Fleas

Fleas
(by Robert Holyfield)

Even though we had a pretty hard winter, the bugs have come back with a vengeance. Fleas are no exception. If you ever had a bad flea infestation, you know the difficulty you can go through trying to rid your property of them. There are over 2000 species of fleas worldwide. The most common flea is the cat flea. Adults are 1/16 to 1/8 inch long, dark reddish brown to black. Their bodies are flattened vertically or side to side allowing them easy movement between the hairs of their host. They can jump 13 inches horizontally. That’s about a 450 foot jump for you or me. Their life cycle from egg to adult can be as little as 3 weeks. This consists of egg, larva, pupa and adult. The pupa stage is the final stage before adult and fleas can remain in this stage for long periods of time. Vibration and or carbon dioxide lets them know when there is a host so they hatch out of this stage into adulthood and FEED. Cat fleas unlike other fleas like to remain on the host. Their eggs are laid on the animal and roll off into the carpet or floor area. This is why growth regulators work so well when applied on your pets. The eggs come in contact with them and their development is interfered with. The use of growth regulators along with products such as Advantage or Frontline will kill adults and help prevent development of immature fleas. We have a product called Petcor we use or sell at cost to our customers when they have a bad flea infestation. It kills the adults and leaves only the residue of precor ( insect growth regulator) for any future eggs that are laid.
Fleas can transmit diseases such as plague and murine typhus to humans. The bubonic plague or black death that killed so many people years ago came from the fleas feeding on the rats and then transmitting the disease to humans. This is where the popular nursery rhyme “Ring Around The Rosie” is thought to have come from. LOOK IT UP.
When you call a pest professional for a flea problem, before the treatment, remove all items off the floor and thoroughly vacuum the floors. This will allow the pest professional to be able to get a good coverage of product through out the structure. Don’t forget to throw out the vacuum bag in a sealed plastic bag immediately when finished due to all the eggs, larva and adults you will have vacuumed. Be prepared, you may need to vacate the structure along with the pets while the treatment is drying. Outside infestation in the yard you will need to mow the lawn if the grass is high, again this will allow the product to reach the soil more easily than if the grass is thick. Watering before and/or after a treatment, may be a necessary, if in a drought situation.

Be patient, a heavy flea infestation can call for several treatments before control takes place. Working together with your Pest Control Professional, you will be able to get a flea infestation under control.
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