No room for freeloaders!! Keep your pet Flea free!

Fleas go through four life stages — and understanding them is key to breaking their cycle and keeping pets flea-free:

1. 🥚 Egg – Adult fleas lay up to 50 eggs a day on your pet. These tiny white eggs fall off into carpets, bedding, and furniture, where they hatch in 1–10 days, depending on temperature and humidity.

2. 🐛 Larva – The eggs hatch into larvae that look like tiny worms. They feed on organic debris and flea dirt (adult flea poop) for about 5–11 days. They avoid light and burrow into carpets or cracks.

3. 🕸️ Pupa (Cocoon) – The larva spins a sticky cocoon and becomes a pupa. Inside, it transforms into an adult flea. This stage can last a week to several months, waiting for the right conditions (like warmth, vibration, or carbon dioxide from a host) to emerge.

4. 🐾 Adult – Once a host (like a cat or dog) is nearby, the flea hatches, jumps on, and begins feeding within minutes. Adults can live several weeks to months, continually laying eggs and restarting the cycle.

💡 Key takeaway: Only about 5% of fleas live on your pet — the other 95% (eggs, larvae, pupae) live in your home environment. That’s why consistent prevention and cleaning are crucial!

Getting rid of fleas in your home takes a bit of teamwork and consistency! Start by treating your pet with a vet-approved flea preventative to stop the adult fleas from reproducing. Then, tackle the environment—wash all bedding, blankets, and soft toys in hot water, and vacuum carpets, furniture, and corners daily for at least a week to pick up eggs and larvae. Be sure to empty or discard the vacuum bag right away so fleas don’t crawl back out. If the infestation is heavy, use a safe home spray or professional pest treatment that targets all life stages, especially pupae hiding in carpets and cracks. With a mix of good cleaning habits and year-round prevention, you can keep your home—and your pets—completely flea-free!

Will a flea bath fix all of the issues?...NO!

A flea bath is most effective when it’s done thoroughly, safely, and as part of a larger flea-control plan. Here’s how it works best:

A flea bath helps by killing the adult fleas currently on your pet’s body, giving instant relief from itching and discomfort. To make it most effective, use a veterinarian-approved flea shampoo and let it sit for a few minutes before rinsing, so it has time to work. Make sure you lather from the neck down, since fleas will try to escape to the head and face. A fine-toothed flea comb after the bath can help remove any stragglers. However, flea baths only kill adult fleas — they don’t stop new ones from jumping on. For true protection, follow up with a monthly flea preventative and treat your home and pet’s bedding, so the whole life cycle is broken.

Our Flea Policy!

Since we live in warmer environment here, fleas are a part of life that most pets deal with once or twice unfortunately.

Since we need to keep the rest of our clientele safe from flea outbreaks. We do all flea baths as the last appointment of the day so we can thoroughly disinfect the salon afterwards and make sure we have killed any fleas that may have jumped off of your pet.

Additionally, we require that every pet coming in for a flea bath is administered a "Capstar" tablet that will start killing any live fleas on them within 30 minutes. This is a tablet that does not require a prescription. You can get it over the counter at your local PetSmart or Petco or order it online. We also sell them here for $10 a tablet. You must administer the tablet yourself. It can be used in conjunction with a flea preventative.

We do not blow-dry your pet after the flea bath to ensure we keep any fleas or larvae/eggs contained but we will towel dry them as well as we can.

How do we keep our facility flea free?

Felines and Friends have a dedicated pest control company that comes in monthly to keep any flea stow aways at bay.

We sanitize between every dog and cat normally as part of daily procedure but we use flea and mite killing products to make sure we have gotten them all.

So don't fret about fleas!! It may take time to get rid of them but if you follow all of these cleaning rules you will be flea free in no time. We are here to help if anyone has any questions always!

Warmly, Jen.