FLEAS AND THEIR CONTROL. H 



Other methods of destroying fleas on cats and dogs have been 

 recommended. Among these the careful rubbing into the hair of 

 poAvdered naphthalene or moth balls has been found effective. Pyre- 

 thrum or Persian insect powder is used in the same way. Both of 

 these materials stupefy the insects and cause them to come to the 

 surface of the hair or actually drop out. The animals should be 

 treated on papers spread on the floor and the insects burned after 

 the dusting is completed. 



The skin of cats is much more easily injured with chemicals than 

 that of dogs; hence, any preparation used should be weaker when 

 used on cats than on dogs. 



Fleas on hogs may be destroyed by dipping the animals in a vat 

 containing one of the creosote dips used for the hog louse or by 

 sprinkling crude petroleum on them when they are eating, 



CONTROL OF HOSTS. 



In order to avoid the infestation of houses, it is important that 

 all animals be kept from beneath dwellings. In such situations 

 breeding may progress rapidly,- and it is very difficult to treat the 

 breeding places. If fleas are continuously annoying about the house- 

 hold, it is often desirable not to admit cats and dogs at all, but to 

 provide regular sleeping quarters for these animals out of doors 

 and prevent flea breeding by methods suggested in the following 

 paragraph. Stray cats and dogs should not be encouraged about 

 the premises. In towns and cities the inforcement of the dog-tax 

 law and the destruction of all untagged animals will tend greatly 

 to reduce house infestations. It is also desirable to keep different 

 kinds of animals which are subject to flea infestation separated, and 

 care should be exercised that infested animals are not brought to 

 clean premises and that infested poultry are not placed with a clean 

 flock. 



HOW TO DESTROY FLEAS IN IMMATURE STAGES. 



Following the ridding of infested animals of adult fleas, it is 

 important to destroy the immature fleas, which are constantly becom- 

 ing full grown and reinfesting animals and annoying man. 



Sometimes when adult fleas are very numerous it is advisable to 

 destroy some of them before proceeding to destroy the young. Out 

 of doors or in barns or chicken houses this may be done by spraying 

 the ground and the lower parts of the walls with kerosene emulsion 

 or pure kerosene. In houses the use of flaked naplithalene as de- 

 scribed in a later paragraph will permit the work of cleaning to 

 proceed without annoyance from adult fleas. 



In household infestations usually it is found that the breeding 

 takes place in the cracks of floors or beneath carpets or in rooms 



