June 17, 2025
What are fleas?
Fleas are tiny oval shaped, blood sucking parasites. They are so small they can easily be overlooked as specks of dirt. They can be brown or more black in color and have six legs. You can see them quickly crawl through your dogs fur.
What is flea dirt?
Where there are fleas, you will find flea dirt. They are small dark dots that may appear in little groups. This is flea waste from the blood they live off of from your pet.
Fleas are sneaky
They infest your home and irritate your dog before you even know they are there. Dogs can also be allergic to flea bites. This causes intense scratching, hot spots, red and flaky skin. They can cause hair loss due to the allergic response. Those blood-suckers can also cause tapeworm and anemia. They can transmit germs and are really hard to get rid of.
A fleas preference
They prefer animal hosts, but will bite people if animals aren’t available.
The flea cycle
To break the flea cycle and get rid of the infestation, you should understand what you are dealing with.
Adult fleas live on your pet, digest blood and lay their eggs. They leave flea dirt (digested blood) on your pet’s skin.
One female flea can lay up to 2,000 eggs. These eggs hatch in 1-10 days. Then they spread throughout your home and yard every time your dog moves or lays down.
During the next stage, they form cocoons. In the cocoon, they wait for days or up to one year until a warm pet becomes available. Then they hatch, become adults and infest your dog.
Prevention
The best way to avoid this pest is to prevent them from using your dog as a home.
Flea and tick preventatives kill fleas that come in contact with your dog, so they don’t catch a ride home. Talk to your vet about options for your dog. There are flea collars, liquids to apply to the skin and even pills.
UH-OH
If your dog comes home with fleas, preventatives will still kill them, but more treatment is needed to kill the fleas/egg cycle.
Now you have fleas in the house to get rid of. It can take 3-4 months, YES months to get rid of all the fleas as they will be in different stages of their lives.
You need to be DILIGENT to get rid of these pests!
Treating the home
- Wash all dog bedding with hot soapy water. Repeat often until the flea infestation is over. Any where the dog sleeps-WASH! This includes your bedding, rugs and cushions.
- Vacuum floors, carpets, curtains and furniture. If your dog has been in your car with you, vacuum it. Be sure to dispose of the vacuum cleaner bag or empty the vacuum collector outside.
- Use flea control foggers or call an exterminator. This will treat all the stages of fleas.
- Treat your yard. Apply a non-toxic treatment for the yard. Keeping the lawn cut short provides grass that is less appealing.
Treating your dog and other pets
- Treat your dog and other pets each month with a flea preventative.
- During flea season (Flea Season is typically from May-November) don’t let your dog interact with dogs you don’t know. Make sure any playmates don’t have fleas.
- Keep a flea comb handy for quick checks.
- Use a flea shampoo. This will remove the fleas as well as, cleansing their skin and fur.
Notes
If you have an infestation into late fall and live in an area with freezing temperatures, you can use this to your advantage. Put the bedding and other infested items out on your porch overnight to freeze those pests. It helped me get control of a flea problem several years ago.
In conclusion
Prevention is key and can save you and your pet a lot of discomfort and cleaning. Makes me itch just thinking about it!
For more information:
Kelly