As a Tulsa pest control company, one of our most popular treatments during the summer months are our yard treatments. These treatments take care of a plethora of different pests that attack our yard. One of the big ones that we deal with often are fleas. Fleas are parasitic in nature and they love to attack our pets. Cats and dogs both suffer constantly from these tiny insects. If we’re going to protect ourselves and our fur babies from these parasites, it’s important that we understand them. In this article we’re going to explore fleas, their lifecycle and how we can protect our love ones from them.
FLEAS LIFECYCLE
Fleas develop using a complete life cycle. This is a lifecycle used by many other insects and it works particularly well for the flea. The best way to explain it is to compare it to the lifecycle of a butterfly. Most people are familiar with the lifecycle of a butterfly. Butterfly’s hatch from an egg as a caterpillar, then as it grows it builds a cocoon and develops further until it emerges as a full grown adult butterfly. The flea works much in the same way. Fleas require a host in order to survive. They attach themselves to a host as an adult and lay eggs upon the base of the fur. As the animal scratches and moves around, the eggs fall off of the host animal onto the ground. This usually happens around the bedding and places where the the animal spends most of its time.
These eggs will lay and wait until they sense a larger animal around them. They will use heat and vibration to identify what’s going on around the egg. When they feel that an animal is near, they will emerge as a larva. This is the caterpillar stage of the flea. The larva will feed upon flea dirt. Flea dirt are droppings from adult fleas. As the adults feed on the blood of the animal, they will defecate and this dirt will fall off the animal under their bedding and carpet area around where they stay. The flea larva will consume this, giving them the nutrients from undigested blood that’s in there. Call your Broken Arrow exterminator for help.
THE FLEAS PUPA
As the larva develops, it must eventually pupate. This is when it goes into a cocoon much like the butterfly. It will use small twigs, string, pieces of carpet or anything around it to build itself a cocoon. Once inside the cocoon, again it will wait for an animal to come near using vibration and heat. Once this has happened, the fully developed adult will emerge from the cocoon or pupa.
THE FLEAS ADULT
The adult flea must get onto a host as this is where it feeds and survives. The flea is uniquely developed in order to do this. It has very strong legs that are meant to propel itself by jumping. These legs are actually geared together in a natural mechanical system. It will crouch down and use the muscles in his body to tense up in a spring like fashion, and then explode with force towards the animal. A flea can jump up to 50 times its own height. Because the legs are geared together it actually has a pretty accurate trajectory.
Once they find a way onto a host, they will use every thing that they can to stay there. Their legs are actually uniquely jointed in such a way that they can hook to the fur and hold on very tightly. It takes a lot of scratching for a dog or cat to remove a flea from his body.
VECTORS OF DISEASES
Fleas can be vectors for diseases in both humans and pets. Anemia, tapeworm and many other diseases can affect your cat or dog. Cat scratch fever is very common disease spread from fleas. This is also a disease that can be spread to humans. The black plague is still around and can be transmitted through fleas. There are some isolated cases in the southern part of the United States where the black plague has been transmitted to humans. This is yet another reason why it’s so important to take care of these insects before they become a huge problem.
TREATING FOR FLEAS
Treating a removal of fleas from your home requires three distinct steps. The first step is to make sure that your pet has been treated for fleas. Get with your veterinarian on ways to do this. They can prescribe pills, drops, dips, collars and all sorts of other options that may be best for you and your pets. After that you’ll need to get with a very good Tulsa exterminator in order to help you with the next two steps. Second of all, you’ll need to deal with the inside of your house. This is a treatment done by a pest control professional that can treat your house and remove all the fleas from it. Even if you remove the fleas from your pets, they may still survive in your house and be biting you and your human loved ones.
And lastly, we have the outdoor treatment. You may have an excessive amount of fleas in your yard. So you may want to consider having a yard treatment done to kill off the fleas in the yard. Whenever you treat fleas it’s important to remember that these insects have four different life cycles. And two of those life cycles, the egg and the pupa, are at a time when pesticides can’t get rid of them. So what happens is you’ll treat for fleas, they’ll die off and then a second wave will come a week or two later. It’s for this reason that you must continue treating until all the generations of fleas are gone.
CALLING IN A PROFESSIONAL
If you’re having an issue with fleas or any other pest it’s time to call you Broken Arrow pest control company. TermMax Pest Control is the best in the business when it comes to fleas and other pests. We service the greater Tulsa area including Coweta, Claremore, Catoosa, Broken Arrow, Sapulpa, Sand Springs, Prattville, Bixby, Turley, Jenks, Owasso and much more. Call us today for a free estimate. We’re here to help!