How do I get rid of fleas or ticks?

by Len’s Feed Shed July 1, 2020

There are 4 great steps you can do to get rid of fleas and ticks but first you need to understand why the pesky things wont go way!

Reason Number 1: Fleas & Ticks live in 4 stages - Eggs, Larvae, Pupae/Nymph, and Adults. All treatments only kill them in 1 to 3 of their life stages. Usually, they kill the adults, sometimes the larvae, but not the eggs. So the eggs are going to hatch even though you have treated the dog. The eggs will hatch as early as the same day, but usually about a week after treatment. It doesn't matter how many products you use, those eggs are going to hatch. They lay 1000’s of eggs each.

Reason Number 2: Fleas & Ticks in their different stages appear in 4 places. On the animal (or owner), in the house (mainly carpet), in the ground and on plants (long grass, weeds). Most pet owners only treat 1 of these at a time. If the dog scratches we dip them , if we have fleas in the house we spray the house. Most people don't do more than one at a time. Now if you don't normally have a problem, this is fine, but if you have an infestation, they will be in all of these places at different stages of their life.

Reason Number 3: Most products are not water proof. There are some like Frontline, Advantix, Killtix that if applied correctly will be water fast, but most others are not. This means if you dip them today and the go for a swim, it won't work. If you spray the yard or under the house and the flooding rain comes, it stops working. And guess when the most troubling time is for fleas & ticks - you guessed it, after rain.

Reason Number 4: Fleas & Ticks build up resistance to chemicals real fast (if they are not used properly), in other words they get used to the chemicals and it stops killing them. A product that has been working well in the past, stops working all of a sud den. You might even start thinking you have bought a dodgy batch. Sometimes you change products but it still doesn't work. There are lots of products around today and all different names but usually the same chemical. If they build up resistance a one chemical, all the products using that chemical will not work for you.

But I promised you a solution to fleas & ticks didn't I?

Killing Fleas & Ticks Step 1: You must treat all of your animals, their bedding, your house and your yard at the same time. (where they spend most of their time)

Killing Fleas & Ticks Step 2: You must treat your animal, bedding, house and yard every week for a minimum of 3 consecutive weeks. (more in cooler months)

Killing Fleas & Ticks Step 3: Change the products you use after 12 months. Remember to use a different active ingredient. (1 dose will remove the resistants pests)

Killing Fleas & Ticks Step 4: Don't let your animals get wet during the 3 weeks. If you are not using a waterproof product, you will need to re-apply the treatment to your dog. If it rains, re-apply the treatment to any places that got wet when the rain stops.

With these 4 steps, your pets, home and yard should become tick and flea free!

Here are a few of our favourite products:

For the Dog only – NEW Nexgard Spectra, NexGard, Advantix, Killtix Collars, Maldison 50

For the Horse only – Permoxin, Maldison 50

For the Chooks only – Maldison 50

For the Cattle only – Amitik EC, Normectin or Baymec Pour on, Maldison 50

For the Cat only – Frontline Plus, Maldison 50

For the Pig only – Maldison 50

For the yard - Nucidol, Maldison 50, Zeus
For Inside - Fleatrol Plus, Zeus