How do I get rid of fleas and ticks in our home?

That's a great question. So to get rid of that 95% of the population, daily vacuuming is essential. Also, be incredibly thorough in washing the dog’s beds and any rugs. The most effective treatment that I've seen, though, is simply to make sure that we treat your animal for three months because fleas can only live a few days without being on their host.

There are some over-the-counter products like foggers or bombs or things like that that you can pick up at your local hardware store or Lowe's or Home Depot or places like that. You can also work with a professional pest control company to help get rid of those fleas. But it's vital that you target that environment as well as your pet, because we see about maybe 5% of the flea population on your pet and the remaining 95% of that flea population is in your home.

That's a great question because it comes up a lot when a pet is diagnosed with fleas or ticks, and the owners are concerned that they have them in their environment. If other unprotected pets are in the environment, the answer will almost always be yes. The most important thing when you have a pet with fleas or ticks is not the environmental treatment. It's making sure that all the pets in the environment are on good monthly prevention year-round. This is the case in environments similar to Fort-Worth, Texas. If you're in a different climate, you will have to have a discussion with your veterinarian about if prevention needs to be done year-round, which is mostly the case. So the first step is getting all the pets on flea and tick prevention. That will ensure that the food source of the fleas and ticks is unavailable. They won't be able to feed, and they will die, so they can't reproduce.

It doesn't mean that environmental treatment isn't helpful. I still encourage it, particularly with fleas because they set up shop in the environment very quickly and to a large degree. I recommend focussing on environmental decontamination in addition to flea and tick prevention. It doesn't necessarily involve using a lot of pesticides. I encourage clients to do a thorough cleaning like vacuuming any area that is shaded, for instance, the carpet under the couch, couch cushions, and washing the dog and cat bedding. Doing deep cleaning and vacuuming multiple times a week to try to get all the eggs out of the carpet, rugs, and bedding will help speed the process along, but only in conjunction with having pets on prevention.

People often say they don't need prevention because a pest control company comes out monthly or quarterly. In my experience, that is completely inadequate at ensuring that you won't have a flea problem, especially with our climate. That won't provide enough coverage to be sure that fleas don't set up shop. Firstly, you won't be able to treat every nook and cranny of the house or the yard. I'm not a big fan of that kind of treatment for fleas and ticks. It's not wrong, it just won't be enough. It gives you a false sense of security. If you want to do pest control services, great. It's unnecessary to do that if your pets are on good flea and tick prevention.