Flea and Tick Control

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Have you scratching your head?

Keep you and your pals happy with these least-toxic methods.

It's a barely noticeable sensation, just a whisper of a tickle. You reach to brush away what you expect will be nothing mo re than a fly or stray piece of hair, only to discover a blood-sucking intruder seeking its next meal?on you. What's disconcerting isn't the discovery of that first flea or tick, but the creepy crawly feeling that if you've found one, many more are lurking nearby to take its place.

If you have animals—and what's a happy homestead without them??fleas and ticks are an uncomfortable fact of life for you and your pet. More than a nuisance, fleas and ticks can transmit a host of pathogens and skin diseases to humans and their furry counterparts. But you don't have to risk disease or watch your pets suffer. With a little diligence and the help of some new pest controls, you can get the upper hand during flea-and-tick season.

There are more than 3,000 different species of flea, but here in North America the most common one is Ctenocephalides felis, the cat flea. Despite their name, these fleas are just as happy to reside on your dog.

A flea's life span goes through four stages. Research has shown about 5 percent of the fleas that infest your home are adults. The bulk of indoor flea populations are made up of pupae (10 percent), larvae (35 percent) and eggs (50 percent). Many common pesticides used to eradicate these pests kill only adult fleas, leaving 95 percent of the flea problem behind to leap up time and again.

A female flea can lay up to 50 eggs each day. Before laying eggs, the flea must find a blood meal?not an easy quest. Fleas have poor eyesight and rely primarily on air currents and carbon dioxide to locate hosts. As your family pet trots by, the tenacious flea jumps up and down, sometimes thousands of times, before it hitches a tide. Once on board, the flea secretes saliva onto the target area to soften the skin and make the blood flow readily. It's this saliva, not the actual bite, that causes the allergic reactions in pets and humans.

After her blood meal, the flea begins laying eggs on her host. Pets usually remove some of the eggs while grooming themselves; others fall off as the animal moves from place to place. In about 10 days, the larvae emerge.

Anyone who has ever suffered through a severe flea infestation knows it's a situation that can drive even the most mild-mannered environmentalist to contemplate reaching for a hard-core pesticide arsenal. But that's only a short-term solution. Besides being ineffective in the long run, those chemicals contribute to indoor air pollution and subject you and your family to residual exposure for weeks or even months after they're applied. This can be particularly dangerous for young children, who may crawl on treated carpets and floors. Their developing bodies are more sensitive than adults to the effects of pesticides.