Mail entries to Kathy Neely, Oregon Human Society, PO Box 1364, Portland, OR 97211. All entries must be received by 5pm Friday June 9th. Winners will be announced later in June. Pet owners spend lots of money on flea control chemicals, but still have serious infestations of these ectoparasites. Many potentially hazardous treatments are not very effective because they do not break the flea's life cycle.
Females lay eggs on the pet, which often drop off later, and also lay eggs off the infested pet.
Two to twelve days after being laid, the eggs hatch into the larval stage. Once the adult flea emerges from the pupae stage, it seeks its first meal of mammalian blood. If the infestation is not severe, you don't have to use poisons to rid your pets of fleas, but you must be vigilant and practice techniques that address the flea at all four of its life stages. Fleas accumulate where your pet sleeps, so all their bedding needs to be washed at least once a week to break the flea's life cycle. Their cage should be vacuumed or washed weekly and the litter in the pan should be completely dumped and the pan washed.