With over 2000 species of fleas recorded in the world today, the need for professional pest management is at an all-time high. Go-Forth Home Services has been providing flea treatments for homes near High Point and Greensboro, NC since 1959.
The Life Cycle & Characteristics Of Fleas
Fleas are external parasitic insects well adapted with tube-like strong mouth parts able to pierce the skin of mammals and birds to feed by sucking on their blood. They are about 1.5-3.5 mm in size with long and strong hind legs that make them very agile, especially in jumping. Fleas are wingless but can jump great distances in comparison to their body weight.
Fleas are the best jumpers in the animal world. Fleas jump vertically and horizontally covering distances of about 7 inches and 13 inches respectively. If we humans compare their jumping ability to ours, we could be jumping nearly 300 feet horizontally and more than 150 feet vertically.
There are fleas of different species that feed on humans, cats, dogs, rats, and other mammals and birds. They have adapted themselves well with hard strong bodies to withstand dislodging from a host’s body by scratching or pulling. They cannot be easily mashed up and being very agile, especially on a host with fur, hair or feathers can move very fast through. With a polished dark-colored body and hair that are bent towards its rear, fleas can move at speed undetected when threatened.
Fleas cannot be killed easily by pressing between our soft-skinned fingers, they can only be killed by trapping it between two hard surfaces, like our fingernails. When pressed between our fingernails, they give out a sharp click noise when mashed up. Like all other pests fleas are resilient and formidable. Infestation in our homes usually takes place if we have pets around, or have pets of our neighbors entering our premises. Dropped fleas can begin an infestation, and when that happens if we do not provide them with a host in the form of a cat or dog they are sure to cling onto us, for their feed of blood.
Fleas evolve through four stages in their life cycle, which are egg, larva, pupa, and adulthood. Adult fleas must have a feed of blood before they can begin their reproduction cycle. An adult flea that has had no access to blood will not be in a position to reproduce hence they would desperately seek out a host to feed so that their life cycle could be completed. The four stages are generally distributed with about 50% eggs, 35% larvae, 10% pupae, and around 5% adults. The females can only lay eggs after they have had a feed of blood, which they would lay in clusters of about 20 at a time.
Trustworthy Flea Management In High Point, NC & Beyond
Once you have a flea infestation, depending on the gravity of the situation an effective flea treatment conducted by flea exterminators has to be undertaken to bring the situation under control. Doing it on our own after the problem has aggravated would not suffice as all the areas that the host has had access to, would need to be treated. Preventing an infestation would be the ideal solution, which would mean that we would need first and foremost to keep our pets free of fleas. This is a very difficult task as pets are always prone to pick up a few fleas from anywhere they have access to.
If you need to treat your home for fleas, talk to one of our knowledgeable staff members. We can help you get rid of fleas in and around your High Point property. Call us today! We have been in the High Point area for a long time providing pest control services and we treat both commercial and residential customers.