I have three dogs and three cats, plus we have the new addition of Angeline's puppy, Swish, that she recently introduced to our menagerie of fur babies. Whether you have one pet or SEVEN, as our household does, you have to take steps to prepare for flea and tick season...believe me, it is better to prepare now than to deal with fixing the problem later! Once flea and tick season begins, and your pets began getting infested, it isn't going to be long before those pesky little buggers are brought into your home on the backs of your beloved furry friends, slowly invading your furniture, carpet, bedding...what a nightmare! These 5 Tips for Preparing Your Pets for Flea and Tick Season are based on my 20+ years of experience of owning my own home and pets, and I am sure that they will help you as much as they've helped me over the years! With the Adams Family of Products, you can avoid the pesky hassle of fleas and ticks altogether, but there are a few things you need to do to help them along!

Our home is happy because our pet is healthy! 

Even if your dogs and cats are wearing flea and tick collars, you must treat your yard! My dogs spend so much time outside, it is a definite MUST to treat the yard with Adams Yard & Garden Spray. What makes Adams Yard & Garden Spray so great? Well, everything! It kills fleas, ticks, mosquitoes, and ants and also stops any bugs in your lawn, trees & shrubs, roses & flowers, and gardens.

It covers a wide variety of pests, so one spray does it all! It not only kills adult fleas, but it also kills hatching flea eggs, flea larvae, ticks, cockroaches, ants, spiders, mosquitoes, and silverfish - and it protects your yard and garden from fleas for up to 4 weeks! Being that I live in Miami, Florida, the fact that Adams Yard & Garden Spray also kills cockroaches is a huge plus in my book! If you are from a tropical or subtropical climate, then you are well aware that it doesn't matter how clean your home is - roaches live in the grass and trees, and will try to find their way indoors! With the Adams Yard & Garden Spray, you simply attach the bottle to your garden hose and spray! It couldn't be any easier than that.  

2. Regular grooming of your pets. We have two long haired dogs and it is so much easier to keep fleas and ticks away when they are groomed on a regular basis. I am not saying that you must keep your dogs shaved, but it works for us for multiple reasons: they stay cooler during the warmer (re: HOT) months, it keeps the shedding under control, AND it's easier to keep fleas and ticks at bay. 

3.Bathe Your Pets with Adams Flea & Tick Cleansing Shampoo. It kills fleas, brown dog ticks and American dog ticks, lice and prevents flea eggs from hatching for 30 days. I love that this particular variety is safe for both cats AND dogs, so it's perfect for households like mine that has both!

If you have cats, there is no need to worry! There is also Adams Plus Flea & Tick Foaming Cat Shampoo and Wash. 

Thankfully, these products work quickly...we all know how much most pets hate to be bathed - it's never an easy task and I love that I can get it over with as quickly as possible. 

4. Treat your home. As they say in football, the best offense is a good defense. Adams Flea & Tick Home & Carpet Spray kills adult fleas and prevents pre-adult fleas from developing into those nasty little biting adults. It protects the household from a buildup of fleas, as well as a reinfestation. The best part? There is no oily residue, no unpleasant smell, and one treatment protects your home from fleas, ticks, roaches, ants, silverfish, crickets and spiders for 210 days!

Just like the Adams Yard & Garden Spray, it kills a variety of pesky insects, so not only are your pets protected from fleas and ticks, but you have less to worry about in general! You can spray it on everything from bedding to your drapes to your furniture! The spray is not only great for preventing flea and ticks, but it's also a great way to eliminate an infestation, should it occur. But that won't be necessary, right? Because you're going to use these great Adams Flea & Tick products to prevent an infestation from evening happening!

Note: Don't forget to spray down any dog or cat bedding while you're at it! As soon as my dogs come in from playing outdoors, they go STRAIGHT to their dog beds. 

5. Use Adams Flea & Tick Collars! The best way to prevent your dogs from catching fleas and ticks is to stop it right from the source.

While Angeline's new puppy and can't use the collars yet, Swish, is an indoor dog, of course he goes outside...then comes right back in and gets on the couch, his dog bed or Angeline's bed...

He also hangs out with other dogs and goes to the beach and dog parks (which my dogs don't tend to do). Even with all of the prevention we put into place in our home, it's still important that he wear an Adams Flea & Tick Collar so that he doesn't pick up any pesky bugs while he is out and about, being a social doggy!

Keeping your pets - and your home - free of fleas and ticks is much simpler when you practice prevention, rather than treatment! Why wait until it's a problem to address the issue? With the right products, your pets and your home will be flea and tick free!

The products that Angeline and I are currently using for our Multi-Pet Household are: 

I hope that these 5 Tips for Preparing Your Pets for Flea and Tick Season helps you as much as it has helped me over the years. We haven't had fleas or ticks for over a decade now - *knock on wood* - and I firmly believe that these tips will work just as well for you! You can find all of these Adams Flea and Tick products at your local Walmart store, or on Walmart.com.