Here in America, the average number of family members in a home is growing every day. But this number is not growing because there are more children or more adults in the home. It’s growing because we have more pets in our homes now more than ever. And our pets are just as much a part of the family as any other person in the home. It’s important to remember that dogs and cats have special needs. One of the issues that they can run into, is that of fleas. Fleas are parasitic insects that attack dogs and cats on a regular basis. Keeping fleas off of animals is an every day responsibility.
THE LIFECYCLE OF A FLEA
Fleas have an interesting life cycle. They start as an egg laid on the body of your pet. These eggs are loosely attached to the base of their fur. In day-to-day movement and shaking, these eggs will fall off, usually near wherever the animal is bedding. Once these eggs fall off they will, with time, hatch. The eggs are especially equipped to be able to sense movement and heat near and around them. When they sense this movement, they know an animal is near and they will hatch from the egg. The hatched egg will reveal a larvae. These larva are worm like in nature and move very little. They will consume any kind of dead skin or fur from the animal, plus any droppings of adult fleas they find falling from the animal. These droppings contain bits of blood that will nourish the flea larva.
After the larva has grown to a certain point, it will pupate. This is the process of building a cocoon out of fur and other dust materials that are around it. While in this cocoon, it will develop and grow and again wait for a suitable host to come near. It will again sense that a host is near by sensing the vibration and heat around it. Once it finds that a potential host is near, it will come out of the cocoon as a full grown adult flea. At this point, this full grown insect has the ability to jump great distances. The legs of the flea are specifically engineered through years of evolution to jump many times the length of its body. It will use this ability to launch itself onto an unsuspecting host. This, of course, is the dog or cat in your home. If you’re having issues with fleas or any other pest, contact your Tulsa exterminator for help.
The front legs of the flea will be hooked at the end of them in such a way that it can attach itself to the fur of your pet. The flea’s bodies are very narrow in order for the pet to not notice its presence on the animal. It also makes it easier for the bug to maneuver through your pets thick coat. But even in this case, many pets will feel the bites of these parasites and they will scratch. This is a common symptom of having fleas. The insect will eventually find a mate and they will mate, and the process will begin all over again. Pets that have fleas usually show the signs by scratching excessively. If you run your fingers through there for you can often feel the small bumps that are these fleas. They can also be seen with the naked eye small dots in their fur.
FLEA TREATMENTS
Treatment of fleas is a two-part process. The first requires the attention of a veterinarian to remove the fleas from the animal itself. Veterinarians have many different methods of administering a flea treatment to the pet. These ways consist of pills, drops, dips, collars and many other methods to administer the pesticide. Once this is done the fleas will either die on the animal or attempt to get off of the animal as quickly as possible. When this happens, it’s important to also perform the second part of treatment as required.
The second part of treatment is to treat the house and yard for fleas. This is where your Broken Arrow pest control company comes in. They will have the perfect treatment to eliminate these pests from your home yard, protecting your pets. Fleas will also bite humans. The common cat flea, which is the flea that we have most commonly in America, can feed off of many different mammals including us. But they require the blood of a dog or cat to feed off of to continue moving through their lifecycle. Again, they can survive on human blood, but they greatly prefer your pets. This is yet another reason to go ahead and have your home and yard treated so that you and your children don’t have to suffer from flea bites. Don’t let your loved ones suffer, call a great Tulsa pest control company today.
Modern treatments of fleas in your home usually consist of some form of spray on your carpeting and furniture, coupled with a spray that is applied to your yard. These treatments usually do not take a long time, they can be anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour, plus 10 to 20 minutes to allow it to dry. It’s important not to disturb the treated areas while they are wet. Allowing them to dry gives you and your pets the least amount of exposure to the pesticide. Rain and other heat and cold factors do not affect outdoor pesticides once they’ve been applied. They are specifically designed to withstand these kinds of environments. But it is important to make sure that it’s not raining while the treatment is being applied. Your pest control technician should have all the details on applying these kinds of treatments.
GETTING HELP WITH YOUR FLEA PROBLEM
If you’re dealing with a problem with fleas or ticks in your home it’s time to call your Broken Arrow exterminator. Here at TermMax Pest Control, we are the best in the business at protecting your family and love ones, including your pets, from all kinds of pests and parasites. We service the greater Tulsa area including Owasso, Sapulpa, Sand Springs, Prattville, Turley, Broken Arrow, Bixby, Jenks, Claremore, Catoosa, Coweta and much more. Call today for a free estimate. We are here to help!