Q: We give our dog and cat heartworm and flea preventative during the spring and summer. Do we need to give it year round even though we do not see fleas or mosquitoes in the fall and winter?

A: You definitely want to give flea and heartworm preventative year round. Heartworm disease is the more dangerous of the two problems. It only takes one mosquito bite to transmit heartworm disease. There are definitely not as many mosquitoes in the winter, but they are still around. Some mosquitoes prefer indoor environments for the warmth and humidity, so bites in the house are definitely a possibility.

Flea populations decrease in the winter due to the colder temperatures and lower humidity. You do want to keep up your preventative through the winter so you do not end up with a flea population in the house that explodes when the weather warms up. Staying ahead of a flea infestation is much easier than trying to eradicate one.