Why are fleas so hard to get rid of? People commonly want to understand why these nasty pests are so hard to eradicate. Whether you have an infestation in your yard, or even worse, on your pet or inside your home, you want to know why you can’t get rid of fleas.
Or, perhaps you’ve found this article because you know how troublesome fleas are, and you want to prevent a problem in the first place.
We’ll not only talk about how to get rid of these pests but we’ll talk about how to prevent them, too. After all, never giving fleas a chance to multiply in your yard is the best way to deal with them.
In this article, we will cover:
What are fleas?
How do fleas end up in Louisville yards?
Why are fleas so hard to get rid of?
How to get rid of fleas?
How to prevent fleas?
Choosing professional flea control
We hope that by reading this article, you will feel educated about how to deal with these pests…or even better yet, prevent them in the first place.
Fleas are parasites, meaning that they must live off of a “host” in order to survive. Fleas feed on the blood of their host.
The tiny size of fleas can make them difficult to initially spot. Fleas usually measure between 1 to 3 mm in length. For this reason, most people do not realize they have a problem with fleas until it’s already an infestation or causing problems.
While fleas may start out on your pet, their eggs may roll off and end up throughout the lawn, spreading the problem. Just a few fleas can easily turn into a total infestation.
Fleas are of particular concern to your beloved furry family members, as they tend to prefer animal blood. Fleas attach themselves to pets and then quickly multiply. That can invite an infestation into your home.
While fleas don’t typically choose humans for their hosts, they can still bite people and cause irritation or even spread disease.
Fleas can carry and transmit Typhus, Tungiasis, and even the Bubonic Plague (the most well-known flea-transmitted disease). But pets can also be allergic to flea bites, which tend to be itchy and painful whether there is an allergy or not. Sometimes the first sign of a flea problem is a pet itching.
A lot of people associate fleas with being picked up at common pet locations like dog parks or kennels. That can certainly happen. But fleas can also end up right in your own backyard.
Fleas typically end up in residential yards by hitching a ride on infested wildlife like mice, rabbits, opossums, and even feral cats. Once they fall off in your yard, they might reproduce or leave their eggs there.
Flea’s eggs will hatch when the environmental conditions are just right for them to thrive. Flea eggs found in the lawn will do well in warm and humid weather and will hatch in as quickly as just 2 days. However, if the temperature is cold and the air is dry, the eggs could take as long as 2 weeks to hatch.
If your pet picks up fleas, they might also end up with eggs in their fur.
Eggs are laid in your pet’s fur in bunches of 20. Eggs rarely all stay on your pet but instead roll off and end up in your lawn or even your home. This is how infestations can start both inside and outside.
There are a few reasons why you might feel like you can’t get rid of fleas. Let’s discuss why you might be having such a problem with these pests.
One of the reasons that fleas can be so challenging to get rid of is that their exterior body parts are so tough. Their hard exoskeleton makes them very difficult to crush.
DIY flea control methods are not highly effective on these pests.
As we’ve already mentioned, because the flea is so tiny, it is often difficult to spot. Nobody is going to notice a handful of stray fleas in their yard. But once the fleas multiply, and it becomes an infestation, the problem will become obvious.
Unfortunately, it’s also now going to be more difficult to control. This is largely because fleas will just keep multiplying (which we’ll talk about next). And they might end up in more than one location around your interior home or exterior property.
Another reason why you might feel like you can’t get rid of fleas is how quickly they can multiply. A female may lay as many as 2,000 eggs in her lifetime. The lifecycle of the flea begins when an adult female lays eggs following a blood meal from the host (typically, an animal, such as your pet).
Once the eggs hatch, you’ll have a multitude of fleas around.
Unfortunately, by that point, your pet might have brought fleas into your home, as well. It’s possible that fleas or their eggs might have dropped in more than location around your home. It can start to feel like fleas won’t go away as you try to deal with them in multiple locations.
While it’s true that it can be very difficult to get rid of fleas, it’s certainly not impossible. The best thing that you can do is prevent fleas in the first place with professional flea control in your yard. We will talk about that next.
But if you are reading this article and you already have a major problem with fleas, you first need to get that under control.
This might require the use of a professional exterminator who will come inside of your home and use flea control products to help you get rid of fleas.
In addition to exterminator services, you might need to focus on washing any bedding or other fabric affected by an infestation. Fleas do prefer to hide out in fabric so things like curtains and sheets are common flea magnets.
You’ll also need to bathe all of the household pets and apply flea control products. You can speak to your veterinarian about their recommendations.
Typically, it can feel like an ongoing process to get rid of fleas. Because you need to get rid of all fleas, at all different stages of their life cycles, it can require repeated efforts. Continually sanitizing and cleaning will be important during this time (as will staying on top of any treatments for your pets, so they don’t pick up new fleas).
Getting rid of fleas takes both persistence and patience but it can be done.
Even better, though, is preventing fleas in the first place. We’ll explain how you can do that.
The best way to prevent fleas is to invest in professional flea control. This involves applying products to your property that will get rid of fleas.
At Limbwalker, our program also covers ticks, which are another common pest here in Louisville. Like fleas, ticks are a parasite that require a host (and blood) to survive. But unlike fleas, ticks tend to prefer humans. This makes them a major threat to Louisville homeowners.
Our professional-grade products are safe for children, pets, and plants. We understand that you’re trying to protect your family from dangerous pests and you don’t want more worries about the products that are being used in your yard.
We use highly skilled and trained professionals to apply these professional-grade, highly effective products. They are trained on where to treat in order to boost effectiveness. They also know exactly how much product to apply.
Preventative flea control is something that you do need to keep up with.
Homeowners sometimes ask why they would need multiple treatments if the flea control products kill fleas. But even though the first application will kill the majority of the fleas in your yard, a few remaining fleas can start reproducing and start the cycle all over again. As we’ve mentioned, this is a key reason why it can feel like you can’t get rid of fleas.
They will just keep coming back if they’re able to.
On top of that, you have to remember that wildlife can continue to bring new fleas into your yard. You want to make sure you’re doing everything that you can to keep these dangerous pests away.
To keep fleas and ticks out of your yard, you’ll want to invest in professional flea and tick pest control from a company that you can trust.
When it comes to actually making your choice for Louisville flea and tick control, it’s important that you put in the work on the front end to research your options. This will help you to feel confident that you’ve chosen a company that will get you the results, service, and experience you anticipated.
With pests as potentially dangerous as fleas and ticks, you truly want to be able to eliminate your worries. This is why we encourage our clients to add flea and tick control to their mosquito control program.
But you want to make sure you choose a company you can trust to deliver the best results.
After all, in addition to mosquitoes, fleas and ticks tend to be some of homeowners’ biggest concerns. Fortunately, with the right solutions in place, you can eliminate those nagging worries.
In fact, when you choose wisely, you can hand over your worries about all of these pests and simply get back to enjoying your property to the fullest.
If you’d like to learn more about adding flea and tick control to your mosquito services at your Louisville home, get in touch, get your quote, and get back to enjoying your yard.
