Fleas festering inside your house is an issue many pet owners overlook.
Most owners are vigilant about taking care of their dogs, believing that fleas and ticks are brought into the house by the dog, often unaware that more fleas may be busy breeding at home.
Trying to keep your pet clean and flea-free is forever ongoing and there are plenty of flea fighting unguents, sprays and powders to help kill adult fleas.
However, all the pet collars in the world won’t stop a breakout at home if your pet sleeps in a breeding ground. Rather, you’ll just be chasing your tail if your dog is going to lie down in a bed of incubating flea larvae.
Treatment starts at home
Let’s face it: dogs do spend a lot of time snoozing.
Your pet bed, your own bed, couch or carpet, if that’s where your dog sleeps, is the ideal spot for fleas to breed. As such, they don’t need any encouragement and thrive on a combination of a warm environment and proximity to a host. That’s like a petri dish without the laboratory-controlled environment.
If flea larvae never hatch, the cycle cannot continue.
This is a key point, often misunderstood when it comes to prevention.
Given the flea metamorphosis – from hatching to larvae through the cocoon stage – can be anywhere from three-and-a-half weeks to two months, that is a long time for an insect to be breeding in your home.
Flea larvae feed off skin, dandruff and faeces. Fleas and ticks can carry disease that affects everyone’s wellbeing. It’s in the best interest of your pet as well as your household to shift the focus to halting the life cycle of the flea, given the majority of the flea’s life span is spent on your pet’s bedding – or wherever your pet sleeps.
Life cycle of a flea
- Eggs hatch in about two to 12 days
- Larvae can last over three or four weeks – shorter in warmer climes
- The cocoon stage may be a few days to a few weeks before the flea emerges as an adult
Unlike ticks, lice, mites or other insects that become bonded into fur, the flea eggs drop off the host and onto surrounding floors or bedding.
Once larvae hatch, the damage is done and the games begin. The flea can easily attach itself to any passing host, be that a pet, someone in the household, the couch or the bed, with the flea’s capacity to jump vertically – estimated at 17 centimetres (about seven inches) and horizontally a considerable distance of 33 centimetres (about 13 inches). Once the flea lands it settles in, sucking 15 times its own body weight in blood and laying eggs – around 50 per day. With such a rapid rate of reproduction, there will quickly be an infestation.
Unfortunately this means your dog will soon start itching and scratching, making life miserable for your pet and unhealthy for the household.
To make matters worse, many of these fleas and ticks may carry diseases that can harm an animal’s health.
Two important factors to consider for bug prevention in your pet’s bed
Steer clear of shaggy pile or faux fur fabrics, which offer an ideal incubator for fleas and a haven for all sorts of dirt and debris.
Ensure washability, given that your pet bed should be washed frequently and your dog likes a nice clean bed as much as you do.
The Poppy’s difference
Washability and hygiene were two of our most important considerations when designing the Poppy’s Pet Bed. While the velour-type fabric is soft and plush, this quilted outer cover is also more durable and robust than its shaggy counterparts.
The inner cover is water-proof laminated terry-cotton, providing another defensive layer to protecting the inner fibre-filled bed against insects, acting as a barrier to bugs, fleas and the mites that feast off shed skin and fur.
These premium fabrics are made for easy and frequent washing, encourage cleanliness and discourage fleas and ticks, leaving an inhospitable environment for larvae.
Every step of the Poppy’s Pet Bed process is designed to ensure the health and wellbeing of your dog, your family and your home – from the choice of inner fibres, cotton covers and the double row of piping for extra support to the wide gusset for structure, as well as the zippers that don’t snag fur.
The stitched box-styled quilting of the fibre-fill bed and quilt is just like your bed at home. Then there’s the water-repellent terry-cotton protective inner cover and Japara cotton casing that repels doggy drool and puppy pee as well as mites, ticks and fleas.
Our parent company, microCloud, makes luxury bedding for humans and this bedding was our inspiration for the creation of Poppy’s Pet Bed.
Our fibre-fill pet bed was inspired by the identical design of the microCloud mattress topper, found in hotels, resorts and premium accommodation.
No products in the cart.