Getting rid of fleas and ticks keeps your family and pets healthy and happy.
Fleas and ticks are blood-sucking parasites that threaten the health and happiness of your pets and family. If your pet is allergic to fleabites, an allergic reaction known as flea allergy dermatitis occurs. Ticks, on the other hand, carry diseases that threaten humans and pets, such as Lyme disease and Rocky Mountain spotted fever. Keeping your home flea- and tick-free often seems like a never-ending battle. Using a combination of flea and tick preventative measures inside and outside your home effectively gets rid of the pests, keeping your home healthy and parasite-free. Does this Spark an idea?
Instructions
Outdoor Methods
1. Mow your lawn regularly. Prune bushes and shrubs. Keep tall weeds out of your yard by pulling them and using a commercial weed-control product. Long grass, weeds and unruly bushes provide a place for both fleas and ticks to wait for their next meal. As they hide out on the end of long grass blades, it puts them closer to passing pets and family members. Keeping the grass short removes their ambush points.
2. Use a commercial flea and tick lawn treatment. For ticks, apply a pyrethrin powder to your yard. Sprinkle the powder onto the grass and bushes. Also, sprinkle a layer of diatomaceous earth on your lawn for fleas. Pyrethrin is a mild insecticide to kill the ticks. Diatomaceous earth is the ground fossils of marine organisms that cause fleas to dehydrate and die. Follow the specific directions on the manufacturer's package for application, since specific products vary.
3. Keep wild and stray animals away from your property. These animals carry fleas and ticks. Keep trash cans sealed to prevent cats, dogs, raccoons and opossums. Remove birdfeeders or keep them distanced from your home, since squirrels and other rodents eat from them, too.
Indoor Methods
4. Inspect pets and your family when returning from outdoor play. Ticks generally take 30 minutes to attach themselves. Finding them before they attach helps prevent disease transmission. Look under collars on pets and around clothing on your family. Remove any fleas and ticks you find. Dispose of the parasites in the toilet. As a further preventative, bathe yourself and your pets when returning from outdoor play. This rinses away any unattached ticks and fleas.
5. Groom your pet daily using a flea comb. Place the animal on a white sheet or blanket to make it easier to see fleas that jump off. Apply petroleum jelly to the flea comb to catch fleas and ticks. Place any fleas and ticks you find into a cup of soapy water, then flush them down the toilet.
6. Vacuum floors and upholstered furniture regularly. Empty the contents of the vacuum in a zip top bag. Throw the bag outside to prevent the fleas and ticks from finding their way back indoors. If you own a steam cleaner, follow up the vacuuming once a week with a steam cleaning.
7. Wash and dry all bedding, linens and pet supplies weekly on the hottest setting possible to kill the parasites.
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