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Fleas enjoying warm winter, too

By MICHAEL A. MOHAMMED
Published January 13, 2007

ADVERTISEMENT [Times photo: Willie j. Allen Jr.] Suzanne Golden walks Scruffy, Louie G and Jazz at Seminole Park in St. Petersburg. The fleas on Louie G. have been particularly bad.

Enjoying the unseasonably warm weather?

So are the fleas.

Though Florida has always been ridden with the tiny bloodsuckers, one of our warmest winters on record has fleas feasting.

"Flea calls are well up. I'd say they're double or three times what they normally are," said Dan Morris of Anti-Pesto Bug Killers Inc., which operates in Tampa, St. Petersburg and Largo.

"It's pretty close to summer rates," said Randy Westbay, owner of another pest control company, Westbay Services Inc.

In really bad infestations, he can see fleas on his white socks and feel the pinpricks of their little beaks.

"My clients have been complaining that the fleas have been really bad this year," said Suzanne Golden, who runs Calling All Dogs, a St. Petersburg dog-walking and in-home pet care service.

Golden said her 2-year-old standard poodle keeps getting fleas even with her monthly preventive treatment. Her other poodle, who died last week at 15, never seemed to get fleas at all.

"I guess it's like people and mosquitoes," she said. "One person will get eaten alive, and another won't get a bite."

The Tampa Veterinary Hospital has been seeing more than 10 flea-bitten pets a day, said technician Monica Fonseca.

Some unfortunate dogs suffer from flea allergies, said Sue Wilde, a technician at St. Petersburg's Skyway Animal Hospital.

"One flea bite will get 'em scratching for seven days," she said. "They're ripping their fur out, they're bleeding."

Jan Gernaat, receptionist at the Animal Hospital of New Port Richey, said Florida rarely gets cold enough to kill off the bugs.

"The only way to get rid of fleas in Florida is to get three solid days of a hard frost," she said.

Fleas cause more than just itching, said Hillsborough Animal Services spokeswoman Marti Ryan. A severely infested animal can develop anemia from long-term blood loss, and fleas carry tapeworm larvae that grow in a dog when swallowed. Tapeworms often resemble grains of rice on animal feces.

"If you don't provide vet care, you will find yourself in the realm of citation for animal cruelty," Ryan said.

Most area veterinary offices recommend topical treatments, lasting up to a month, that kill all fleas that bite the dog.

"It's a really simple thing to give your pet that flea preventative," she said. "Otherwise, trust me, it's gonna cost you more money in the end."

Michael A. Mohammed can be reached at mmohammed@sptimes.com or 813 226-3404.

[Last modified January 13, 2007, 05:40:45]