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Frontline Flea Control - Are You Scratching Yet?
By: Mark Woodcock
You hardly notice, it's just a small tickle, as you reach to brush away what you expect to be nothing more than a fly or stray piece of hair, but horror, you discover a blood-sucking intruder that's seeking its next meal. It could be a cat flea, or is it a dog tick? The irony is, whatever it is,now you have found one there will be many more lurking nearby. If you keep cats and dogs and what's a happy homestead without them? Then fleas and ticks are an uncomfortable fact of life. Fleas and ticks are more than a nuisance, fleas and ticks can transmit a host of pathogens and skin diseases. Don't put yourself at risk disease or watch your pets suffer. With a little diligence and the help of tried and tested Flea control treatments like Frontline, you can get the upper hand during the flea and tick season. Did you know there are more than 3,000 different species of flea, In North America the most common one is Ctenocephalides felis, also known as the cat flea. Despite the name, these fleas will not only live happily on your cat but are just as likely to reside on your dog. The life span of a flea is in four stages. Research has shown about 5 percent of the fleas that infest your home are adults. The majority of the indoor flea population are made up of pupae, around 10 percent, larvae is around 35 percent and eggs in the region of 50 percent. Many common pesticides which are used to eradicate these pests will only kill the adult flea, this in turn will leave around 95 percent of the flea population behind to leap up time and time again, to reinfest. The female flea will lay around 50 eggs each day. Before she lays her eggs, the flea must find a blood meal, this is sometimes not an easy quest, as fleas tend to have poor eyesight and will rely usually on air currents to locate their hosts. As your family pet happily trundles by, the female flea jumps, sometimes around a thousands of times, before it manages to hitch it's ride. Once safely on board your pet, the female flea secretes her saliva onto your pets skin to soften the area and make the blood flow readily up to the surface. It's this saliva and not the actual bite, that can cause the allergic reactions and irritations in both pets and humans alike. After she has feasted, the flea begins to lay her eggs on her host. Cats and dogs can sometimes remove some of the eggs whilst they groom themselves; others may fall off as your pet moves around from place to place. It takes around 10 days for the larvae to emerge. Anyone and anybody who has suffered through a flea infestation knows it's a situation that can drive the most mild mannered of us to contemplate reaching for a hard core pesticide arsenal. These arsenals are only a short term solution. They can be ineffective and the chemicals may contribute to indoor air pollution which in turn can subject you and your family to residual exposure for weeks or even months after they've been applied. This is particularly dangerous, especially for young children, who may crawl on treated carpets and floors. Their developing bodies are more sensitive than adults to the effects of these pesticides. Cat and dog collars which are infused with pesticides emit a stream of vapors into the air, putting you and your pet at risk by constantly breathing in these vapors. Frontline Flea control is sold in a liquid form which is applied direct to your pets skin, between the shoulder blades and therefore there are no vapours present in the air, regular use of Frontline will elimiate ticks and fleas. Advantage Flea control is also an effective way of eliminating these pests and works in the same way as Frontline. If you have a pet related web site and you wish to reproduce the above article you are welcome to do so, provided the article is reproduced in its entirety, including this resource box and live link to: 1 Flea Control Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/
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