(Matt Drzik/Beaver County Radio)

“You can definitely get rid of them, but it is going to be a process. It isn’t something that’s going to happen overnight.”

Taylor Ball is a Certified Veterinary Technician with the Beaver County Humane Society, and she joined Matt Drzik on the November 3 edition of A.M. Beaver County to discuss how to prevent and deal with fleas and ticks once they enter a home or infiltrate a pet, along with the effects of diseases such as heartworm and Lyme disease.

The key to dealing with fleas and ticks, according to Ball, is prevention through the use of “preventables”. “We have a lot of products to where you shouldn’t have to worry about fleas and ticks in the home because it is something that we are so used to easily preventing in the first place.” The most common types of preventables are chewables and collars for the pet to wear; cats and dogs are the most common carriers of fleas and ticks within the home.

While ticks can cause Lyme disease in pets and humans, and mosquitos are the causers of heartworm for certain animals, the most ubiquitous offenders are fleas. Ball says that the major reason behind that is their propensity to mate and spread their eggs: “One female can lay up to 40 eggs in one day, and an adult flea can live for about 3 months. So in that three months, just one flea can lay over 2,000 eggs.” Ball heavily suggested that any pet owner who has a higher flea manifestation to use daily vacuuming and cleaning of the pet’s area, tossing out any heavily-infested bedding, and to continue to use preventables to help terminate the fleas.

The Beaver County Humane Society is headquartered at 3394 Brodhead Road in Center Township. They can be contacted by calling 724-775-5801 or by checking out their Facebook or YouTube pages. You can also go to their website for further information about their services, events, and much more.

To watch the full conversation with Taylor Ball, click on the Facebook feed below!