“The flea life cycle (egg, caterpillar, cocoon & adult) takes about 3 weeks. Your dog can host the female flea for the entire life cycle. The flea will be sucking blood and laying 20 to 30 eggs each day. By the time you notice fleas you will already have an enormous number of eggs, caterpillars and cocoons on your dog, in your carpet and on your furniture. The flea pupae in cocoon stage are impossible to kill and they will continue to hatch even after fumigation. Ten female fleas, under ideal conditions, can produce 90,000 eggs in just 30 days. Fleas can cause flea-bite dermatitis, flea-bite anemia, and tapeworm infestations.

Ticks are arachnids like mites, spiders and scorpions, not insects. Their harpoon-like barbed mouth attaches to the host for feeding. Ticks carry Lyme disease which can be transmitted to both pets and humans by the bite of a deer tick. Ticks also carry Rocky Mountain spotted fever. There are more than 825 species of tick and they can lay 100 to 6,000 eggs per batch depending on the species. The tick life cycle has four stages; egg, six-legged larva, eight-legged nymph and adult. Ticks can be active on winter days when the ground temperatures are above 45 degrees Fahrenheit.”