Flea Control: Here’s What You Need to Know

Has your pet been scratching incessantly lately? If it's not caused by ticks or dry skin, it could be fleas! Even if you have found that your pet does have fleas and have treated them, the problem may persist because the fleas still have a proximal advantage to your home. And remember, fleas can live on your blood, too, not just your pets. This can mean your "minor" flea issue could be much worse than you realize! So, this week, A B Pest Control is sharing with you some information about what is entailed in treating flea infestations.

Where are these Fleas Coming From?
Flea infestations often come from pets bringing them in from outdoors. The pests attach to your pet when its outside, and then infests its fur and the places it sleeps indoors. Other animals such as rodents, raccoons, or feral cats venturing into your yard may be the culprits bringing these pesky pests into your yard. So, the most effective ways to keep fleas from getting inside the home is to eliminate outdoor flea habitats and outdoor hosts. While you can't always prevent these animals from entering your turf, you can be proactive by treating your lawn and pets with flea control products. However, in order to effectively treat for fleas, you'll first need to understand their life-cycle. Let's take a look.

Understanding the Flea's Life-Cycle
There are four stages in the life cycle of a flea: egg, larva, pupa, and adult. Depending on the environmental temperature and humidity levels, the total life cycle will take anywhere from a couple weeks to several months, or even years.

1. A single adult female can lay about 40 eggs every day. Eggs take anywhere from two days to two weeks to develop, hatching when environmental conditions are just right for them. Larvae then emerges as the next life stage. 
2. If conditions are favorable, the larvae will spin cocoons in about 5-20 days of hatching from their eggs. This leads to the next life stage, called the cocoon or pupae stage. 
3. This cocoon stage is the last developmental stage before the adult flea emerges. The cocoon protects the pupae for several days or weeks before the adult flea emerges. If environmental conditions are not right for emergence, the cocoon can protect the developing flea for months, and in some cases, years. 
4. The adult flea will not emerge until the presence of a potential host is made obvious - by vibrations, rising levels of carbon dioxide, and body heat. This can be caused by your pet walking by and brushing against the cocoon, or even from you moving around your home.

Unfortunately, this life-cycle means that getting rid of fleas can require more than one treatment to effectively eliminate the problem once an infestation has occurred.

Flea Control Services
Flea prevention for both the home and yard can be difficult, and eliminating them once an infestation occurs is even harder. Without a proactive approach, any homeowner is vulnerable to an infestation. But don't worry, you don't have to face this battle on your own. If you do experience a flea infestation, call on the Lake of the Ozarks pest control company to send those fleas packing. We can help you be victorious in eliminating and preventing those pesky pests in the future!

LAKE OF THE OZARKS
PEST CONTROL COMPANY

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Fun Facts About Fireflies!

Whether you call these little glowing insects lightning bugs or fireflies, it’s hard to deny that there’s a sense of magic when they light up a summer sky. With this magic, comes some mystery. What makes them glow and how do they benefit the environment? A B Pest Control & Insulation has the inside scoop on what makes these bioluminescent bugs so special. Read on to find out more. 

 

What Are They Really?  

Despite their name, fireflies are not actually flies. They are instead a type of beetle. These lengthy bugs typically have colors of black, yellow, red and orange along their bodies and their heads are so small that they can rarely be seen from above. Their eggs are hatched within the soil of the Earth, where they also hibernate during the wintertime.  

Their Glow

Lightning bugs are easily identified by the light that they produce at the end of their abdomens. According to the Mother Nature Network, the light that they produce are the most efficient, especially when you compare this light to human-made light. Close to 100% of the energy produced during a lightning bug’s chemical reaction is turned into light. In comparison, only 10% of a light bulb’s energy is actually emitted as light, and the other 90% is lost as heat. Their light isn't just efficient though, it is also said that their glow helps fend away predators by telling them that they aren't tasty to eat.

Lightning bugs use their glows to attract a mate. According to the University of Minnesota, there are over 200 species of lightning bugs and each species has a particular flash pattern. Males use their patterns to attract females of the same species. Males that glow more often than others and have a higher light intensity are more likely to attract more females. Fun fact: some species sync their patterns up while in groups to gain the attention of females.  

Their Benefit to the Environment 

While lightning bugs are pretty to look at, are they doing anything to benefit the environment? They definitely don’t hurt the environment: they don’t bite, pinch, attack, carry diseases or poison. But due to their diets of common crop and garden pests, they are also helping the environment by keeping harmful pests away from gardens and fields. So, not only are they pretty to look at, they also aid the growing process of produce and crops. 

Where Are They Going? 

Hopefully we’ve gotten you all fired up about fireflies/lightning bugs. If you want to observe their beauty, but are having a hard time finding some in your backyard, there’s a reason why. Sadly, the lightning bug population has been declining due to light pollution and the expansion of urban areas which is destroying their natural habitats. In addition, some researchers are harvesting these glowing insects for medical research.  

Fireflies Helped in Medical Research for Decades 

While this may sound a little crazy, for decades researchers have paid people to catch fireflies for use in medical research to study diseases such as cancer, multiple sclerosis and heart disease. They've also been used to test the bacterial content in water and milk. From 1960 through the mid 1990s, the Missouri-based Sigma Firefly Scientists Club paid a penny for each firefly it received.

 

Give Us a Call! 

We hope that next time you see a lightning bug, you’ll stop to think about what magnificent critters these insects are. Even though A B Pest Control & Insulation is in fact, a pest control company and most people associate that with getting rid of pests, we value the benefits that many pests offer to the environment. However, the next time you’re dealing with destructive pests, call up the best pest control service at the Lake of the Ozarks to take care of your pesky pest problems. 

LAKE OF THE OZARKS
PEST CONTROL COMPANY

Visit Our Website:
www.abpest.net

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