Winning The Battle Against Fleas: Effective Control Strategies For Mooresville Homes

What do you do when you begin your day and look at the tasks ahead? Do you ignore the challenges, press through, and hope to make it to the end, or do you develop a plan? While you can tackle the day without a strategy, if you want to ensure success, you know an agenda is necessary. Having a plan will guide you as you press through the day to achieve your goals.

When fleas are in your home, you need a plan, or the infestation will worsen. An effective flea control strategy begins with Lake Norman Home Services. Our roots stretch back several decades when Stan and Fran Newman launched our company to provide pest and flea control in Mooresville. We have a team of highly skilled technicians, including the only two-time recipient of the North Carolina Technician of the Year in the history of the NC Pest Management Association. Our driving desires are to serve you, be professional, persevere, and see a job through to completion.

You probably found this article because fleas are inside your Moorseville home, and you need help. We will give you the information you need to create an effective strategy to end the flea infestation so you can rest in your home.

The Flea Life Cycle: Understanding Their Stages

Fleas are insect parasites that feed on human and animal blood. These annoying pests have six legs, with the back two longer, attached to a 1/8-inch dark brown or reddish brown three-part body (head, thorax, and abdomen). Backwards-pointing bristles that grow out of the external skeleton (exoskeleton) enclosing their bodies enable fleas to move through fur and hair.

The life of a fleas in Mooresville begins in an egg. To produce eggs, fertilized females need nutrients from blood. After enjoying a blood meal, the female lays four to eight eggs and deposits them in the host's fur or bedding material. Because animals move constantly, many eggs fall off and land in cracks and carpeting throughout a home. Warmth and humidity determine how quickly the eggs hatch. In humid environments (50% to 90%) where the temperature is 75℉ to 85℉, larvae will emerge in one to ten days.

During the next five to 20 days of development, the larvae live in dark and warm areas, usually among carpet fibers, while they feed on the dried blood in flea excrement (known as "flea dirt"). During this time, the larvae begin spinning a cocoon and enter the pupae stage. The cocoon protects the maturing flea from insecticides, freezing temperatures, or a dry season. Fleas can survive in the pupal stage for weeks or months until they detect a nearby host.

When a cocooned flea detects vibrations, carbon dioxide, or body heat, it emerges as an adult, jumps onto the host, and begins feeding within ten seconds. Unlike ticks, fleas do not abandon their host after eating and prefer to use the same host throughout their lifetime unless removed by grooming. After eating their first blood meal as an adult, the fleas will mate, and the females will produce eggs within two days. Over its approximately 100-day lifetime, a female flea will deliver 400 to 500 offspring.

Lake Norman Home Services will stop a flea infestation by disrupting the life cycle of the fleas in your Mooresville home. 

The Hidden Dangers Of Fleas: Understanding The Hazards

Fleas are a nuisance for people and pets. When a flea lands on its host, it uses the tiny claws on its feet to anchor itself. Once stabilized, the flea uses its mouthparts to pierce the host's skin. To facilitate blood flow, it injects its saliva, which contains an anti-coagulant, as it draws blood from the host. The problem arises when a flea feeds on an infected host. When it consumes contaminated blood, pathogens in the host's blood migrate to the flea's salivary glands.

Fleas usually do not leave their host; however, if an infected flea moves from its host for whatever reason and bites a new host, it can transfer the pathogens in its saliva to the new host. Also, if the offspring of an infected flea attaches to a new host, it can spread disease.

Cat and dog fleas, the two primary flea species that infest homes, can transmit the following to their host:

• Murine typhus
• Tungiasis
• Tularemia
• Bartonellosis

These diseases cause fever, body aches, vomiting, coughing, nausea, and other flu-like illnesses. These illnesses not only spread from infected flea bites but can also infect a person when infected flea dirt contacts open wounds. Flea dirt is the feces a flea produces after a blood meal; it is also what larvae eat before they enter the pupae stage.

