Video Transcript

Hello, I'm Michael Piacenza with Advantage Pest Control in St. Petersburg, Florida. So, I was posed with a question the other day, how do I kill all four stages of fleas? Well, that's an important question here in Florida, because fleas are nearly epidemic here, okay? So, let's understand what those four stages are, okay? First, you have the egg. The egg hatches out into a larva, think of it like in a caterpillar stage, okay? Then, it goes into the pupa stage, where it spins a little cocoon, you know? Then, after a period of time, it's going to hatch out as an adult, alright? Now, that period of time is going to vary. Normally, it's going to be, you know, 10 days, two weeks, something like that, where they're in the pupa stage and they hatch out, because there's activity, there's movement from the animal, from humans walking around. Now, if there's no one around, they can stay in that stage for months. Now, when they do hatch out, you know, they're hungry as heck. It's amazing, I get these calls, people coming back from vacation, or real estate agents, that they people moved out of the house, and it's been sitting there for a couple of months, and they're showing it to the new homeowner, potential homeowner, and all of a sudden, everybody's covered with fleas, and I mean literally up to their knees. So, that pupa stage is the hardest stage to kill. So, let's attack it one at a time, alright? In the egg stage, the best way to kill them is with anything that's a desiccant. We just want to dry them out, alright? There's a lot of natural ways out there. Some people like to use salt, I don't prefer that methodology. I like to use boric acid. Boric acid is a very very safe product, it lasts for a very long time, and it's a natural desiccant. The reason I like to use boric acid, is that it not only works at the egg stage, as they hatch into the larva stage and they're moving around, if they come in contact and ingest the boric acid, it's going to disrupt their digestive system. Anything boron based is going to change the digestive enzymes of the insect, and they're going to starve to death, basically. So, the first two stages can be handled very safely, very easily, with boric acid or other boron based products. Then, they're in that cocoon stage. You know, when they're in that pupa stage, there's not much you can do. You know, it's, you know, best just to disrupt the cycle, and don't let them get to that stage, you know? Now, when they do hatch out, they're going to be hungry adults. But, they're only adults for seven to 10 days, alright? Now, they can be attacked using a lot of different products. I prefer to use permethrin based products, because they're pretty safe. They're made from chrysanthemums, that's a botanically based pesticide. So, that can be distributed with bombs. I don't like bombs, because it just goes everywhere. I like to use aerosol cans, and I spray it directly on the surface areas, alright? So, a lot of those come with a growth regulator, like Precor in it, and that disrupts their molting cycle, so they can't molt, that's how the growth regulator works. So, if you can handle that at the adult stage, and then you're going to get a hatch out again in about seven days to two weeks, you know, and you might have to hit it with a spray again. After that, you should be flea free. Just keep that boric acid down. If you have carpeting, you're looking good, you know? Because, carpeting is a beautiful environment for them to breed in, but it's also a great environment to put the boric acid in, and it can stay there for months, if not, you know, a year. Alright, well, I hope this has been helpful. I'm Michael Piacenza with Advantage Pest Control, coming to you from sunny St. Petersburg, Florida.