Flea 'n Tick B Gone

Double-Danger: Fleas & Ticks and their Common Treatment Products
(How to Rid Your Pet, Home and Family of Fleas and Ticks SAFELY!)
by SixWise.com

Pet care is a $21 Billion dollar industry, with over $1 Billion spent on flea and tick control products alone. So, what do we know about fleas and ticks? And how safe are the flea and tick control products we're spending so much on?

Would it surprise you to know that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has only been reviewing pet products, their ingredients and safety for just the last 10 years?

Cats

While grooming, cats ingest about 50% of the fleas on their body. If the fleas carry pathogens, the cat may become diseased. Fleas can carry plague and typhus. Symptoms often begin suddenly (within hours). As you will read in more detail below, keeping pets free of fleas and ticks does much more than just prevent an itchy nuisance!

Would it surprise you further to know that popular products in the flea and tick category have been found extremely hazardous, some even containing highly noxious nerve gas? Fortunately there is a safe, clinically proven and highly effective solution that works for dogs, cats (and is already being widely used in the equestrian industry on horses as well!)

Read on and find out what you need to know to keep fleas and ticks, and the common poisons used to treat them, away from your pets and family!

What are the dangers of ticks and fleas?

Fleas and ticks are ectoparasites, blood sucking parasites that live on or burrow into their hosts' skin. Parasites live at least part of their life cycles at the expense of host organisms. They can cause blood loss, skin irritation, allergies, and disease.

Fleas are small, wingless insects. The cat flea accounts for more than 90% of all flea infections found on domestic dogs and cats in North America and in northern Europe. There are many other species of fleas worldwide that infect pets -- nearly 2,500 flea varieties in all!

Fleas have four life stages: egg, larva, pupa, and adult. Each flea can lay hundreds of eggs and they prefer to lay eggs when the humidity is high and the temperature is 65-80 F (typical of most US homes).

Signs of Flea and Tick Infestation

Skin irritation- bald spots, red irritated skin, over-grooming (with cats)
Small bits of brown "dust" attached to the animal's fur. The fleas excrete digested blood. Check to see if the dust dissolves into a red liquid upon contact with a wet towel.
Small, fast moving brown shapes (fleas)
Fleas, "flea dust", or larvae on your pet's bedding
Dried blood in the animal's ear may indicate ear mites in which case you should contact your veterinarian
To check your home for fleas, wear long white socks into any room that you suspect contains fleas. Fleas are attracted to vibration so they will follow the vibration of your foot and jump towards your legs looking for a free meal.

Only adult fleas live on pets, and can do so up to a year. The eggs, larvae, and pupae live in carpets and on blankets, so if you see only a few fleas on your cat or dog, you're going to have to eliminate the eggs, larvae, and pupae as well as the adult fleas on your pet.

Ticks are closely related to spiders, scorpions, and mites and live on mammals and birds. There are about 800 different species of ticks.

Most ticks attach to their host and feed for as long as 12 to 24 hours before they fall off. Young ticks may feed on more than one host. Most ticks spend only about 10% of their lifetime attached to their hosts. But that's long enough to transmit disease.

Fleas and Ticks Carry a Variety of Diseases

Tapeworm
Anemia
Severe Skin Irritation
Lyme Disease
Babesiosis: [bab-EE-see-OH-sis] A rare parasitic disease that is transmitted to people by infected ticks.
Ehlrichiosis: [air-lick-ee-OH-sis] A newly recognized bacterial disease that is spread by infected ticks
Tick Paralysis
Flea allergy Dermatitis (an allergic reaction to the flea's saliva) in pets causes severe itching that leads to chewing, compulsive biting, licking, and scratching.

Individual tick bites can cause skin damage, irritation, inflammation, and hypersensitivity. A large number of tick bites can cause anemia. Some ticks secrete toxic saliva that can cause paralysis. All ticks can carry and transmit disease.

Lyme disease is one of the most common tick-transmitted diseases in the world and can affect both cats and dogs. Its most common symptoms are arthritis, lameness, loss of appetite, and depression. It can also cause cardiac, neurological, and kidney disease.

Canine ehrlichiosis (tick-borne fever) damages and decreases the production of blood cells, leads to anemia, lowered disease resistance, and abnormal bleeding. Though the prognosis is usually good, ehrlichiosis can be fatal.

