Frontline is a popular medicine used monthly on cats to kill fleas and ticks.
It comes in a little plastic squeeze tube.
The contents are to be placed on you cat, between its shoulder blades, working the neck of the tube under the fur so the liquid reaches the pussy-cat's skin.
It can clear a badly infested animal of fleas in 12-24 hours, and with a little bit of help from the vacuum cleaner and washer just about wipe out a whole flea problem in a home in only a few days.
How is this possible? There are two active constituents in Frontline, fipronil and ( S ) -methoprene.
They're both broad-spectrum pesticides, implying that they're going to kill many varieties of insects.
The product spreads out over the surface of the skin and settles in the follicles and sebaceous (oil) glands.
It is still released to the surface for roughly a month, at which time another dose can be applied.
Fipronil's actual chemical name is Fluocyanobenpyrazole, it's a slow-acting poison which permits insects to come back to nest sites and infect other insects.
The fipronil interrupts an insect's central nervous system and will kill adult insects.
It blocks the passage of chloride ions through an insect's nerve transmission system.
The chemical doesn't have this effect on the nervous system of a mammal as it only works on what are called glutamate-gated chloride channels.
Mammals don't have many of those sort of gates.
Think about this as a gate with a lock.
The fipronil has a key to open the gates in an insect's body, but not the key to the gates in a mammal's body.
Once the fipronil opens the insect nerve gate, it stands in the way and doesn't permit any of the essential chemicals to pass through.
Methoprene, works in a totally different way to manage insects.
It's an expansion regulator.
It fools insect larvae into believing that it isn't time to modify into the subsequent stage toward becoming an adult insect by acting like a special chemical which "tells" the insect to stay a juvenile.
Insects have to switch through many stages of expansion which are totally different from one another; pupa, larvae, adult.
Frequently there are many intermediate stages also.
Methoprene keeps insects from ever growing up, and in the case of fleas and ticks it's the adult insect that causes issues for mammals.
As with any robust chemical, there are associated perils and hazards.
Fipronil is regarded as a tolerably dangerous poison for mammals.
If a cat or human that has contact with it develops revulsion, agitation, barfing or episodes, hospital therapy should be sought.
Fipronil poisoning can be handled and this is successful in over half the cases.
Intake of Fipronil in large quantities can be dangerous.
Methoprene isn't lethal to mammals when ingested or breathed.
It is basically employed in some water systems to control mosquito breeding.
It's only a little dangerous when soaked up through the skin.
There were no reported aftermaths of methoprene poisoning in the few cases known where humans were incidentally exposed to raised levels of the chemical.
Many of us are also worried about the results of chemicals on the environment, and other species of animals.
Of the 2 chemicals in Frontline Plus, the fipronil is the one of best concern.
Fipronil is highly lethal to fish and other nautical invertebrates.
If you've a home aquarium, be terribly careful when handling Frontline to not transfer any to the aquarium.
It's also lethal to bees, so you have to avoid getting any of the liquid on outside foliage.
Some birds are influenced by fipronil, generally those which aren't waterfowl.
And there was some proof that it is harmful to rabbits.
So if you have pet cats and rabbits or birds, you may want to explore this subject further.
While many of us, myself included, have reservations about applying insecticides without delay on a cats skin, occasionally it is the smaller of 2 evils...
The other malignant being the damage and illness brought by the fleas and ticks.