Eliminate Fleas For Good: Effective Control Methods For Homes In Columbia

Have you watched a movie where the characters struggled to gain control of a situation? You follow them as they devise and implement a plan, and it appears to work, but then you hear the sirens and see the flashing red lights indicating there is still a problem. Knowing they still have an issue, they revisit their plans and discover they missed a necessary component of the puzzle. 

While those onscreen struggles make for an exciting movie, we don't want that same experience when fleas are inside our Columbia homes. After several days of fighting fleas, feeling the pain of flea bites, and discovering newly formed itchy bumps on your body, you want to find a solution to the flea problem in your home. The last thing you need are surprises and effective treatment plans. 

If you have fleas in your home, you need a local, family-owned company with decades of pest control experience. Go-Forth Home Services has provided flea control in Columbia for decades. Our excellent customer service, dedication to training, and solutions have earned us numerous awards, including being the only company to win five consecutive N.C. Tech of the Year Awards. Because of our proven reputation, the first and second-generation owners are in the North Carolina Pest Management Association Hall of Fame. Today, the third-generation owners continue to lead and inspire us to provide the best pest control possible to North and South Carolina and Virginia residents. 

We know you found this article looking for answers. Please keep reading to discover how to end the current infestation and prevent a future flea problem in your Columbia home.

The Flea Life Cycle: Understanding Their Stages

We know you found this article because you want a flea infestation inside your home to end. While you may think the life cycle of a flea in Columbia is not necessary to get rid of fleas, ignorance of this topic is why many fail to eradicate fleas from their homes. 

Cat and dog fleas are the types of fleas that affect Columbia homes. After its first blood meal, a female adult cat or dog flea will lay four to eight eggs; over its 100-day lifespan, it produces 400 to 500 eggs. The fleas deposit their eggs in the hair of their host. If the animal is inside the house, the eggs often fall onto their bedding, the carpet, or into nearby cracks and crevices in the flooring. 

After a couple of days or two weeks, depending upon the amount of warmth and humidity, blind larvae emerge from the eggs. At this stage, the legless larvae cannot jump onto the host but eat feces from adult fleas, known as flea dirt, for nutrition. After about five to 20 days, the larvae begin spinning cocoons and enter the pupae development stage. 

A flea may reside inside its cocoon for several days, weeks, or months, protected from outside elements, including pesticides. Because fleas in the pupal stage are resilient against flea products, a single flea treatment will not stop an infestation. When a cocooned flea detects vibrations, body heat, or carbon dioxide, it emerges from its shelter, ready to jump onto the passing host. 

When the flea lands on its host, it establishes itself and consumes its first blood meal. After eating, the flea mates with other newly-emerged fleas, and soon afterward, the newly-fertilized females produce their first egg batch. 

Our Go-Forth Home Services technicians consider flea life cycles when they create a flea treatment strategy for the house. 

The Hidden Dangers Of Fleas: Understanding The Hazards

Fleas are ectoparasitic insects, and these insect types are a health hazard for humans and people. Although ectoparasitic insects do not enter a person's body, they impact the bloodstream. When a flea senses a host's presence, its powerful hind legs propel it toward the host. Once it lands on the host, it uses the tiny claws at the base of its six feet to anchor it to the person or animal. When the flea stabilizes itself, it uses a mouthpart, known as the proboscis, to penetrate the skin. 

The flea injects its saliva, which contains an anti-coagulate and anesthetic to promote good blood flow, lubricate its mouthparts, and prevent its hosts from immediately knowing a bite is occurring. The blood the flea draws enters its body; if the blood is infected, this can become a problem because the disease-causing organisms in the extracted blood eventually migrate to the flea's salivary glands. If the flea has these pathogens in its saliva and moves to another host, it will introduce these to its new victim when it draws blood, thus infecting the individual or animal.

Flea dirt is another way fleas infect people and animals. Flea dirt is the feces fleas produce upon eating a blood meal. In addition to waste products, the fecal matter contains dried blood, which can be full of the pathogens from the infected flea. Flea dirt can expose a person or animal to disease-causing organisms when accidentally ingested. Exposure can also occur when the flea dirt enters an open wound from excessive scratching. 

Murine typhus, tungiasis, tularemia, and bartonellosis are bacterial diseases spread by cat and dog fleas. Symptoms from these infections include fever, body aches, nausea, diarrhea, and other flu-like conditions. Although death is rare from these illnesses, some require antibiotic treatments by a medical professional to ensure a complete recovery. 

Go-Forth Home Services protects your family from flea-borne illnesses caused by flea bites and dirt by providing effective flea control in your Columbia home. 

Effective Flea Prevention: Tips For A Flea-Free Home

Once Go-Forth Home Services stops the flea infestation in your Columbia house, you do not want a repeat several months later. Even though we will end fleas from making your life miserable inside your home, they still lurk outside and will reenter unless you take these flea prevention steps: 

• Cut lawn grass to a short level.
• Remove standing water in the yard.
• Eliminate junk and debris on the property.
• Keep outdoor garbage containers closed.
• Inspect pets before allowing them to enter the house.
• Use a veterinarian-approved flea prevention product with supervision.
• Wash and groom your pets.
• Wash pet bedding frequently.
• Vacuum the house regularly.
• Suction out cracks and corners.

Implementing these tips will discourage fleas from invading your property and stop fleas on pets from entering. Should a few fleas make it inside, they will not have time to reproduce before being swept up and disposed of. You should dispose of vacuum contents into a sealable bag and place it outside in a closed garbage container. There is another cause of an infestation that is not pleasant but needs discussion. 

The reason pets are often a source of a flea infestation is that a flea's body has backward-facing bristles that enable it to navigate through pet fur. The design of their bodies, combined with their need for blood, makes animals the perfect vehicle and hosts. In addition to infesting pets, fleas also ride on rodents. If you have a flea issue but do not have pets or live in a multi-housing unit, rats or mice may be inside your home and could be the source of your flea problem. In that case, you need rodent control from Go-Forth Home Services alongside flea control.

When a certified Go-Forth Home Services arrives to inspect for fleas, we can determine if rodents, pets, or another issue is the underlying cause of your flea infestation. 

Total Flea Elimination: Call The Pros Right Away!

Because fleas are a problem for many Columbia residents, we developed a specialized flea removal service. We will dispatch a highly-trained technician to investigate your home for flea attractants, hot spots, and the likely cause of the infestation. We will then develop a targeted treatment strategy to eradicate the fleas from your home using the latest pest control methods.

We use Integrated Pest Management (IPM) as our guide in developing pest control plans. This protocol requires using only the amount of product necessary to achieve the desired results. IPM addresses a pest's life cycle, especially necessary for fleas. As mentioned earlier, the third stage of the flea's development is the pupa phase, during which they create a cocoon and wait until they sense a nearby host. When inside their capsule, they are impervious to all pest control products; thus, a one-time flea control treatment will not work because it will not eradicate those insects cocooned. Another item that IPM mandates is that we work with our clients to prevent future reinfestation by addressing the entry points and attractants. 

We understand the valid concern regarding the products used for pest control. Our experienced technicians practice proper application techniques. Furthermore, because we are part of the EPA's Pesticide Environmental Stewardship Program, we only use eco-friendly and EPA-registered products considered "reduced risk" that are also safe for the family. 

Don't spend another day fighting fleas in your home. Contact Go-Forth Home Services today to get your free quote.