Warning Signs of Pesticide Poisoning

Sores that do not heal
Abnormal swelling that persist/grow
Weight Loss
Loss of appetite
Bleeding or discharge
Offensive odor
Difficulty eating/swallowing
Loss of stamina
Lameness of stiffness
Hearing/Vision problems
Difficulty breathing, urinating or defecating

To get rid of these pests, consumers have a variety of choices for their pets: flea collars, tags, bombs and foggers, powders, dips, pills and topical applications. The one commonality of all these commercial, name brand products is pesticides. The EPA has also qualified many commercial brands using pesticides as "deadly".

Furthermore, many of these products have not been proven to effectively kill ticks, only fleas.

The Dangers of Commercial Pesticide-Based Flea & Tick Control

In recent years, some highly publicized legal cases have brought the news to the forefront -- flea and tick control products can be extremely hazardous, some containing highly noxious nerve gas. Still, these products have approval to be sold because the claim is that the amount of such hazards is minimal in the products.

A typical flea and tick product label will list ingredients in percentages giving no other information as to what those ingredients are. Aside from the active ingredient listed on most commercial pesticide brands (which usually accounts for less that 5% of the product) there are two other major components: 'inert' ingredients and synergists.

Inert ingredients: These are enhancing ingredients to increase the potency and performance of the product. Usually accounting for the bulk of the product, inert ingredients are only vaguely referred to on their labels.

Synergists: Many flea formulations contain additional pesticides which are chemical agents included to strengthen the killing power of labeled "active" ingredients. Two of the most common synergist pesticides are piperonyl butoxide and MGK264.

Most times these formulations contain 5 to 20 times more synergists than insecticide. Some of these are known to inhibit liver function. Unfortunately, many of the companies behind these products will not disclose these ingredients on their labels, citing these ingredients as their "trade secret".

Pesticide formulas in common flea and tick controls:

Can be neurotoxic
Have shown reproductive problems in labs
Can cause genetic damage
Some have been classified as carcinogens
Can damage pets' liver
Toxic effects are cumulative and can build and deplete your pet's immune system

"It is wrong to leave these dangerous pet products on the market after EPA has identified the hazard" said Jay Feldman, executive director of Beyond Pesticides, a leading environmental group.

Beyond Pesticides has asked major retailers to pull many commercial brands off their shelves, due to the thousands of reports detailing illness and death in cats and kittens. There are inadequate warnings on labels and toxicity in unnamed ingredients, the organization claims.

These poisons can also settle in homes, yards and eventually ending up in landfills, rivers and streams.

More Flea and Tick Pesticide Product Facts:

Flea collars and tags are literally soaked in chemical pesticides, emitting a continuous toxic cloud into the air, not only for your pet, but you and your family.
Topicals and monthly pills can be cost prohibitive, especially for multi-pet households
Foggers and bombs coat walls, ceilings, floors and furnishings in your home with a toxic residue.
Fleas and ticks have become resistant to many of the pesticides found in the common treatment products that have been in use for over two decades!

Tick Pets provide a number of essential resources for parasites like fleas and ticks, such as:

Food (sweat, blood, tears)
A warm, moist, protected environment
Transportation and transmission to another host

Beyond the issue of the pesticides' toxicity, fleas and ticks have become resistant to many of the pesticides we've been using for the last 25 years. Fortunately, there is a solution in the completely safe, non-toxic and clinically proven Flea 'n Tick B Gone, which fleas and ticks can't form a resistance to because it's ingredients are plant-based (with no toxic chemicals it is not technically a pesticide) and attack and prevent the pests through other mechanisms.

Read more about Flea 'n Tick B Gone below!

A Natural and Safe Solution

The labels of most pesticide-based flea and tick products state that you should "Avoid contact with skin" and "Do not inhale." If it's dangerous for you, why are you expected to drench your precious pets in the solution?

One product that has been clinically proven to work just as effectively as any of the pesticide-based products - but which contains NO TOXINS WHATSOEVER and is 100% safe -- is Flea 'n Tick B Gone.

Flea 'n Tick B Gone TM is a safe treatment made from natural plant sources. This professional strength formula has been proven to effectively remove fleas, ticks, lice and other pests. Regular use can help break the flea's life cycle and may help reduce the risk of infections, itching and dermatitis caused by insect bites. It can also be used to assist in the control of pests in your home as well.

Flea 'n Tick B Gone:
100% Non-Toxic, Highly Effective & Economical!