Flea Life Cycle

Advantage® Stops Fleas at Multiple Stages of Life

If you think just killing the adult fleas on your pet means he or she is safe from further flea infestation, think again! Flea eggs, pupae, and larvae could still be lurking on your pet or around your home, just waiting to reach adulthood and start your furry friend scratching all over again.

Before a flea reaches adulthood, they've gone through three previous life stages: egg, larvae, pupa and adult. Depending on environmental conditions, it can take between two weeks and eight months for flea eggs to reach adulthood, although the average is three to four weeks in most homes. While you may think the fleas are dead today, in as little as two weeks, your home and your pet could be re-infested with hungry adult fleas.

Advantage affects fleas at multiple stages in their life cycle. One treatment with Advantage starts killing adult fleas before they have time to lay their eggs, and 98-100 percent of adult fleas are dead within 12 hours. Also, because Advantage lasts for a full month, any new adult fleas that jump onto your pet will die within two hours. Advantage also kills flea larvae within 20 minutes, before they can enter the pupae stage¹.