Fleas are Everywhere in North Georgia and Jasper!

Michael Stewart
Hello, everybody. It’s the Faith Pest Control podcast, your pest podcast in the North Georgia area that’s talking about Jasper, Georgia; Ellijay, Georgia: Blue Ridge, Georgia; and Ball Ground, Georgia. And I’ve got the pest expert for North Georgia. The wonderful The only the best. Here he is Fred Talley. Fred, I’m so glad to have you here. And we’re going to talk about fleas – fleas on your dog, fleas on your cat, or fleas in your house. What’s the problem? What should we be aware of? And what can we do about it. So today, we are going to talk about fleas, but there are going to be fleas in the house.

Fred Talley
Generally, you have fleas in the house, it’s because you have fleas on your pets. I don’t want to be overly boring about biology of the flea, but we do need to take a minute or two and talk about that so that you won’t become frustrated when it comes time for the treatment. Just because the pest control technician shows up and makes an application doesn’t mean you’ll never see a flea again from that infestation. The flea eggs are barely visible to the human eye. They’re generally laid on the host animal, whether it be human or animal or domestic animal. But they can also be laid by the adult which has probably at this point fallen off of the host and the eggs themselves don’t attached to the host so they will eventually fall off into the floor the carpet. Generally, if your pet gets up on furniture, they’re gonna fall off on the furniture, and then he jumps down. If your dog is anything like my dog, we have a specific chair for him to lay in. So if he jumps off of that chair onto the floor, there you’re going to have the largest concentration of adult fleas as well as eggs. Now, a female flea will lay eggs daily, until she has laid eggs to 200 to 400 eggs is about her limit. Then the development is temperature and humidity dependent. Under favorable conditions, most eggs will hatch within two or three days, the egg hatches into a larva which to us is barely barely perceptible by the human eye. And depending on the environmental conditions as well as the availability of food for the larva, they can mature in about a week or up to several months. The key word there is they can the they can exist in the larval stage for several months. The larva frequently will become entwined into the carpet fibers, dust, pet hair, and so that they they’ll basically be attached not by their own means but be attached to the carpet. So vacuuming will do little to get them out of the carpet and the material harbor will spin a cocoon. When the temperatures become favorable again, generally at around 70 degrees Fahrenheit, and then seven to 10 days the adult fleet develops inside the cocoon. The adult may not immediately emerge, but they can develop inside the cocoon. The adult fleas given the right conditions can emerge seven to 14 days after the cocoon is formed, but can remain in the cocoon for several months up to a year is another key point that cocoon the adults can remain in the cocoon for several months. Temperature and mechanical signals such as floor vibration, a pet, a pet’s paw stepping on that cocoon can trigger the adult to emerge. This is what I’ve all explained.

It explains if you’ve rented a vacation home or you’ve purchased a new home that previously had no problems that you’re aware of. You go in you start moving in your things; you turn the heat on. And these things can trigger the fleas, the adult fleas, to emerge. That all this is going to be critical in the treatment process, but obviously fleas will be mostly concentrated where your pet is, like I said in our house, we have a specific chair, our dog lays in and he jumps, he gets fleas and he jumps down, you’re going to have a higher concentration right in front of that chair where the where the pet jumps down. To get in the, I guess the meat and potatoes of all this way, fleas are by no means unusual, and they’re very controllable. But the control mechanism here is very dependent on the cooperation of the customer that the person that’s having the fleet problem.

First thing that needs to happen is that the the your pet needs to be treated for fleas. And just me personally, I’ll almost insist that they be treated by a veterinarian. I guess the reasons for that can go unsaid. Number two is that the customer needs to understand that the control of the pupae that are present at the time of the treatment is very difficult, and even under the best of circumstances is going to be incomplete. So you’re going to have some adult fleas emerge for a minimum of seven days and generally kind of go on for two or three weeks after the initial treatment. Number three is all unnecessary floor and upholstery clutter and debris needs to be removed before treating it. Fleas can be inside cardboard boxes. We’re treating the surface of the furniture and the surface of the floor. So our trading will have no effect on the fleas that are inside the box or inside discarded clothing that’s under the bed. So that stuff needs to be removed. All floor surfaces within the home, carpeted uncarpeted it really doesn’t matter and all the upholstery needs to be vacuumed prior to the initial treatment. Now I know this is a lot of work for the for the home owner. But if if the treatment is unsuccessful, it’s not only frustrating to you, it’s frustrating to the technician that did it because he has to come back and make another application. After you vacuum the initial time and you need to remove the if you have a bag vacuum cleaner, you need to remove the bag, put it tied up in a plastic garbage bag and get it out of the house preferably 50 feet or more from from the house. Then the technician can make the application. If the after the application. The customer needs to vacuum their floor at a minimum every other day. Because if you remember, a couple minutes ago, we talked about for several days you are going to have adult fleas emerge. Possibly up to two or three weeks, you’ll have adult fleas emerge. Now the insecticide used will have a residual effect, it can and will kill the adult fleas that emerge one day, but get in contact with it. They may not immediately get in contact with it. That’s the frustrating part for the customer. That’s why I’m telling you this so you kind of know what to expect. All to a step by mist is all pet bedding. You either need to clean it, like wash it real well or discard it, you know that that call would be made up to you. But again, some adult fleas may emerge up to two three weeks after the initial treatment. But they can be easily controlled by by vacuuming every other day. If you’re having a flea problem, call us at Faith Pest Control 770-823-9202 and asked to speak to me, Fred Talley. I’ll be more than happy to discuss your flea issues or any other pest issues you’d like to like to talk about. Thank you.

Mike Stewart
Well, Fred, that’s great information. I remember years ago when I had a dog. That poor little guy was just covered with fleas and we didn’t know what to do. And it was just, you know, they were all over the house and they weren’t Back in the 70s back when shag carpet was was around, and I’ll never forget we got a flea shampoo for that little guy. And when we put the flea shampoo I mean his eyeballs got covered with fleas just crawling out of that flea in the water was just filled with little black specks of dead so God knows how many was in the house and of course we were we were kids we didn’t know any better but you know Always remember that you know, I always felt sorry for that pet. So you want to take care of your pets and you definitely want to have a flea free a flea free home. So and Fred is the guy to make sure that happens for you if you’re in Jasper, Blue Ridge, or Ball Ground. So anyway, this has been the Faith Pest Control podcast, you can get us on Apple, you can get us in Google, you can get us in Spotify, and most recently you can get us in Amazon Music. Be sure to share this with others Listen, and we do this as a community service for everybody in North Georgia. Because Fred is the past expert and check him out at FaithPestControl.com I’m Mike Stewart, we’ll see you next time for another episode of the Faith Pest Control podcast.

Fleas are Everywhere in North Georgia and Jasper!