When to call an exterminator for fleas?

Are your animals digging uncontrollably? Do you have small red dots from insect bites around your ankles? Do you see small insects hopping around your furniture, socks, and floors? These are all signs of a flea infestation, and it’s not for the faint of heart.

Fleas have plagued people since the dawn of time. There are many instances when you’ve treated your pets and your home, and still, they’re hopping about. How do you know when to call an exterminator for help? There are a few tell-tale signs that you need professional assistance.

The Rapidly Reproducing Flea

One of the main issues with fleas is how fast they reproduce. Many call our offices and say they see a few fleas and need help. There’s no such thing as just a few fleas, as what’s here today will be multiplied by tomorrow.

Unlike humans, all a flea needs to reproduce is a good meal. Once she’s had her meal, she will lay anywhere from 8-20 eggs. These eggs are deposited into your carpets, couch, bedding, and even poor Fido’s bed.

The problem is that you can’t see them because they’re so microscopic, but you can believe that you will feel their impact quickly. Flea eggs only need anywhere from a few days to two weeks to hatch. The warmer the climate, the quicker they will emerge.

Your New Jersey abode is the perfect place for quick hatching, which means the number of pests in your home can increase substantially. If just one female flea can lay 20 eggs after a meal, imagine what can happen if you have 20 females in your home. That’s a potential of 400 eggs. You can see how things can quickly get out of hand if you don’t get on top of it fast.

Understanding the Three-Part Treatment Program

You see your pet scratching and go to the vet for help. However, that fancy medication you’re using isn’t doing a thing. It’s not that the medication is not good, but the problem may be far beyond the capabilities of the pill.

The oral medications require the flea to bite the pet before it can die, so your pet is still getting bitten if you don’t treat your home. If there are 1,000 fleas in your house, the medication will only catch the ones that make contact with your pet.

The topical medications repel a bit, but they also require your poor pets to be bitten before the flea is rendered sterile or poisoned. The problem is that many folks think the vet is the only place they need to go for fleas, and nothing could be further from the truth.

To treat fleas requires a three-part method, and if you skip any part of this equation will impact your infestation. Here are the steps for treatment:

1. Your Yard

The first step in treating an infestation is to get right to the source. The fleas come from your yard. You would be surprised how many calls we get from people who say they don’t even have pets, yet their home is infested.

Perhaps they’ve just moved in, so they’re dealing with stragglers left by previous tenants. The truth is that fleas don’t need a pet to hitch a ride inside your home. They can come in on your pant legs or socks.

All they need is a host; your blood is just as tasty to them as Fido’s. Treating your yard goes right to the source. Some yards, especially those near wooded areas and water, will have more fleas than others.

2. Your Home

Giving your pet medications will do little if the home is infested. Fleas love carpeting, but they can find a place to burrow even if you don’t have carpet. Do you know how many people tell us they have no carpeting and still have a flea issue in their homes?

Fleas can also burrow in the cracks of your floors. They love your bedding, and as long as there’s a place for the female to lay her eggs comfortably, they will move in like mooching friends. You need to get rid of the eggs and any live bugs.

Many methods on the market that you can do yourself only kill the live insects, but what about all those waiting eggs? They’re soon going to be a significant issue. Make sure you buy something that will take care of both problems, or you might as well flush your money down the drain.

3. Your Pet

Now that you’ve treated the yard and the home, you can treat your pets. Some people prefer topical, and others prefer oral medications. Then some people don’t want any medications at all, as they prefer a more holistic approach.

It doesn’t really matter which approach you prefer just as long as you do something to help your pets. Fleas can be a killer, and when thousands are hopping around your home, it’s easy for your pets to become anemic. Yes, animals can die from flea bites, as well as have other issues like tapeworms, so you must be proactive for the sake of your beloved pet.

Why Did They Come Back?

Concerned New Jersey homeowners call us upset because they thought they had gotten rid of the fleas, but the fleas have returned. This can happen for many reasons. The Civil War had many battles that were fought outside of it. Though some small battles were won, it didn’t mean the war was over.

The same analogy applies here. What’s likely happening is that you’re getting rid of the live insects, but you’re not killing off the eggs. You’re having a break in the infestation just because the eggs are waiting to hatch.

Once the eggs start hatching, the nightmare will begin again. The truth is you never really got rid of the problem; it just was calm for a while. It’s at this point that you need to get help.

Some people are sure that they can fight these pests, but the truth is there are instances when things get out of their control. Do you know we’ve been in a home where people throw furniture out and rip up carpeting? These are extreme measures that can be avoided if you will call in the help of professionals sooner.

What if I Don’t Have Any Animals?

Another exciting scenario we often find ourselves in is that the family who has no pets and has lived in the home for a while has suddenly discovered they have a flea infestation.

