Seasonal Advice for Flea Control

When the weather gets hot, so does flea activity. Pet owners may resort to using specific products to effectively control fleas. They need to remember those products are pesticides and need to be handled properly. The Oregon Department Agriculture’s Rose Kachadoorian summarizes the steps people can take to help their cats and dogs this summer:

Kachadoorian:  “Keep checking your animal, vacuum a lot, launder the bedding. If you need to use a flea control product, use that but do that in conjunction with all of these other practices. And definitely work with your veterinarian on product selection.” 

There are a number of effective adult flea control products on the market, including spot-on topical products:

Kachadoorian:  “These products really work well. They are so much more effective than what we used to do, which is putting a dust or spraying the animal or doing a flea bath.” 

Because these products are pesticides, reading the label carefully and following directions is very important. In some cases, a flea control product to be used on dogs only has been used on cats with tragic results.

Karchadoorian: “We need to read that pesticide label very carefully and make sure we are applying it to the right animal. For example, you might have a product that says for dogs only. We have products that are not toxic to dogs but they can actually kill cats.”