Why is an understanding of flea biology important to eradication?
When you’re treating the dog or cat, you’re just treating the fleas, which is the tip of the iceberg, if you will. All those developmental flea stages in that environment are causing problems. That’s where people struggle. Most clients don’t understand that. If you treat the dog today, the problem is not the fleas today, but how many flea eggs were laid yesterday. Those eggs that were deposited off that dog or cat in the home environment yesterday are not going to emerge as fleas for a number of weeks. Particularly in the fall, where climate conditions are so perfect for fleas, many homes are going to get worse before they get better. We have to get that across to people. Once treatment has started and clients struggle through this fall, it’s up to us as veterinarians to remind these people next year. “Remember last year, the problem we ran into? This year let’s get your dog or cat on one of these products and never take them off.” We have to get that preventive message across. As a pr