A sudden infestation can have sinister origins. Many times, we’ve found that a rodent family has moved into the basement or attic, carrying these fleas into the home. Animals that are notorious for bringing fleas inside are opossums, rats, mice, raccoons, and squirrels are good hosts for fleas.

Consider the times of the Bubonic Plague way back in 542 A.D. Fleas are not all that harmless, as they can transfer Yersinia pestis bacteria to any animal they bite. If this animal bites a human, they transfer those toxins to its system.

Back in these times, they didn’t have good sanitation and trash removal services like there are today. People often had rats and mice that would invest their homes, and these vermin were infected with the bacteria. They would bite the people in the house, who would fall gravely ill in around a week from the bacterium that hit their bloodstream.

Few survived the Bubonic plague, and an estimated 75–200 million people perished in just a few short years. While the threat of the plague isn’t what it was back then, it doesn’t mean that fleas can’t significantly impact your home. When you don’t know where the fleas are coming from, it’s likely because they’ve come from another issue you didn’t even know about in your home.

As pest professionals, we often must be detectives first, as we must find out how fleas are getting into your home before we can eradicate them.

Flea Prevention Tips

Every year, fleas start hopping as the warmer weather moves into the Garden State. However, it’s not uncommon for people to have flea issues year-round. Here are some tips to ensure that you keep your home flea free.

Source: https://insectlab.russell.wisc.edu/2020/02/27/snow-fleas-when-a-flea-isnt-a-flea/

1. Treat Your Yard in Early Spring

Though it’s already been said, it bears repeating that you should treat your yard. Do this in the spring before the prime season to ensure you don’t have an issue.

2. Keep Your Pet Medicated Year Round

So many people think they only need to treat their pets during the prime season, but this is simply not true. Fleas can live all year inside your toasty home, so your pets always have a threat. Fleas can cause your pets to become anemic, trigger skin infections, and even result in hair loss. It’s worth the small price to keep them medicated.

3. Vacuum Daily

We cannot stress enough how it’s essential for you to vacuum your floors daily. The rollers from your sweeper shake up the carpet fibers, which loosens the eggs trapped inside. Getting all the eggs out of the floors will keep them from hatching in your home.

Additionally, you’ll also vacuum up some live fleas. The trick is to remember that you need to empty the bag outside into a garbage bag immediately. Due to their minuscule size, the flea can make their way out of the sweeper and back into the home if allowed to sit.

4. Limit the Time Your Pets Spend Outdoors

Another major issue contributing to your flea infestation is allowing the animal to go outside too much. Fido wants to be out and about when the sun is shining, but the longer your pets are out, the more apt they are to bring in fleas.

Even if they take a monthly treatment medication, it’s not a bad idea to give them a fast-acting pill like Capstar when they’ve been outside for an extended period. This will ensure that anything they’ve picked up will be killed immediately.

5. Bathe and Brush Your Pet Regularly

Owning a pet is a big responsibility. You need to bathe and brush them regularly. While the flea could care less whether your dog or cat is clean, you’re more likely to rid any straggler that might have attached itself before it becomes a significant issue.

Identifying Your Nemesis

Scientists have found more than 2,000 types of fleas, but in the Garden State, you’ll likely deal with just a few of them. Here are the most common fleas we encounter:

• Cat Flea

Officially called Ctenocephalides Felis, the cat flea is found chiefly on canines. They’re known for carrying plague bacteria.

• Oriental Rat Flea

The scientific name of the rat flea is the Xenopsylla cheopis. These are the fleas responsible for the Bubonic Plague.

• Ground Squirrel Flea

The Oropsylla Montana is often associated with squirrels, so if you have squirrels that move into the attic, then it’s possible you could fight these fleas.

• Dog Flea

The Ctenocephalides canis flea can spread tapeworms to your pet. Though their name suggests that they infest dogs, they’re not as big of a problem in this state as the cat flea.

It should be noted that sand fleas are not fleas at all. These are different insects that live in the sand. If you live near the coast and have significant amounts of sand on your property, then you might experience these pests. However, the treatment methods that kill traditional fleas don’t always work with the sand variety.

Source: https://extension.umd.edu/resource/fleas

Do You Need Professional Help?

Fleas can be an absolute nightmare to manage, so it’s best to call in professional help when you’ve tried methods and been unsuccessful. We can help you to get rid of them and keep them at bay by using pesticides and educating you on these common nuisances. Don’t let your animals or people in your home suffer; call us for quick help.

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Learn more:

Controlling fleas in New Jersey and all about fleas.
How to avoid or eliminate pantry pests in your home?
Flea control in yard
Can Fleas Fly? How To Handle An Infestation?
What are Fleas?
Controlling Fleas
How do Flea Develop?