Why Should I Control Dog Fleas?
Dog fleas (Ctenocephalides canis) are among the most abundant species of flea in the UK, second only to the cat flea, and like the cat flea, the bite of this flea is the very least of your worries.
Fleas might simply feed on your blood, but the reaction some of us have to the substances in the flea's saliva often cause us to scratch the bite site (pruritus), causing the skin to scab over, and infected skin lesions to form and permanent scarring as a direct consequence.
In some circumstances, large infestations can remove so much of the hosts' blood that the problem can even lead to clinically significant anaemia, although fortunately, this is rare.
Dog Flea Transmitted Disease
So this all makes sense so far but what happens if you swallow a flea? Probably nothing - but suppose you are a child and your digestive system is not so robust as a healthy adult - guess what's coming in with the infected flea? You likely thought disease, but it's the developing stages of an 18inch long tapeworm called a cucumber worm (Dipylidium caninum).
Freaked out yet? You should be! Fleas have some amazing traits but they always come with a warning, because it's often the children or other vulnerable people in your home that are at the greatest risk from flea-borne parasitic, viral and bacterial infection.
Infection is not common, but becomes more likely in premises where fleas are only partially controlled if at all.
Partial control is a very common problem. Doing a little every so often, can profoundly surpass the costs of a professional treatment. As professionals we use the very best approaches with the very safest, advanced control methodology.
Pest Control Treatments For Dog Fleas
Large Dog Flea infestations quickly develop while your home is empty and we get called to customers every year who have returned home after a trip to become covered in pepper from the carpet or in other words hundreds of fleas all emerging from the floors etc simultaneously.
The flea's astonishing ability to jump 100 times its height allows it to quickly make it onto a passing host (you or your pet dog). What's interesting is they only jump when it's light. What you will see when they get onto you is they quickly crawl up your legs and get under your clothing to feed.
Dog Fleas In Your Car
If you have a car, then the fleas can infest your car and being in a confined space with fleas means you will wake the next day to find dozens of flea bites on your legs. You can't see the fleas feeding on you when you are driving!
What Pest Control Treatments Can Be Used?
You can waste hundreds of pounds on ineffective amateur treatments, or you can bring in experts like us and do it properly ONCE!
Fumigation or ULV treatment offers a very quick knockdown of adult fleas, but provides virtually no residual control, so you pay to "control fleas in the moment" and nothing more. This is because fumigation does little to disrupt the fleas life-cycle.
What is good is that it penetrates most of the nooks and crannies that are commonly found in homes and will get into all the hard to reach areas in cluttered rooms.
Residual spray - this kills some fleas quickly but can't be used on delicate materials especially those that will be damaged by water. The spray should contain a residual insecticide that will provide killing power for months and should also contain an IGR (Insect Growth Regulator) to break the flea lifecycle.
In short - if you use one method it is a toss-up between temporary relief or prolonged suffering for about four weeks. But if you want it sorted fast then you need to employ the combined power of both.
The products you can buy in the shops can have some effect but in general are a sorry match for the for large infestations that are only quickly taken care of by integrated methods that include both fumigation and residual sprays.
