As we’ve seen, effective flea control requires that you treat your home as well as your pet. Flea eggs and larva aren’t present on your pet, but in the carpet in your home, in bedding, and outside where your pet frequents. There’s no point in killing the fleas on your pet if they’re just going to be reinfested from eggs and larva in your home.
Treat your pet
There are many products these days that provide effective flea control for your pets. The easiest, and most effective, are the long-term oral and topical treatments, such as Program, Frontline, and Advantage. They’re easy to apply, and generally provide long-lasting protection from fleas, often for up to a month per application.
Flea control with one monthly application
These products are the most popular and effective way to treat to treat your pet for fleas. They’re simple to apply, don’t require messy sprays or powders, and work for up to one month. Regular applications of these flea control products will prevent re-infestation, once you’ve rid your pet and home of fleas.
These topical treatments are far more effective than traditional sprays and powders. They’re also less toxic, and more localized to the pet being treated, as opposed to sprays which result in a toxic cloud being released into the air, in addition to on your pet.
Natural flea control?
For many people, applying any kind of chemicals to a pet’s skin is unacceptable. Fortunately, there are many natural flea control remedies available, which don’t use chemicals, but instead rely on essential oils and herbs to repel fleas. Garlic, brewers yeast, and eucalyptus oil are just a few of the natural flea remedies you can use. See our natural flea control page for more details.
Vet.com – Flea and Tick Medications
Excellent resource on flea control products, as well as a lot of general pet health information.Bayer Advantage Flea Control
Bayer’s Advantage product website. Contains some useful information on flea control and pet care.
{ 16 comments… read them below or add one }
God i’m reading all these and its soooooo nice to know that im nto the only one sick n tired of fleas..My sitter brings them over so i spend the whole bloody summer n fall treating and fighting with the damm lil things!1 AGHHH, i also use K9 Advantix, Works great on the dog but then we get the fleas on us…I have found that Ortho Home Defense MAX Works GREAT to kill eggs and is safe to spray on furniture n bedding. I soak EVERYTHING with it and then wash all teh bedding….ITs a pain int eh ass but seems to work…I spray CARPET, Furniture, Beds, wood floors, itsounds liek alot of work but, we HAVE to win against these pesky lil Things, that make us miserable…And YES Vaccume ALOT!!!!
Oh and i spray all the bedding b4 i wash it so im not transfering them to the basement. I wash everything in HOT water then dry…THe home defense smells but after it dries there is no smell..and a gallon GOES a long way!!!
Hi I just found a dog and brought it home and 3 days later I found fleas on her. I was told that if I wash my dog every 2 days with Hertz shampoo for fleas and ticks and pick the fleas of the animal when its wet. It’s supposed to be easier to find them when the fur is wet.Squish the flea until you hear it pop. Do this with you 2 thumbs if possible. Vacuum morning and evening and throw the vacuum cleaner bag into a plastic bag so they can’t jump back out. Do this outside! Wash what ever the animal touches. If it lies on your bed wash bedding in hot water. If the animal has a bed wash it ever day in hot water. Spray furniture and carpets after you have vacuumed. In about 2 weeks you should be flea free. I’m going to try this because my sisters cats get outside and she gets fleas sometimes. She follows these rules and gets rid of her fleas every time? I will write back and tell you if it works!!!
help!! i have four two week old kittens and they infested with fleas. what can i do for them. someone told me to bath them in water and daw dush detergent but how do i do that, and i’m afraid that the mom is going to reget her kittens. help what do I do?
Hi Samantha, For kittens that young, about all you can do is bathe them with gentle soap, and comb them with a flea comb. Flea combs have very fine teeth, and will remove fleas, as well as eggs and larvae. Unfortunately, if the kittens have fleas, most likely so does the mother cat. Try treating the mother with Frontline, or ask you vet about other products that might be safe for young kittens. Also, you’re going to need to get rid of the fleas on the cat’s bedding, wherever she’s been laying with the kittens. Either thoroughly wash the bedding, or get rid of it entirely. Good luck!
My puppy brought fleas home after a camping trip and after a few day I notices them on our cat and our kids had many bites on them. After much reasearch I found the most effective remedie for the pets and the house. The powder called seven usually used outdoors on plants is and insectiside you can find at wal-mart and most any garden section of stores. Its is non-toxic to animals and children (not recommended to use if you are pregnant or nursing though) After dousing the pets and leaving it on them overnight and brushing them in the morning, they carried the dust to the areas the lay around wich in turn killed the fleas in those areas. Also I sprinkled it on our carpet, around all the baseboards and under the furniture, left it there for about 24 hours and vaccumed it righ up and haven’t had a problem with any fleas since!!
Just tried this and it worked on my new born puppies. Johnson’s Baby Shampoo!! Apply is on the face(watch eyes) and ears. Then rub it in all over the pup or dog. Leave it on for 5-10 mins. Then rinse. The fleas will be dead. Use often and they will all eventually hatch and die before the life cycle is complete. Is not poisonous to dog or baby. Use a lot. works best if no water at first.
