If you haven't been practising preventative flea control, and you've found fleas on your pet, you've got a bigger problem than you might think. If you've found 10 fleas on your pet, there are likely to be another 2000 eggs, larvae and pupae hiding around your house!
 

So, how to get rid of them in the fastest possible time:

First, visit your vet and discuss treatment based on insect growth regulators.
 

You may treat the pet with a product given in food, or by injection. Alternatively, insect growth regulators are contained in a very limited number of veterinary spot-on products. But these may be rendered less effective if the pet is subsequently washed, or gets caught in the rain
 

Having established your pet on an insect growth regulator, the fleas in your house will be unable to reproduce and will die out naturally.
 

If you have a number of pets living in the house, and find it too expensive to treat every one, then use a household flea spray that contains an insect growth regulator. Whilst this is a slightly hit or miss approach, its certainly better than nothing.

At this point, there will probably still be hundreds, if not thousands of fleas living as eggs, larvae and pupae in your home.

The pupae in particular are difficult to remove, because no currently available insecticide will penetrate their cocoons, and they are usually spun around the base of carpet fibres.
 

In short, there is little you can do except wait for them to hatch, jump on the treated pet, and die without laying any more eggs.
 

However, there are a few things you can do to help speed removal of fleas from the house:
 

1). Turn your heating up. The warmer and more humid the environment, the faster flea eggs will hatch, pupate and emerge as adults.

2). Wash the pet's bedding, together with any removable covers used where the pet frequents (such as sofa covers).

3). Vacuum the house thoroughly. Pay particular attention to areas where the pets spend most time. This will remove some flea eggs, larvae and pupae, though certainly not all. But the vibration of the vacuum cleaner may trigger more pupal fleas to hatch from their cocoons.

Even after the above measures have been taken, it is still possible that there may be flea eggs, larvae and pupae that will continue to hatch for some weeks afterwards.

Don't worry, if you've treated your cat with an insect growth regulator, these fleas will simply die without laying any viable eggs.
 

But it may be that there are enough still hatching to cause your pet irritation. In this case, use CAPSTAR.
 

CAPSTAR has been specifically designed for the rapid removal of adult fleas from a pet. In fact, it starts working in as little as 15 minutes. And unlike conventional insecticides that are applied to the animal (such as spot-on or spray products), CAPSTAR is given to your pet as a tablet. So there are no insecticidal residues that can rub off on you or your family.
 

CAPSTAR is also ideal for use alongside an Insect Growth Regulator if your pet has been diagnosed with Flea Allergic Dermatitis. In this case, it's especially important to remove fleas in the fastest possible time. So use an insect growth regulator to prevent a household infestation, and CAPSTAR immediately when and, more importantly, if fleas are seen on your pet.