A Guide To Complete Flea Control For Meridian Homes
Most people don’t think homes without pets can have fleas, but this isn’t the case! Because of this, you will want to know how to identify fleas, how they can get into your home, how you can prevent them, and who can help you get rid of them.
Meridian residents should keep reading to learn about the best way to get rid of fleas.
What Do The Fleas In Meridian Look Like?
Fleas are tiny pests that appear like little dots without magnification. However, using magnification, you can see details such as six long legs with claws at the end, a reddish-brown coloring, and even their tiny white eggs.
Because of their size, you will likely see flea bites and other telltale signs. For people, flea bites usually happen around the ankles. If you have a pet, you will likely see a change in their behavior, including excessive scratching and distress.
How Do Fleas Get Into Meridian Homes?
Fleas are parasites that require a host to survive. Because of this, they will often get into homes on wildlife and pets. If your pet has fleas, they could have picked them up from coming into contact with an infected wild animal, another pet, or from hanging out in a flea hot spot outside. Hot spots are usually shaded moist areas.
Fleas can also get inside on secondhand items or people, although less common than animals. So whether you have a pet or not, your home is still susceptible to a flea infestation, especially if wildlife can get inside!
How To Prevent Fleas From Coming Into Your Meridian Home
If you are worried about fleas in your Meridian home, you can use several tips recommended by experts to prevent these common Meridian pests from infesting your house.
- Treat your pets with flea preventatives with assistance from your veterinarian.
- Regularly bathe and groom your pets.
- Clean your pet’s bedding and vacuum around the areas where they sleep and are most active.
- If you bring secondhand items into your home, you should inspect and clean them first to eliminate any unwanted hitchhikers.
- Deter wildlife by installing fencing around your property and gardens, removing bird feeders, using garbage cans with tight-fitting lids, and sealing potential entry points into your home or outbuildings.
- Keep your lawn and landscaping trimmed, ensuring it does not become overgrown.
- Remove any organic debris like grass clippings and leaf piles from your property.
If you utilize these tips but are still worried about fleas, you can contact pest control experts for assistance.
The Pros To Call For Total Flea Control For Your Meridian Home
For the best way to get rid of fleas, contact us at Sawtooth Pest Control. We offer flea control services with our residential program, which may include:
- An inspection of your property to identify pest activity and conducive conditions. We will look at eaves for webs and nests and inspect the perimeter and crawl space.
- A look into specific issues that you are experiencing.
- A full sweep of eaves to knock down webs and nests, a perimeter spray, and a dusting in the crawl space.
- We provide interior treatments as needed, such as baseboard spraying.
- For specific issues, we will apply more focused treatments.
Our residential pest control plan is available bimonthly or quarterly.
Give us a call at Sawtooth Pest Control to learn more about our flea control options and how we can help with other pests in your home.
How To Get Rid Of Fleas In Meridian
Learning how to get rid of fleas in Meridian doesn’t have to be as complicated as it sounds. A flea infestation can easily be taken care of with proper prevention tactics and the assistance of pest control in Meridian.
Fleas - Types, Facts And How To Identify
Even though most flea types appear the same, there are thousands of different flea species living worldwide. The most common fleas that Meridian residents may encounter include the cat flea (the number one domestic flea in the United States), the dog flea, the rat flea, and the human flea.
All fleas appear dark brown to reddish-brown in coloration (depending on when they last ate) and grow to approximately an eighth of an inch in length. Fleas can feed off any warm-blooded mammal, but they prefer to live and feed on hair or furry mammals such as cats or dogs. This is why proper flea protection for your pets is so essential.
The Lifecycle Of The Common Flea
Most fleas will have the same life cycle of four stages – egg, larva, pupa, and adult. Eggs are laid on a host mammal or in the fabrics of your home, such as carpets. From there, a larva emerges and feeds on the host before becoming a pupa and creating a cocoon. The pupa will stay in this cocoon until signs of a suitable host are detected, such as body heat or body movement. This process may be short or last several weeks, depending on how close the pupa cocoon is to a suitable mammal host.
Once the adult flea emerges from a cocoon, they will feed immediately. Female fleas will begin to look for a mate and start laying eggs, further carrying on the flea life cycle. And because eggs and pupa can wait for weeks before hatching, it is crucial to eliminate all stages of the flea lifecycle to prevent reinfestation.
Three Reasons Fleas Are So Hard To Eliminate
A flea infestation can be challenging to get rid of, especially if you don’t have the help of a dedicated flea exterminator. Review these reasons why you may be having trouble completely removing fleas from your home:
- Due to their small size, fleas are incredibly skilled at hiding on their host’s body, especially if there’s fur. They can also quickly get out of the way of danger and have tough exoskeletons, which make them difficult to crush.
- Fleas can hide throughout your home and stay dormant for long periods. This means that reinfestation is always possible unless you thoroughly remove every life stage of flea and eliminate all flea eggs around your home.
- Fleas are very prolific and breed quickly. Just one or two fleas on your pet can quickly lead to a widespread infestation that takes forever to eliminate without professional assistance.
Control, Extermination, And Prevention Of Fleas
The best way to get rid of fleas in your house and avoid itchy flea bites is to contact Sawtooth Pest Control. With the help of our professionals, we will eliminate flea infestations, and you won’t risk contracting flea diseases. Only our experts at Sawtooth Pest Control will be able to remove every life stage of flea and ensure your property is protected year-round. Reach out for more flea control advice today!