If you have the fleas life cycle explained then you can understand a little better how and why the different flea treatments work.
If you have fleas in your home there is a good chance they came in on your cat or dog, a flea infestation can spread quickly and can take hold with very little notice, the warning singes of a flea infestation would be are your pets scratching or nibbling themselves a lot more than normal, have you been bitten, the bites are quite small and may have a scab on the top.
The bites will be red, itchy and inflamed it is not unknown for people to scratch the bites and knock the scab off the top of the bite, this may then result in infections and the wound becoming more of a problem. One flea may bite the same person more than once in a short time and if there are a number of fleas in the house then the number of bites you receive in one night can be a large number.
Fleas lay eggs, this is the first stage of the cycle one female flea can lay over 50 eggs in one day and each on of these eggs has the ability to grow to become another adult female that in turn can lay 50 eggs a day and these eggs can fall from your pet onto the carpet and get lost in the pile of the carpet where they will lay and develop – this is how the infestations grow so rapidly, your dog may only bring 3 or 4 fleas into your home and these will inter bread and grow in number until they become a plague.
Inside the egg the flea develops in to the next stage, this is the larva, a partly developed flea that is still inside the egg, it is a sort of halfway point between egg and adult flea, it can not live out side the egg and does not look like a flea at this stage but it is just a step on the fleas life cycle explained.
When the flea reaches the pupa stage it is almost ready to leave the egg, once it does it will be a flea that is ready to feed on you and your family. The pupa stage of the flea can last up to two years and just stay in the egg for all this time waiting for the perfect conditions to hatch and become a flea, the pupa stage is one that people often forget when they try to rid there home of fleas, the jumping fleas have been eradicated and this can lull you into a false sense of security, you need to kill the fleas at every stage of their development to ensure your home is flea free.
When the pupa stage is over and the flea hatches it is ready to feed on you, your family and your pets and start laying more eggs that can again develop into more fleas that again bite and spread disease through out your home.
If you want to be flea free you must interrupt and understand each part of the fleas life cycle explained and ensure they do not come back.