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Inside Your Home
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Comb your pet with a metal flea
comb, available at pet stores. Focus around the neck and base of the
tail. Keep a wide container of soapy water nearby to drown captured
fleas.
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Bathe dogs in soap and water to
drown fleas. Increase effectiveness by using a flea comb while the pet
is lathered. It is not necessary to use soap with insecticide.
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Vacuum carpets, floors, and upholstered furniture
frequently throughout the year. Vacuuming carpets picks up
adult and egg-stage fleas, but is less effective at removing larvae.
Clean cracks and crevices; or better still, seal permanently with caulk.
Try gently vacuuming your animal's coat to remove adult fleas.
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Use diatomaceous earth (DE) to treat
carpets, upholstered furniture, and pet bedding or blow it into cracks
and crevices. Use a hand duster to apply a fine layer of DE. Wear a
dust mask and goggles and avoid getting dust in your pet's eyes. DE
has little toxicity to humans and pets, but kills fleas by absorbing
the waxy coating on their bodies, causing dehydration and death.
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Use borate-based carpet treatments.
Borates have a low toxicity to humans and pets. Fleanix® carpet treatment
can control fleas in carpeting for up to a year. Mix the powder with
water in a rug shampooing machine with or without detergent. During
shampooing, borate binds to carpet fibers and cannot be vacuumed up.
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Flea traps are especially useful
if you don't own a pet but still have fleas. In this case, also check
for wild animals or rodents nesting in or around your home. Adult fleas
are attracted to the warmth and light of an electric bulb and are caught
on sticky paper. The most effective traps have a flickering green light.
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Insect growth regulators (IGRs)
prevent flea eggs from hatching and inhibit larvae from developing.
The IGR methoprene can be applied to areas such as carpets and pet bedding.
IGRs will not kill fleas that have reached adulthood before the material
is applied. Use IGRs in combination with other measures listed in this
fact sheet. Some products combine methoprene with permethrin to control
both pre-adult and adult fleas.
Outside
Your Home
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Treat outside only where you have found high flea populations.
To find these areas, walk around the yard in a pair of white socks.
Check areas where animals rest, sleep, or regularly travel. You will
easily see fleas that jump onto the socks.
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Do not try to combat fleas by spraying around the perimeter of your
house or spraying your entire yard.
Spot-treat only those areas where you find large populations of fleas.
Fleas will more likely be on an animal or inside your home. Concentrate
your efforts there.
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Check for wild animals like raccoons
and opossums nesting under the house or porch. Dead animals can also
be the source of a flea infestation. Treat nests under the house with
diatomaceous earth.
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Use beneficial nematodes
in soil where you have found fleas. Be sure to water the area before
and after application. For sources of nematodes, see Resources.
For
Your Animal
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Ultrasonic collars and machines are not effective.
There is no scientific evidence that these products affect fleas, and
they are not recommended.
- Fipronil
(Frontline®) and imida-cloprid (Advantage®) are applied
to the skin of the animal in a small amount at one spot, usually at
the base of the neck or between the shoulder blades. The insecticide
spreads over the entire body of the pet and is effective for at least
a month. These products have a low acute toxicity for mammals but can
be irritating to eyes and should not be ingested. Use gloves when applying
them.
- Lufenuron
(Program®) is given orally to the animal. Fleas that ingest
this chemical produce only a few viable eggs, and larvae from those
eggs cannot mature. Because lufenuron accumulates in fat and crosses
the placental barrier, do not treat pregnant, nursing, or very young
animals.
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