Flea season is upon us! With Spring being Sprung on us, it is almost a perfect way to describe “THE FLEA”. Have you ever seen how a flea springs from one place to the next?  Have these vampire-like insects hitched a ride on your Pooch and into your home? Or did a swarm of them decide to move in while you were perhaps away? It’s a creepy   idea, leaving you almost cringing at the thought and in a rather “pawcurious” position as we don’t really want our pets to suffer, but to get stuck in and kill the little beasts is a seemingly a rather difficult and mammoth task. With the right treatment and the correct advice it is as easy as 1,2,3 and fleas will be gone before you can say Woof!

Fleas are parasites -or life forms that feed on hosts often harming the host in some way. Your Poor dog “Roofus” has probably been giving you signs of discomfort for some time now, scratching for days on end! Did you know that Fleas use their hosts’ blood as food? So, he has been used as the fleas meal ticket for some time! Adult fleas are no larger than the size of a red ant, so it is difficult to see a number of the characteristics used to describe them. These reddish-brown, wingless insects are laterally compressed, so they look as if they are walking on edge. Which they are if you on the scout for them ironically   like a game of cat and mouse. Cat fleas have both pronotal and genal combs. They have piercing-sucking mouthparts through which they obtain blood meals from your poor four legged friend. The larvae feed and crawl around for 8 to 15 days before building small, silken cocoons in which they pupate and develop into adults. Debris, such as pet hair or skin or carpet fibres, usually covers the pupae, providing visual camouflage. Again the sneaky little vamps have us hunting… Flea larvae develop more quickly at higher temperatures, At cool temperatures, fully formed fleas can remain in their cocoons for up to 12 months. Warm temperatures and mechanical pressure caused by walking on or vacuuming carpet stimulate emergence from the cocoon.. You can find fleas on pets throughout the year, but numbers tend to increase dramatically during spring and early summer when conditions favour larval development.

So.. how can we rid our precious animals of these Vampires? Eradicating fleas starts and ends with controlling the lifecycle. This can only be done with persistence, consistency and understanding. Where households have an infestation, it is imperative that all the pets are treated with flea control. This is why we at MyPet are running amazing specials at this time to help eradicate quicker and more cost effectively. If one of the pets are not treated, or there is perhaps a time gap where fleas are able to have a blood meal between treatments, then the lifecycle will be unaffected and be able to gain momentum again. Speak to our MyPet consultants for advice on the correct treatment for your pets.