Fleas Carry Nasty Diseases

Historically, fleas carried the bubonic plague. Every year, a few humans in the United States still come down with the plague, but they usually get it out west from fleas on prairie dogs and chipmunks. Fleas can also infect you with murine typhus, tularemia, bartonellosis, and tapeworm. The saliva contains an anticoagulant so the flea can suck the blood without it clotting. It also contains whatever diseases or tapeworms the flea has. The salvia makes most people itch intensely.  

Lifecycle Of Fleas

The adult flea lives most of its life on its host. They need a blood meal to reproduce and lay eggs. The female deposits the eggs on the host, but they often fall off into the environment. Adults live approximately 100 days and feed each day so they can lay more eggs. She can lay more than 2,000 eggs in her lifetime. Eggs hatch in 1-10 days, depending on the environment. Fleas just happen to like the same temperatures and humidity that people and pets do, so they usually hatch from their eggs quickly. 

Larvae are able to move about on dirt or in a dark area of the house or yard. Five to ten days after the larvae hatch, they spin a cocoon. The now-adult fleas will emerge in 1-4 weeks when they sense heat, movement, or pressure. Fleas can stay in the cocoon for as long as 6 months if they are not stimulated enough to come out sooner. 

Preventing Flea Infestations

Because of excellent products to kill fleas on dogs and cats, fleas are not as problematic as they used to be. Sometimes, fleas that infest houses are tracked in by rodents, not dogs or cats. Rodents can come through a hole about ¼ inch in diameter. To eliminate fleas, you will have to eliminate rodents. You can do that in several ways. 

• Store lumber, firewood, and other materials up off the ground in neat piles. 
• Seal all cracks and crevasses in your foundation and outside walls. 
• Seal around pipes, electrical wires, and cables that enter the home from the outside with steel wool and caulk. 
• Keep food stored in metal, rodent-proof containers. 
• Use trashcans with tight-fitting lids. 
• Remove clutter inside and outside that would give rodents places to hide. 
• Fix any water leaks. 
• If you feed a pet outside, remove the food as soon as the pet is finished eating. 
• Make sure window screens do not have holes in them.

Get Professional Help

Both fleas and rodents are difficult to get rid of once they enter your house. Let Alliance Pest Services eliminate these pests for you. When you call us, we will send one of our highly trained technicians to do a thorough inspection of your house and property. We will then present you with a plan for eliminating your flea and rodent problem. When we present our plan, we will discuss things you can do to keep pests out. We believe in using the least amount of pesticide necessary to eliminate the problem, so your family and pets are safe. Call Alliance Pest Services today at (888) 904-7507 so we can get rid of your pest problem.