How To Tell If Your Long Island Home Has A Flea Infestation

If you are a new pet owner, or new to having a flea problem, you may have trouble telling whether or not you have a flea infestation in your Long Island home. Today, we'll look at how to identify fleas and how to tell if you have fleas in your home or some other pest. Once we cover the basics of flea identification and detection, we'll explore the reasons why fleas get into homes and, more importantly, how to get rid of fleas. Here you will find all the necessary information to diagnose a flea problem and learn how to apply steps to deal with fleas. If you want to speak to someone with training and experience in dealing with fleas, remember that we're only a few clicks or a phone call away. A&M Quality Pest Control provides industry-leading pest control in Long Island. We have the answers you're looking for. 

Is This A Flea?

There are many insects that can come into your Long Island home. If you're unfamiliar with fleas, you may wonder if an insect in your home is a flea, or you may wonder if you've found a flea on your pet. Here are a few tips to help you diagnose your pest problem.

• A flea is not much more than a speck. At full size, it is about ? of an inch in length, though some species are significantly smaller. They're so small that some residents that are familiar with fleas mistake tiny flea species as baby fleas. But baby fleas are not fleas at all; they're wiggly worms. It is only after the pupae stage that they turn into six-legged insects.
• If it jumps, it is a flea, right? Not necessarily. You could have a springtail problem. Springtails are moisture pests that spring into the air like fleas. They also look similar. The primary difference is that fleas are dark brown and springtails are multicolored. You may also tell the difference in that springtails don't survive long indoors and they won't infest your living room furniture like fleas do. You also won't find springtails leaping up to attach to the skin of your lower legs, ankles, and feet. 

It is helpful to know what a flea looks like, but it is not essential in diagnosing whether or not you have a flea infestation. There are many ways to tell that you have a flea problem. Some are subtle. Others are obvious. 

How To Tell If You're Dealing With A Flea Infestation In Your Home

Fleas bite. That is an easy way to tell that you have fleas in your home, right? Unfortunately, other pests bite too. So how can you tell that fleas are the pests biting you?

• Flea bites tend to appear on lower legs, ankles, and feet.

• Flea bites appear on the back or sides when fleas have infested a couch. Keep this in mind.

• Flea bites are irritating, so they will likely have scabs due to constant itching.

• Flea bites look much different than bed bug bites. If you have bed bugs, the bites will look like they follow a path across your body, and they will appear near your head. Bed bugs are attracted to carbon dioxide.

Flea bites aren't the only way to detect a flea infestation. Here are a few more helpful ways to tell that you have a flea control problem.

• You may find fleas on your cat or dog. As you inspect with a flea comb, the fleas will appear for a moment and then disappear into the hair or fur. While incredibly small, they are visible, particularly on a pet with white coloration.

• You may find flea dirt, which is the feces of adult fleas. It will look like tiny black flecks.

• You may actually see fleas springing about inside your home. They may leap up from a carpeted floor, and also from smooth tiled floors in your bathroom. They are easier to see when they spring up from a light-colored bathroom tile.

• You trap fleas to detect them in your home. We provide a helpful tip for trapping fleas in the next section under home remedies. Flea traps are helpful when you have a mysterious infestation.

Whether you see fleas or you don't see them, take steps to address your infestation. Wash your pet's bedding in hot soapy water. Wash your linens and bedspreads. Put your pet's bed or blankets in the dryer for thirty minutes. High heat eliminates fleas in all stages of development. Vacuum your floor regularly until your flea infestation is corrected. Consider visiting your veterinarian and learning about strategies and products used to correct flea infestations. If you continue to have an issue, or you'd like to avoid all of the hard work of dealing with flea control, remember that A&M Quality Pest Control can address your infestation for you.    

Why Won't These Fleas Go Away?

There are many reasons why fleas won't go away. Some have to do with fleas, and others do not. It is helpful to understand the building blocks of a flea infestation because you may alter the conditions that have led to your infestation and stop those fleas.  

• Fleas are robust pests that can survive indoors. Some pests can't live in your home because they can't find a suitable food source. Fleas eat blood. While they prefer dog and cat blood, they can bite humans if needed. 
• Home remedies are rarely a remedy. The internet is filled with bad advice regarding fleas. We could give a long list of examples, but one that clearly demonstrates the issue is the use of lamps, plates, dish soap, and water. The idea is that fleas are attracted to heat and will leap toward the light bulbs in the lamps (desk lamps work best). When they fall, they land in a soapy water solution in a plate underneath the light bulb. Does this work? Yup. You'll have lots of fleas land in your solution. The problem isn't that it doesn't work. The problem is that it doesn't stop an infestation. The fleas in your home will easily reproduce faster than your traps will eliminate them. Ideas like this can help you monitor flea activity, but don't trust them to arrest an infestation. 
• Fleas are complicated pests that can outsmart you. You can go to your veterinarian and find out what products work to control fleas and still not successfully control a flea infestation. These products can fail for a myriad of reasons.
• Fleas can keep coming in as you work hard to eliminate them. If you don't address the fleas outside of your home, they could keep coming in. One common way fleas get in is by hitching rides on rodents. If you don't address rodent problems, you can keep having flea problems.
• Fleas can come into your home in unexpected ways. Some flea infestations begin with an infested couch, living room chair, cat tower, or cat bed. 

In many cases, fleas are pests you can deal with by using control products suggested by your veterinarian. But some infestations are harder to address than others, and there is a concern for flea diseases that you should consider. When fleas make people sick, folks often don't realize that fleas are to blame. For example, one Ohio woman found out the hard way that fleas can cause unexpected medical symptoms. She woke up blind in one eye and didn't realize the saliva from her cat's kisses spread cat scratch disease from infected fleas on her kitty. A licensed professional is trained to select appropriate products and apply them effectively.     

The Pros To Call For Easy And Effective Flea Control On Long Island

Why is the A&M Quality Pest Control team the right choice for fleas? Because we offer a comprehensive and long-lasting solution. If you're currently dealing with fleas in your Long Island home, we can apply a residual treatment. The materials stay in place long enough to address fleas that are hiding safely inside their eggs, which is important because control materials used to address fleas are not potent enough to harm fleas that have not yet hatched. The mild materials we use are only strong enough to address these simple organisms once they emerge as tiny insects in your home. After dealing with an indoor infestation, or long before an infestation takes root, we can provide exterior treatments that deal with adult fleas that emerge from their eggs in your yard. The result is that your dog or cat can go outside with confidence, and you don't have to worry as much about using a flea comb to continually check them. Routine treatments are the best solution for fleas, ticks, and mosquitoes, and the material we use addresses all of these harmful pests. Would you like to get started with an ongoing residential pest control service plan that includes coverage for harmful, biting pests like these? Contact us today and speak with one of our helpful service people. We look forward to helping you find the perfect fit for your family and your home.     

Customer Review

Great service and very affordable. Will definitely be using them again in the future!