Several years ago, my dog’s vet suggested the “watch, rub and squish” method of catching and killing fleas, if the infestation isn’t too bad yet. It takes a lot of patience, but here is what you do: 1) Lay out WHITE cotton terry-cloth towels where you and/or your pets or kids are sitting or sleeping. Make sure that the rough side of the towel, NOT the velvet side, is facing upwards. 2) Sit still and try not to move too much. It also helps to wear white clothing. Before too long, black spots appear on the towel (or you), seemingly out of nowhere. ALL of these black spots are either fleas or their droppings. 3) Quickly put your thumb over a black spot on the towel. You have to do this with a lot of speed, or else your victim will jump before you pin it down. (Sometimes, you can try to grab a black spot between your thumb and index finger and disable it by rubbing your fingers together, but you have to do it very quickly). 4) After rubbing your thumb back and forth over the black spot about 10 times, all the while applying a lot of pressure, lift up your thumb and you will find that either the flea is unable to jump to get away, or you have masterfully entombed it in the pile of the towel. 5) Pick up the bare flea or encased tidbit, and squish it between the nails of both thumbs until you feel a crunch, or it is thoroughly flat. You now have one dead flea. If it seems to crumble after rubbing and crunching, you just killed what is really a flea dropping. 6) After you’ve caught quite a few, wash the towel in a strong solution of detergent and bleach using very hot water. 7) Repeat as necessary. I have also been using the shop-vac instead of my regular vacuum cleaner and flea spray on everything. Initially, I didn’t believe the vet that all of the spots were fleas, since there were so many. But when the vet asked “Well then what else could it be?”, I had no answer. Later, when I separated the pile of the towel and used a magnifying glass to get a closer look at a tiny one, it jumped. I also found that when caught and squished, the magnifying glass showed the shape of the flea. This might sound very barbaric, but I get a lot of satisfaction from crunching those blood-sucking little vampires.
Since this chemical-free method works to catch fruit-flies, then why not with fleas? Does anyone know what can be used to attract them? I fill a glass about 1/3-full with apple or peach juice. I cover the glass with plastic wrap and seal it closed with a strong elastic band. I poke about 5 or 6 small holes in the plastic wrap and place it where the flies like to congregate. They are attracted by the juice and fly into the glass. They are unable to find their way out and eventually drown. What can I use instead of juice?
When I went back to my towel on the sofa after posting as only Patience last night, I finally lost it! I realized I was fighting a losing battle. They were all over the white towel. The towel method worked when I had my beloved companion Yorkie, who passed away a month ago (I’ve been sobbing like a baby since). In prior years, I had used the formula that I got from the vet that is placed between her shoulder blades once a month. With that and the white towel, they all disappeared and I never needed to extensively spray or vacuum. Now, being pet-less, the fleas I didn’t know I had, until after she died, have been attacking me in increasing numbers. Last night, I sprinkled quite a heavy layer of Borax on the carpets and a light sprinkling over the sofa and between the cushions. I also put a thin layer on the white towel, and rubbed it in to get it deep into the nap or pile. I fell asleep there, with my “hoody” covering my head. (Maybe that’s why “hoodies” are so popular?) This morning, I awoke to find the usual number of fleas/black spots on the towel, however THEY WERE ALL DEAD. I tried to pick one up and it almost fell apart in my fingers. Sensing my commotion, a large flea came slowly crawling onto the towel towards me. I quickly stuck the bottom of my thumb on it, and it didn’t even try to jump. When I looked at it after I rubbed on it only a little bit, it was completely DEAD and was totally flattened. That happened only one more time. Then nothing….no new fleas! Looking through a magnifying glass, it appeared that all of these dead fleas seemed to lack their hind legs. They were all also very brittle, as if all of their innards had dried up on them. The white layer of Borax on the carpet had quite a few dead fleas on it also. Close inspection revealed the same thing. Do they eat this stuff, or only absorb it throught their shells? So far, BORAX WORKS! I plan on leaving it there and watching, with me as bait, for a few days, and will then shop-vac it all up. Hopefully, the problem will be resolved.
if i buy Hertz Guard Plus will it make my house dog sick if she licks herseolf?
if i buy hertz ulta guard Plus and use it on my house dog and she licks herself will it make her sick? Rose
I bought Hartz ULTRAGUARD Flea + tick drops to use on a 3 year old male cat that I adopted 2 months ago. I wanted to get Program or Advantage drops but none of the large chain retail stores stock it, (no surprise there!) After using the Hartz drops on Harry for 2 months, I found it to be completely ineffective. I became MUCH more dissatisfied when I did a google search on this product and found numerous web sites devoted exclusively for people to relate their horrible experiences with using Hartz drops on their pets
I have been using HERTZ ultra guard on my cat the last two months .. And though it has not cleared the fleas 100% it has done a pretty good job with no harmful effects to my animal either…! Partly its my fault because I hadn’t been keeping up on the vacuuming .. However I did just purchase a flea comb for my cat and have gone over him several times .. And it has worked WONDERS! It traps the fleas into the little teeth on the comb and then I pick the hair out of the comb and swish it around in a bowl of soapy water .. I’ve enjoyed being the one to kill those blood-sucking insects, eww! I have also sprinkled salt onto my carpeting and am going to leave it there for 48 hours .. Dries up all eggs and larva and will actually kill fleas as well AND its chemical free! I have also set up a lamp with a pie tin of soapy water mixed with oil underneath it .. Light attracts fleas and once they jump to the light they’ll in return fall to their death in the water/oil/soap mixture because it traps them in. I’m going to get this infestation under control. I know there is an end to this tunnel! =) hope I helped!
I just got back from the vets office, I had to leave my 1yr old Boston Terrier there. She had a bad reaction to the Hertz ultra guard shampoo. Her hair started falling out, she could not walk and she was shaking uncontrollably. They are having to give her muscle relaxers and IV fluid to flush the toxins out of her system. This is not the first time we bathed her with this. They should have a warning or something on the bottle, all it says is to not use on puppies under 12 weeks old.
I have a horrible flea problem after taking my dog to the river for a run with me. I need to know do i need to put her and my two cats in the bathroom or car while Im spraying the Ortho Home Defense Max? She lays on both of my couches, too…drench them in the spray? Please help, I was thinking there was sand in my bed from my dog…come to find out its flea eggs. I cannot sleep one more night with fleas bitting me and my dog!!!