Having lived with multiple dogs and cats in Southern California for over twenty years I have tried just about every flea remedy and prevention technique available, with limited success, until recently. As the busy flea season commences I no longer have a quandary as to what to do. The days of flea collars, flea bombs, carpet sprays and powders, yard sprays, toxic dips, nontoxic sprays, and a host of other futile remedies ... are over.

Each year I listened to the same lectures on the flea life cycle and how to break it. You had fight the battle on all fronts at the same time, and even then just one pesky flea bite could trigger an allergic flea dermatitis attack on my sensitive skinned Golden Retriever.

Finally there came a breakthrough. A miraculous oral product called Program®, whose active ingredient lufenuron is an IDI (Insect Development Inhibitor), became available. The female flea requires the blood of animals in order to reproduce. Once it bites a pet on Program®, ingesting its blood, its progeny becomes sterile due to a lack of chithin in its skeleton. Although I was skeptical about having every one of my animals on "the once-a-month tablet" I agreed to try it. After using it for several months, in combination with topical sprays and/or dips, I was indeed able to drastically reduce the flea population in my home and on my animals. However, each new flea that my dog picked up outside her home had to first bite her before the eradication process could begin anew. Of course that would start her itching and scratching again. Initially, Program® was available only from veterinarians. It is now sold in pet stores and other outlets and is made by Novartis, the manufacturer of a newer product called Sentinel®, that will be the topic of a future article.

Another major breakthrough came about two years with the introduction of two flea adulticides that are applied to the animal's fur and skin. I have used Advantage on all of my cats and Frontline on my dog with great success, so that I literally never find a flea on any of my pets, or in the house or yard. Currently I am not using any other flea remedies or prevention techniques, other than keeping the house well-vacuumed. Each of these products is available only from your veterinarian and is applied once a month from a convenient tube applicator that contains the quantity appropriate to the particalar pet's weight.

Imidacloprid, the active ingredient in Advantage is a flea adulticide for cats and dogs that interferes with nerve transmission in adult fleas. A single application will kill adult fleas for over one month. When applied to the skin, the product is quickly distributed throughout the body surface (without being absorbed into the blood stream) to begin killing fleas fast; there is 98-100% flea kill within 24 hours. It is also effective against ticks. This is significant because it doesn't' require that a flea bite the dog or cat to ingest the insecticide. Advantage is made by Bayer.

Frontline® (fipronil) is a new pyrazole insecticide that blocks the action of GABA, a main neurotransmitter of fleas and ticks. It is extremely safe and is even licensed for use in puppies, kittens and pregnant or lactating bitches or queens. It is effective within 24 hours against both ticks and fleas. I was initially told that Frontline® was more effective on dogs that swam regularly than Advantage. However, I have had no way of verifying this information independently.

Both these products are described in detail on the respective manufacturers' highly infomative websites, which even can be programmed to send you  flea-mail, reminding you of the date for each pet's monthly application.

Although some veterinarians recommend a combined use of an IDI with an adulticide, I have found that if the adult flea is killed within 24 hours of landing on a pet, it cannot reproduce in the first place, thus making the use of an IDI somewhat superfluous. However, I realize there are people who prefer not to use any sort of insecticide on their pets, perhaps due to their own allergies or sesitivity to such products, in which case the IDI may remain the best option.