When a flea bites and injects saliva, the host's body labels the foreign substance as an allergen and dispatches histamines to the site. These histamines cause the wound area to swell and itch. Excessive scratching can expose the tissue to infected flea dirt and spread disease to a human or pet. Signs of a flea problem on your pet include excessive scratching, flaking skin, hair loss, skin redness, and over-grooming.

As they explore their world, small children put everything in their mouths, and since they spend a lot of time on the floor playing on the carpet, they are more susceptible to swallowing a flea. If a child accidentally ingests an infected flea, tapeworms can spread to the child. Similarly, dogs and cats can also consume infected fleas and develop tapeworms.

Lake Norman Home Services reduces the risk of acquiring a disease from infected fleas in your Mooresville home by providing effective flea control for the house.

Effective Flea Prevention: Tips For A Flea-Free Home

Fleas can enter a home via pets, people, or rodents (although they are more likely to be on pets and rodents than people). Here are several flea prevention tips that will keep them out once the Lake Norman Home Services eradicates the initial infestation:

• Bathe and groom pets regularly.
• Walk the dogs with a leash to avoid roaming.
• Use veterinarian-approved flea medication on pets.
• Mow the grass short.
• Remove leaf and brush piles. 
• Sweep the house regularly.
• Wash pet bedding. 
• Apply rodent and wildlife issues on the property.

Most of these suggestions are self-explanatory, but you may have questions about rodent prevention recommendations.

Fleas live in the same warm and moist areas where rodents forage. When rats and mice move through these locations, fleas in the pupae stage sense their body heat, vibrations, and carbon dioxide and emerge to get their first blood meal. While riding on the rodent, the females produce eggs. When the rodent enters and moves through a Mooresville home, the flea eggs and cocoons on the animal fall off and land in the carpet, where they await a new host. Therefore, keeping rodents out of the house is another way to deter a future flea infestation.

Rodent exclusion involves sealing cracks in the foundation and roofline, gaps between incoming pipes and wires, and installing wire mesh over the attic and crawl space vents. Removing junk and debris from the property, providing water drainage, and elevating firewood will also deter rodents from remaining on the property. Maintain a clean and dry interior by vacuuming regularly, storing food in containers, keeping trash cans closed, and repairing leaking plumbing fixtures.

When a Lake Norman Home Services technician arrives to inspect your Mooresville for a flea treatment, we can provide additional suggestions for your situation. 

Total Flea Elimination: Call The Pros Right Away!

Flea removal is not as easy as spraying a store-bought product around the house. While it may kill a few adult fleas on contact, it will not harm cocooned fleas. Furthermore, DIY products can be dangerous to pets and children when misapplied. Removing fleas requires a strategy that stops the current adult population, disrupts the flea's lifestyles, addresses the cause of the infestation, and promotes prevention measures.

The best way to get rid of fleas is to partner with Lake Norman Home Services. We have decades of experience and have a staff of highly-trained pest control technicians. When you contact our excellent customer service staff and explain the situation, we will dispatch a technician to your Mooreville home. Our certified technician will inspect your home to determine why you have a flea infestation and where it is most intense. Once we gather information, we will develop a strategic plan to end the infestation using the latest pest control methods and equipment.

While we can resolve some pest control issues with a one-time treatment, the life cycle of a flea requires a few treatment cycles. Initially, we will reduce the adult population inside and around the house; however, no product can harm cocooned fleas. Therefore, follow-up treatments are necessary to destroy emerging fleas and disrupt their lifecycle.

Your flea eradication strategy needs a trusted, experienced partner like Lake Norman Home Services because we understand flea habits, behaviors, and life cycles. We will put our decades of flea removal experience to work as we treat the interior and exterior of your home so you can once again enjoy a relaxing evening at home. 

Contact us today to learn more about our flea extermination program and request a free quote. Don't spend another miserable night battling fleas in your home.