Flea and Tick Control: Interesting Facts on a Hot Topic

I’ve been working at Drs. Foster and Smith for almost 6-1/2 years total, and last week I got to learn some new things about flea and tick control (as well as just fleas and ticks in general) that I had never heard. We had reps for Advantage® II and K9 Advantix® II (made by Bayer) here and were given an informational lecture. Here are the things I learned today that I found pretty awesome.

• One flea can bite up to 400 times a day.
• 95% of fleas in a home are not adults, but immature forms that can remain dormant for a long time.
• When you find a flea infestation, it probably means the infestation has been going on for about 6 to 12 weeks!!! At this point if you only apply flea and tick topicals to your pet, it is going to take another 6 to 12 weeks to get rid of the problem! When you find an infestation, the best way to fix the problem in a timely manner is to treat the environment too.
• A flea lays up to 50 eggs per day and lays approximately 2,000 in a lifetime. Ticks lay all their eggs at once and lay up to 3,000 eggs.
• The process a tick takes to attach to its host and take its fill can take up to 5 days. This means that every time you find a tick that is completely filled with blood… it’s been on your pet or your body for that long.
• Depending upon your geographical location, the four species of ticks that we most commonly come in contact with are Lone Star, Deer, Brown Dog, and American Dog.
• Ticks don’t jump in any way. They use their foremost legs as a sensory tool to detect changes in their environment. They then use their legs, which are covered in spiny hairs, to attach to the passing host that they have detected in their environment.
• Ticks require blood to survive in the larvae, nymph, and adult stages of their lives. The larvae generally target small animals – which may include creatures like mice; nymphs generally target medium-sized animals – which can include many of our pets; adult ticks generally target large animals – like humans. Nymphs and adult ticks are what we generally come in contact with.
• Lice are species specific. If your cat has lice, they won’t be the same as the ones on your dog or child. Different species of lice are killed by different insecticides – what may kill one type may not kill another.
• I knew it before, but they emphasized it again – NEVER use a flea and tick product for dogs on cats and ALWAYS read all the instructions provided with your flea and tick topical.

Did you know these things? I love learning new things, although I might have to say I think I enjoyed not knowing that when I find a fat tick that it’s been hanging out with me for awhile.

Other Posts You Might Enjoy:

• Fleas & Ticks: What Cat and Dog Owners Need to Know
• Buzz Off! An Employee’s Personal Story of Switching to K9 Advantix II
• Must-Know First Aid for Pets

Tagged as: Dog Health, flea and tick, Fleas and Ticks, lice

Claire is a mom to two children. She has owned dogs and cats in the past. Although never owning them, she is very interested in reptiles, and has assisted friends in the past who owned a reptile store.