What does flea treatment do?

"Advantage" is a brand name for imidacloprid a monthly treatment to kill fleas on pets.

The active ingredient is imidacloprid, which acts on the nervous system of the flea to cause paralysis and subsequent death. Advantage stops biting fleas in three to five minutes and starts to kill adult fleas within an hour after application.1 Within 12 hours of application, 98-100 percent of fleas are dead.

This is important because flea bites can lead to skin infections, cause discomfort for your pet, lead to allergic skin reactions, and can even transmit other disease-causing organisms, including tapeworms specifically the "dog tape worm" {(Dipylidium caninum (DIE-pih-LID-ee-um K-nine-um)}

You won't need to use another flea control product. Advantage kills fleas before they lay eggs, so their life cycle is broken at multiple stages. It also kills flea larvae within 20 minutes of contact.

Imidacloprid is an insecticide manufactured by Bayer Cropscience (part of Bayer AG). It is sold under a variety of trade names including Kohinor, Admire, Advantage, Gaucho, Merit, Confidor, Hachikusan, Premise, Prothor, and Winner. Imidacloprid was first patented in the United States in U.S. Pat. No. 4,742,060, on May 3, 1988, by Nihon Tokushu Noyaku Seizo K.K. of Tokyo, Japan. In France, its use (as Gaucho) has become controversial in terms of a possible link to derangement of behavior in domesticated honeybees.