I’ve been finding fleas in my 11 year old daughters long hair. We have a small dog but is flea free. What can I use to get rid of them in her hair?
Fleas can’t live on a person as long as they shower and wash their hair daily. This simple act alone will remove all the debris, flea eggs and pupae as well as kill larvae and adult fleas. If for some reason she isn’t yet on this schedule, make sure you get her to do so for now on. This will insure the fleas aren’t reproducing on her.
And once you know they’re not reproducing on her, it will mean there must be a “flea generator” somewhere in the home. If it was the pet, the fleas would stay on it so there is no surprise the pet is flea free and your daughter is having the problem. But the fact that the pet isn’t accumulating fleas is a clue as to what is probably happening. In other words: your daughter is seemingly going somewhere the dog isn’t and this other location is where the fleas are sitting in their pupae stage waiting to come out. This means the key for you will be to identify this location and get it treated.
To help identify this location, I suggest you set out some FLEA TRAPS around the home. These will attract hatched fleas as well as get flea pupae to hatch. Leave them out in one location for 2-4 days and if you’re close to the flea generator, the trap will catch some. If you don’t trap fleas any after 4 days, move the traps at least 20 feet to another location in home. Rotate them out over and over so that all areas of the home are eventually covered and at one point you’ll locate an area which is releasing fleas. Once this area is found, you’ll need to treat using either the PERMETHRIN and NYLAR spray or the ONCE A YEAR FLEA POWDER listed in our FLEA CONTROL ARTICLE.
My guess is there is some piece of furniture like a couch, chair, bed or sofa which your daughter is using but the dog does not climb upon. It could also be a specific room in the home. Regardless, as our article explains, the pupae can live on anything for 6-12 months waiting for a target to arrive and when it does, they’ll hatch and jump on the target. In this case the target sounds like it’s your daughter. And only until all the pupae have hatched will the problem be gone so unfortunately, it sounds like you have some work to do in order to get rid of them.
Here are direct links to the information and products listed above:
Flea Traps: www.bugspraycart.com/traps/electric/flea-trap
Permethrin 10: www.bugspraycart.com/insecticide/liquid/permethrin-10
Nylar: www.bugspraycart.com/insecticide/igr/igr-nylar
Once a Year Flea Granules: www.bugspraycart.com/insecticide/dust/first-defense-2-lb
Flea Control Article: www.flea.net/flea-control#once-a-year-treatment
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