Every summer, homeowners try to stay ahead of the upcoming flea invasion by treating their homes, yards, and family pet with various flea control products. This doesn’t always prove effective and one must understand the flea cycle to determine a way to stop them.
A flea is an insect that uses the blood of its host to survive. Typically, host animals are domesticated, like dogs and cats. They also feed on wildlife and have been known to bite humans. Because fleas lay their eggs on dogs and cats, this makes them easily spread throughout a home when the animal is scratching at the irritating bites of this insect. Flea bites generally are not painful but itchy with inflamed skin.
How to Treat an Infestation
Fleas are not controlled very well by over the counter treatment products because of their life cycle. Things like flea bombs and foggers are not as reliable as regular vacuuming, a long-acting insecticide treatment, and prevention steps. If your pet has a known flea infestation, you should ask your vet for a flea control medication or skin treatment. Additionally, wherever your pet prefers to sleep regularly needs to be laundered and vacuumed as soon as possible and regularly.
Specifically, be sure to treat the following areas for flea issues:
- You and your pet’s bedding
- Furniture
- Rugs
- Floors
- Any favorite spots your animals like to hang out at, including outdoors
- Calling in the Professionals
Prepare Your Home
If you decide to call a professional pest control service to help address your flea problem, be ready to prepare your home for the technician’s arrival. You will have a checklist of thing to do that will ensure a successful flea treatment. A few examples of tasks your are expected to complete before an exterminator’s visit include:
- Doing your laundry according to special guidelines
- Vacuuming throughout your home
- Making sure rooms are ready for treatment
- Arrange for your pets to not be at home during this time
While your home is being treated, your pest control professional will ask you and your pets to leave the home for a couple of hours. For the best results, a residual flea control product will likely be used. This will help to break the reproductive cycle of the fleas and control the population.
What Happens After Your Home is Treated
Professional exterminator services usually have an immediate reduction of adult fleas in your home. With that said, it is still usual to see fleas again after one to two weeks. Why? These fleas were in their ‘pupal’ stage of their development when your exterminator applied the treatment, so it didn’t have an effect on them. Now that this generation of fleas has reached adulthood, they will be exposed to the residual insecticide and die quickly.
Contact New York City Pest Exterminators
It’s also important to support this process by performing additional daily vacuuming to further help eliminate individual fleas that might return. Stay in contact with your exterminator so they can stay on top of any recurring flea infestations. My Private Exterminator is only a quick phone call away if you need help with this common pest. Contact us today at (347) 305-8524 or online here.