Keep Your Pets Indoors

• Keeping your pet indoors will make a big difference when it comes to preventing fleas. Cats and smaller pets can be kept indoors fairly easily as long as they are given plenty of playtime and exercise. While dogs do need to be walked, you can prevent fleas by keeping them away from tall grass.
  
  

Apply Flea Preventatives

• Flea preventatives are medications that are meant to discourage fleas from getting on your cat or dog in the first place. Even if you keep your animal indoors, do not forget that you might be the one bringing the fleas in. Fleas and flea eggs can hitch rides on clothes and shoes, and once in your home, they will head straight for your pets. The Companion Animal Parasite Council recommends dosing your dog or cat with flea preventative once a month. Some products approved by veterinarians for this purpose include Frontline, ProMeris, Vectra and Advantage.
  
  

Vacuuming

• Just vacuuming on a regular basis can help prevent a flea infestation in your home. Flea pupae use tiny particles of dirt, pet hair and carpet fiber to camouflage themselves and also to build their cocoon. This debris is necessary for the flea pupae to grow into a full adult, and when you vacuum, you can prevent this stage from occurring at all.
  
  

Segregate New Animals

• If you are taking in a stray animal that you found or even if you are adopting a new animal from a shelter or from another source, remember to segregate it in another room of the house for at least a few days. This will allow you to figure out whether the newcomer has fleas before they spread to the rest of the house.
  
  

Inspect Your Pets Regularly

• To make sure that you nip any flea problem in the bud before it becomes a full-blown infestation, inspect your pet. A fine-toothed comb made for the purpose will pull out fleas, and you can spread your pet's fur while looking for fleas as well. The best method is to rub your pet's coat over a white sheet of paper. This will dislodge not only the fleas but flea feces, if they are there. Flea feces are made almost completely of blood and when they fall onto the paper, they will be brownish gray specks. If you wet the paper and and see the specks turn to reddish brown, you have fleas.