The Flea Life Cycle
Fleas live an average of 6-24 months. The adults will lay 40-50 eggs on their animal host per day, which ultimately fall off into the environment and hatch larva in 2-12 days. Flea larvae can molt, pupate, and become adults in 10-200 days. This life cycle is why your veterinary staff will stress the importance of cleaning the environment in addition to treating your pet for fleas. The flea preventions you use on your dog or cat will interrupt the life cycle, however you need to be consistent with flea/tick preventions for at least 3-6 months to break the life cycle. Preventions also will not do anything for the flea larvae living in your carpet. If you are consistently finding fleas on your pet, despite preventions, this could mean that your home or yard has an infestation. Wild animals and stray/feral cats could be dropping flea eggs in your yard. A multimodal approach to a flea infestation is a must!
The Tick Life Cycle
Unlike fleas, ticks live the majority of their life off of a host. The entire tick life cycle is completed in 1-3 years, depending on tick species. Tick eggs hatch within 2-7 weeks and all life stages after hatching require a blood meal to survive. Larvae feed on a host for 3-12 days, then return to the environment for an 8-90 day molting period. After molting the tick becomes a nymph, feeding on a host for 3-10 days. After feeding, the nymphs will spend 17-100 days in the environment before becoming adults. Adults will then spend several months feeding on a host. Due to the tick living the majority of its life in the environment, tick infestations are not typically as bad as flea infestations. Tick preventions do require the tick to bite the host and may take up to 24 hours for the tick to actually die. Manual tick removal from your pets fur is recommended, as some ticks will burrow deeply into the skin and may remain attached even after death. This scenario would cause an infection at the attachment site and require veterinary care to treat.
Minimizing Your Pets Exposure
-Use cedar mulch in your garden. Studies have shown that most pests avoid cedar mulches.
-Vacuum your home weekly, twice weekly during spring and fall when fleas and ticks are most active.
-Wash pet bedding, blankets, and pillows weekly.
-Steam clean floors, rugs, couches, etc. biweekly to monthly. Steam cleaning can help interrupt the flea life cycle by drying out the larvae and eliminating their food source.
If you have an infestation, do everything listed above daily! It may take 3-6 months to rid your home and property of the infestation.
When To Avoid Common Flea/Tick/Heartworm Products
Many topical flea/tick products work by allowing the natural body oils to carry the chemical across the body. It is not advised to use topical preventions on pets with open sores or scabbing on the skin. This is common sense. You wouldn’t apply a pesticide to your own open wounds, so why do it to your pets? What’s NOT common sense, is the fact that it is not advised to use topical preventions on older pets or pets with chronic skin disorders. Many clients and vet staff alike do not truly understand how each prevention works differently within the body. Older pets and pets with chronic skin disorders may have excessively dry skin, excessively oily skin and coat, or suffer from yeast infections. In the case of dry skin conditions, topical products will not be dispersed across the body as intended and could lead to chemical burns at the application site. Several years ago a client brought their dog in for chemical burns between the shoulder blades only 24 hours after applying Frontline. Their dog unfortunately had very dry and flakey skin. Once the wound healed and the veterinarian discovered the dog was hypothyroid and needed long-term medications, the dry skin issue resolved and the dog was switched to an oral prevention. Oily or yeasty skin does the opposite. The topical products may be dispersed too rapidly leaving the product ineffective.
Oral preventions containing isoxazoline should either not be used or be used with extreme caution in pets with a history of seizures. This is a well known fact in the veterinary world. So if your pet has a history of seizures, whether it was one seizure 10 years ago or many seizures over their lifespan, your veterinary team needs to be made aware of this so they can make a better recommendation for your pet.
Never use a dog product on a cat. They are completely different species and have different sensitivities. I have seen cats be hospitalized for tremors and seizures caused by the owner applying a dog flea/tick prevention on their cat. Do not do this! Cat’s are highly sensitive creatures.
The MDR1 mutation. It is a very common misconception that dog breeds that are more likely to have the MDR1 mutation (collies, australian shepherds, etc.) can not have heartworm preventions. We’ll discuss the MDR1 mutation in depth in another post. First, in order to determine if your individual dog has this gene mutation, a genetic test needs to be performed. You can not just assume your dog has it. Second, every heartworm prevention on the market is required to have the product tested in patients with the MDR1 gene to prove safety. This is an FDA requirement. Heartworm preventions use low doses of drugs such as ivermectin, selamectin, milbemycin, and moxidectin. These drugs have proven to be safe, statistically speaking, in the low-dose heartworm preventions for MDR1 dogs. In high doses, for example older doctors used to give ivermectin injections for certain skin disorders or if your dog accidentally gets more than one dose of his heartworm prevention, this can lead to some pretty serious neurologic effects in your MDR1 mutation dog. It’s always best to err on the side of caution, but the majority of dogs are OK to use these products. It has been advised to avoid combination products in MDR1 dogs, as combination drugs may interact differently. If you have an MDR1 dog that needs to be on preventions, mark your calendar and monitor them closely. Give the heartworm prevention on the 1st of every month and the flea/tick product on the 15th of every month.
Natural Alternatives To Pesticide Use And Do They Really Work?
Garlic- Some sources suggest that adding garlic to your pets diet will leave your pet distasteful to parasites, there is no actual scientific study to prove this. In fact, I couldn’t find much to support the use of garlic as a flea prevention, topically or orally. If you can find a scientific study proving this to be true, please forward it to me. Otherwise, I wouldn’t rely on garlic to prevent your dog or cat from getting fleas or ticks.
Citronella Oil- Citronella is registered as an insect repellent with the EPA and can be used as a flea/tick/mosquito repellent for your dog. In order for this to be effective, you’d have to apply the citronella oil daily and some people absolutely hate the smell.
Cedarwood oil- Cedarwood oil is a very popular insect repellent, although it is thought to be a respiratory irritant in small animals such as mice and rats. Cedarwood oil works really well as a yard spray, but again, you’d have to apply it daily to your pets fur for it to be effective.
Lemon juice- Lemon juice does have the power to kill fleas, however you should never apply this to your pets skin if your pet has active fleas or skin that is irritated. Lemon juice is acidic and burns when there is an opening in the skin. Anyone who has ever squeezed a lemon with their bare hand knows this! For this reason, it is not recommended to use lemon juice topically on your pets.
Diatomaceous earth- This is a very fine powder made from shards of silica. Yes, you can dust your pet’s fur with it to discourage fleas/ticks and it’s very useful in the garden to prevent insects and slugs from eating your plants. I, however, do not recommend using DE on your pets due to the risk of getting the powder in the eyes and respiratory tract. Remember, this is a very coarse powder and if it gets into your pets eyes it can scratch the eye and create an eye ulcer. Avoiding using DE near your pet’s head isn’t going to help because dogs and cats use their legs and paws to clean their faces.
How To Keep Your Home Flea/Tick/Mosquito Free
- Comb your pets daily.
- Vacuum and mop weekly to twice weekly.
- Wash pet bedding and thoroughly vacuum couches weekly.
- Keep your yard tidy and free of debris. Brush piles encourage rodents to nest and rodents bring fleas and ticks.
- Eliminate standing water outside.
Keep an eye out for the next post on the MDR1 Mutation, what it is, and if you need to be concerned.