Flea Control

To get a good integrated flea control program you must includes good sanitation and treatment of the pet and environment. You can eliminate fleas from your home or building with proper treatment, but it may take time and perseverance, especially if the infestation is heavy.
 Sanitation.
To be successful you need to vacuum thoroughly and change pet bedding regularly. Vacuuming removes up to 30 percent of the larvae and up to 60 percent of flea eggs from a carpet depending on your vacuum cleaner, as well as the larvae’s food supply of dried blood.
If you really want success with flea control be thorough when vacuuming, you need to vacuum under furniture, cushions, chairs, beds, and along walls. Get rid of vacuum cleaner bags at least once a week, better yet get rid of bags when your through vacuuming. Fleas can continue to develop inside vacuum cleaner bags and re-infest the house.
Treating your Pets.
A flea comb and a good bath is your pet’s first line of defense for flea control. Soap acts as a gentle insecticide and helps control light infestations on your pet. Though time consuming, combing helps reduce the need for insecticides. Flea combs have fine teeth that remove adult fleas from fur. Most dogs and cats seem to enjoy this treatment; pay particular attention to the face and neck, and the area in front of the tail. Dip the comb frequently in soapy water or an alcohol solution to kill fleas removed from the pet.
    Insect growth regulators, or IGRs, are a safe preventative treatment for fleas. These products work by disrupting the normal development of flea eggs and larvae. When exposed to IGRs, adult fleas are unable to reproduce; eggs fail to hatch and larvae die before they complete their development. Because most IGRs kill only eggs and larvae, they do not eliminate adult fleas quickly. For this reason, they are usually mixed with a mild insecticide.
    Insect growth regulators are available as sprays, spot-ons, pills or food additives. One product designed for internal use is called Program^® (active ingredient: lufenuron). Program^® can be given as a pill (for dogs), food additive (for cats), or injection (for cats). A similar product, Sentinel^®, contains lufenuron plus a heart-worm preventative. These products are available only through veterinarians. They are very effective for flea control, particularly for indoor pets.
    Two other insect growth regulators for topical use are methoprene and pyriproxyfen. Methoprene is sold under several trade names including Precor^® and vIGRen^®. Methoprene and pyriproxyfen are available at pet stores as dips, pet sprays, spot-ons and flea collars. Control requires 4 to 6 weeks.
    For severe flea problems and better flea control, an IGR treatment may not be quick enough. Use a product that kills adult fleas, such as imidacloprid (Advantage^TM) or fipronil (Frontline^TM). Both products have low toxicity to mammals and pose little risk to pets or people. Advantage^TM and Frontline^TM provide 1- and 3-month protection from fleas, respectively. Frontline^TM also kills ticks for up to 1 month after application. Both Advantage^TM and Frontline^TM are available from veterinarians as spray and spot-on treatments.
    Spot-on treatments (pesticides applied to one or more spots on the animal’s back) control adult fleas effectively. Natural oils on the fur help transfer the pesticide to all parts of the pet’s body. Before you apply any products, read and follow label directions carefully. Puppies and cats are different from adult dogs and the products designed for them are different, unless specified on the label.
    Botanical (plant-based) insecticides kill adult and larval fleas and are relatively low in toxicity. Botanical insecticides include pyrethrum (or pyrethrins) and citrus oil extracts (limonene and linalool). Use botanical insecticides with care. Though usually safe when applied according to label directions, some pets (especially certain cat breeds) are sensitive to botanicals-especially citrus oil products.
    It is sometimes claimed that garlic, Brewer’s yeast, cedar bedding and various herbal sachets control fleas, but there is little scientific evidence to support such claims. Volatile oils in fresh cedar chips are toxic to fleas, but the effect lasts a very short time. Tests have shown that Brewer’s yeast does not protect pets from fleas.
 One of the reasons the profession exterminator is successful with flea control is the application and the follow up. With out follow up you might as well not even bother.
View blog authority

How To Get Rid Of fleas

Below is some questions I ran into on How to get rid of fleas

Question:

My house is infested with fleas! I have never had fleas before I moved into this house. I bought flea collars for the dogs and flea spray made especially for cats, and some spray for the carpet, but what else can I do? I need all the help I can get! Thanks.

Answers by various people about how to get rid of fleas:

If you don't want to use frontline or that other chemical they have (can't think of the name right now) you might try setting off a bug bomb (get everyone including pets, out of the house first), give dogs baths (with flea shampoo),then start feeding them small amounts of garlic, and that ought to solve the problem.

When my house was infested (many years ago) I got some bombs, spray, and shampoo from the vet. I bombed the house and the inside of my car because the dog was in there a lot. Worked great, and I have been using frontline type flea control ever since. Only have to go through it once to learn...what a royal pain! The vacuum is your friend right now too. Get every nook and cranny.

Flea collars are a scam. Get the between the shoulder flea drops and put on the pets or animals and start vacuuming every day for a month, and that should get rid of the problem.

All the above answers are very good to some degree when it comes knowing how to get rid fleas; the one thing that is missing is the follow up. You must repeat the process in 2-3 weeks to be successful. You really only need to vacuum a couple of times, more important is to get the bag out of cleaner or dump contents outside in a plastic bag and throw into garbage. Fleas will escape out of a vacuum cleaner.
Remember this if you cannot get rid of the problem please call a professional exterminator, so that the animals will not be miserable.

Good luck to you!