growth stages. At this time is forms a pupae and waits for the right time to hatch. Fleas prefer temperatures of 65 to 80 degrees and humidity of 75 to 85 per cent. This range determines the period of time that fleas are a problem in your particular area. For some areas of the country, this is all year. In others, the flea season is relatively short. It is estimated that for every adult flea found on the pet, there are about 10 developing fleas in the pet's environment.

Your first step in killing flea populations is going to be to get a flea medicine. Frontline, Program, and Advantage are the bigger brands - take a look at each, because there are some big differences. All of these, however, will kill off the adult fleas - that's one important part of getting rid of them. It's hard to kill fleas entirely, but you can get about 99% of the adults with one of these medicines. Apply it to your pet, and then try several other tactics - a flea medicine only goes so far, because it won't get rid of the fleas that are around your house and not in contact with your pet. So for a week or so, vacuum every day. Wash your sheets every day, and wash anything you can that your pet comes in contact with. Fleas lay tons of eggs, and these will fall off your pet around the house, concentrated wherever it hangs out. You'll want to get rid of as many of these as you can. Your flea medicine will get rid of the adults, and the next generation will be much smaller. When they grow to adulthood and try to feed on your pet, they'll die too. You should be rid of your infestation within a month or so, and then just keep applying the medicine regularly to keep fleas from coming back.

hope this helps

Answer 2

You need to treat the animals with flea stuff consistently. Even if your house is cleaned, the animals are picking them up from somewhere and will just reinfest the house over and over.

If you don't have kids, I recommend the drops you can get to put on the animals - pay attention to the labels to make sure that it kills eggs as well. The only problem with drops is that if you have kids, the kids can pet the dog then lick their hands, and get sick.

So if you have kids, try a flea collar or regular flea baths.

As for deinfesting the house, the powder should work and everything should die out within the week, provided you power everything and vaccum well / do laundry on the exposed items like bedsheets and clothes on the floor. Fleas tend not to bite humans either, unless you have diebetes or are one of the rare people prone to flea bites.

Answer 3

The fastest way to handle your flea feast is to take both of the animale to the groomers and have them given a flea bath, while you have a pest control company come into your home and treat your property inside and out. A good company will tell you what you need to do in prep for treatment things like after you vaccum before they come to treat, throw the vaccum bag away, wash your sheets if the animals sleep in the beds with you ask the company to also treat the beds.( have them stripped to the matterss no bedding on them. when you pick the animals up from the groomers make sure you apply a flea treatment like frontline or advantage,as the eggs will start to hatch in about 9-15 days but they should die quickly , if not the company you used will come back and re-treat your home for free.
This is a little costly but if you want to be flea free in as little time as possible then thats the way to go.

Answer 4

1) Take the animals out of the house!
2) treat them with a good soaking of (approved safe for animals) nonaerosol flea killer and massage it in (use gloves) comb out dead fleas(close to the skin) use a nit comb for lice
3) Leave the pets outside for awhile,
4)get a mirror or shiny foil, place it in center of room, place a small lamp on top of it & turn it on.
5) turn off all other lights (attracted to heat & light)
6) get your super flea killer spray ready
7) stand quietly by the mirror or foil and wait......be ready to spray. Give it awhile before you go Rambo on 'em...let them work thier way across the room , don't scare them off!
8) repeat this in every room and vacuum....DON"T forget to throw the vacuum bag away After tying it up in a plastic bag!
9) bring animals back in
10) treat them with ZODIAC drops every 2-3 months (grocery store, wal mart, etc)
11) treat your yard!!! thats where they keep coming from!
You don't have to spend an arm and a leg to get rid of fleas, or to prevent them.....just always be ready for them in the spring!
If you keep the pets treated and flea free, you'll never have to worry about getting the nasty little buggholes out of your house!
I don't use the Vet prescribed remedies, Zodiac does it all...and it's inexpensive compared to prescription drops and meds. Do note that MOST drops for cats don't kill eggs, just fleas, HOWEVER, I did seethat Hartz has a new one for cats that does.
But hartz for dogs isn't as good as Zodiac!
I don't recommend powders for the carpet, they will make your children and or pets sick.
Use sprays ONLY if you give them time to dry so that the residue wont hurt kids or pets....or airborne will kill fish
I have kids, indoor dogs, indoor/outdoor cat and outdoor dogs....I have only had to do what I mentioned above 1 time in 15 yrs!
( The mirror and lamp was when I helped out a friend who had fleas....she did it again the next day to be sure, and hasn't had the problem again for years!)

Answer 5

You can buy flea powder and sprinlke it on the carpet. Wait afew minutes then vacuum it up. Do this everyday for afew days. Get Advantexs or any other professional flea killing liquid from your vet and give it to the cat and dogs after giving them a good flea bath.

Answer 6

Oh my god. This happened to me once. My dog contracted fleas and brought then in the house, and at the end of this, I found myself with over 32 flea bites. It was hell. The only way I found to get rid of them was to strip all beds of sheets, pillow cases, and any kind of fabric where those pest can hang out. Them put them in the washing machine with bleach, and if you have colors use bleach for colors. Make sure the water is blistering hot or very cold depending on the fabrics you wash. Spray down your furniture with any type of disinfectent. It worked for me. Hope it works for you.

Answer 7

After vacuming, be sure to empty outside. The fleas will continue living in the vacum.

Answer 8

All my dogs used to have fleas so I bought ceader chips filled plastic zip lock bags with holes with it and put 2 bags per room (excpt closets just put 1 there). It also makes the house smell good.

Answer 9

you just have to stay at it. killing them just bring on more .you need to have your pet treated and get some good flea solution for carpet and do it also .it will take time and money no dough

Answer 10

wash them at least once a week in flea medicine