How to protect your pets from ticks and fleas

Efekto offers a range of pet protection products. Ticks and fleas are two of the most common household pests that are difficult to control, and prevalent among pets.

Get rid of fleas

Fleas are small jumping insects with a short life cycle. They breed quickly, infesting areas throughout the home within a week or two. Flea bites are not only irritating, they also carry diseases such as:

Flea Allergy Dermatitis (FAD)
Anemia
Tapeworm
Rickettsiosis

There are several different types of ticks, big and small. Regardless of their size, ticks burrow into your pet’s skin, where they may transmit life-threatening diseases such as:

Lyme disease
Babesiosis
Rocky Mountain spotted fever
Ehrlichiosis

These conditions can deprive your pet of energy, cause skin problems, and affect their health.

Treating fleas and ticks

Fleas

Description: Small, flat, light brown insects that jump from spot to spot.
Location: Feed on blood and jump in between feathers and hair.
Protect with: Efekto Zero Ticks & Fleas for Dogs, Efekto Zero Ticks & Fleas for Cats, Efekto Karbadust and Bio Kill Pet Care.

Ticks

Description: Small, red-brown in colour, and lacking any ornamentation. Although not sufficient for formal identification, it can be recognised by its red-brown, elongated body shape.
Location: Feeds on the blood of its host.
Protect with: Efekto Zero Ticks & Fleas for Dogs, Efekto Zero Ticks & Fleas for Cats, Efekto Karbadust and Bio Kill Pet Care.

Facts about fleas

As an adult, Ctenocephalides felis, the cat flea, is an obligate parasite that is metabolically and reproductively bound to its host. This revelation dramatically changed approaches to managing fleas: by applying products to and on pets, owners and veterinarians attempt to control reproduction and ‘break the life cycle’ rather than focusing on the environment. Once on a preferred host, cat fleas begin feeding within minutes, and start breeding soon after. A female flea can lay eggs within 24-48 hours of jumping onto a host. In a few days, a female flea can lay 40-50 eggs per day.

Flea eggs roll off the host, and larvae typically hatch in 3-5 days. The larval stage is the most sensitive. Flea larvae require flea faeces for nutrition, protection from direct sunlight, temperatures in the range of 8-30°C, and relative humidity in the range of 50-85 %. Most larvae don’t survive to become adult fleas. The rate of flea development depends on the temperature.

Development from eggs to fleas can take less than three weeks at 30°C and can take 7-12 weeks at 18°C. New fleas develop and emerge where pets or other flea hosts spend most of their time because this is where the most eggs and faeces are deposited, and larvae require flea faeces for nutrition.

Common hosts include cats, dogs, and domestic rabbits. Squirrels and birds are not hosts for cat fleas.
Feral cats move throughout neighbourhoods and often seek shelter in covered, protected areas, and wherever they rest, they leave behind flea eggs and flea faeces.

Flea control on pets

Correct product application is essential for effective flea control. It’s important to completely part the hair and apply the product directly to the skin so that proper skin and hair follicle distribution can occur. Although this can be rather challenging with thick-haired pets, it must be applied to the skin as Efekto Zero Ticks & Fleas won’t work properly if only the hair follicles receive the treatment. While it’s tempting for animal guardians to try and save money by using only portions of products labelled for larger pets on smaller animals, it’s doomed to fail. Another main reason for product failure involves not addressing home flea relief for the pet, where in some cases 80 % of the flea life cycle may occur.

Use Efekto Fendona 6SC for indoor home use. Efekto Zero Ticks & Fleas is a long residual insecticide that offers protection from ticks and fleas on both dogs and cats. It’s available in an easy-to-use, pre-measured applicator that provides effective control from both pests for up to four weeks. The product is fast-acting and kills fleas within 24 hours of application, and ticks within 48 hours. The application is shampoo and water tolerant, and has a high safety profile.

Maintenance

Zero Ticks & Fleas should form part of your monthly pet maintenance routine. Premeasured applications offer the specific dosage required for:

Cats
Dogs weighing under 10 kg
Dogs weighing 10-20 kg
Dogs weighing 20-40 kg
Dogs weighing over 40 kg

Other recommended products for pets include:

Efekto Bio Kill Pet Care
Efekto Karbadust
Efekto Karbawash

For more information on Efekto’s pet care control visit www.efekto.co.za/petcare

Flea control for the home

Effective flea control remains one of the greatest pest frustrations for many pet owners. The advent of modern flea control products with excellent monthlong activity against fleas has had a tremendous impact on flea control. However, regular and correct product application are essential for success. With some indoor flea infestations, the number of fleas emerging into the home increases substantially in the month after all pets are treated with a monthly flea control product. When confronted with increasing numbers of fleas, pet owners inevitably conclude that the flea control product isn’t working at all. In fact, the fleas emerging into the home after the pets were treated came from eggs laid weeks before treatment. Those eggs will continue to develop into larvae, pupae, and adult fleas, and the pet owners will continue to see new fleas on their pets until all the adult fleas have emerged. Depending on the temperature, it can take three weeks to several months for the infestation to run its course.

Controlling outbreaks

In severe flea outbreaks it’s advisable to keep the home environment flea free. Use Efekto Fendona 6SC for indoor home use, applying the product at 3 x 3-day intervals (spraying on day 1, 4 and 7) and thereafter at weekly intervals. Vacuum thoroughly every day for two weeks (and on a regular basis throughout the year). Remember that vibrations from walking and vacuuming will stimulate new adult fleas to emerge from their pupal sacs so it’s best to vacuum again in one hour. Control the lawn and outdoor areas with Efekto Karbaspray at weekly intervals. With very heavy infestations, a product like Aqua Fumigator is recommended to kill all larvae and adult fleas present at activation. Use the product after an application of Efekto Fendona 6SC and vacuuming the area, as this would have stimulated the fleas, bringing them out.