Fleas are a common concern for pet owners everywhere. These bloodsucking pests will often live in the fur of dogs and cats where they continuously bite and consume blood from the animal. Meanwhile, fleas can also live in carpets and furniture for short times. Yet it is not only homes with pets that can experience challenges with fleas.

Flea control is important even in homes that do not have cats or dogs present, or at homes that have cats exclusively living indoors. While you do not have to worry about the risks of flea bites to your pets, fleas can still bite humans and have an extensive health impact.

Risks of Fleas in Your Home

Fleas travel by hitchhiking on their food source. This is why they are a specific concern in homes with cats or dogs. A flea can jump onto the housepet out in the yard and burrow in the fur. When the pet comes back inside, the fleas come too. For the most part, the fleas will stay on the animal as it is their primary food source, but they can jump off onto furniture or people as well.

But you do not need to have a cat or dog to get fleas. Fleas will feed on the blood of many mammals, including rats, mice, squirrels, and other wildlife pests that can infest your home. Like housepets, the fleas will often live on their host. If the animal dies, however, those fleas will seek out a new host and people living in your home become a target.

Flea bites on people are not as common as on animals, yet they can be extremely dangerous. A flea bite results in itchy and often painful bumps that can last for several days. Depending on the species of flea, there is also the potential to spread:

• Infection
• Plague
• Typhus
• Cat Scratch Disease
• Tapeworm

Fleas are seasonal pests, with their peak season ranging from spring to the end of summer. The most effective way to prevent them is with ongoing pest control that comes to your home bi-monthly and applies treatments to eliminate fleas out in your yard, reducing the chances that any host animal can bring them inside. For preventative flea control in Gainesville, VA, and the rest of the surrounding region, contact us today.