It can be very surprising to find you have a flea infestation in your home, especially if you don’t have pets like dogs and cats. Fleas can invade your property when they hitch a ride on a wild animal. From there you can pick them up on your shoes or clothes and carry them into your home. They can also find a way in through a crack or gap around doors or windows; and obviously, if you do have pets, they take a ride on them as their perfect host. Another form of transportation fleas use to gain access into your home is with small wildlife such as mice, rats, birds, and squirrels. Fleas hide in baseboards, carpets, and other locations throughout your home. This makes a flea infestation almost impossible to avoid and treat unless you hire a professional pest control service.
Here are a few tips to help prevent an infestation on your property and in your home:
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Keep your lawn mowed
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Wash bedding regularly
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Keep carpets vacuumed
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Check your pets for fleas daily
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Treat your pets for fleas and ticks as prescribed by your vet
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Contact a professional pest control service
There is good news! Fleas are not prone to transmitting infectious diseases to humans. However, they survive on the blood of their host, and if a human or pet is bitten, they could have an allergic reaction that causes a red, bumpy rash that causes itching. Hosts can get a secondary infection by scratching too hard and breaking the skin. Tapeworms can also be commonly transmitted by fleas, as well as the very rare bubonic plague and flea typhus, which are all usually medically treatable.
To identify fleas in your home, you need to look for insects with hard, flat bodies that are reddish brown and about ⅛” in length. Their bodies are hard enough to be hit and survive. In many cases, a flea must be squashed between two hard surfaces to be killed. They have long back legs that they use for jumping up to 7” in one jump. Flea eggs are nearly invisible to a human eye, but the larvae can be as large as ¼” and are similar to that of a maggot.
Fleas are a nuisance pest. The itch from the bites can keep you awake at night or cause infection. They are also extremely difficult to get rid of by yourself since you will have to get rid of all the eggs, larvae, and adults. Treating your home by yourself can be toxic to your family and pets and it may not eliminate the infestation. If you find fleas in your home, you can get peace of mind by contacting Ace Exterminators. We can take control of your flea problem by using eco-friendly and effective methods. If fleas have made their way into your home give us a call today.
