Preparing Your Plano, TX Home For Fleas & Ticks This Fall

Fleas and ticks are more than a nuisance; they are dangerous to humans and animals alike. Although fleas and ticks are associated with deep woods, they thrive in urban areas like Plano, too. 

What Is Peak Flea And Tick Time In Plano?

Fleas are active year-round. Since they live on a nice warm mammal, they don’t have the problem with the cold that many pests do. Ticks are active during warm weather but do go dormant in the winter. Both of them are active during the last of summer and into early fall. Because human activity outdoors in woods or meadows increases in early fall, it is prime time for flea and tick-borne illnesses.

Harm From Fleas And Ticks

Fleas and ticks carry diseases and can make a pet sick because the pet becomes anemic. Americans spend billions of dollars a year controlling fleas and even more managing ticks and tick-borne illnesses. Flea bites hurt and itch and can make a pet or person miserable. Tick bites do not usually hurt but can make a person very sick with several diseases.

Fleas can carry bubonic plague, murine typhus, tularemia, bartonellosis, and tapeworm. Tick diseases tend to vary by species: 

• The black-legged tick can carry Lyme disease, anaplasmosis B. miyamotoi disease (a form of relapsing fever), ehrlichiosis, babesiosis, and Powassan virus. 
• The Lone Star tick carries ehrlichiosis, tularemia, Heartland virus, Bourbon virus, and southern tick-associated rash illness (STARI). 
• The American dog tick carries tularemia, and Rocky Mountain spotted fever.

Preventing Fleas And Ticks

Fleas and ticks can get on pets and people in your own yard, as well as hitchhiking on you and your pets while you're on walks in fields or wooded areas. To prevent them from latching onto your pets, use one of the many fleas and tick preventive pills or topical solutions available from your veterinarian. To avoid getting them yourself, wear high socks and long pants, use a repellent containing DEET or permethrin, and check for ticks on you and your pet when you enter the house. To keep ticks out of your yard, try these tips: 

• Keep grass mown. 
• Clear brush and tall grass in the yard. 
• Remove leaf litter and other debris. 
• Move firewood away from the house and onto an elevated rack. 
• Keep children’s play areas mowed and away from trees and brush. 
• Put three feet of wood chips between lawn and wooded areas. 
• Build a fence to keep out wildlife that may carry ticks. 

To prevent fleas, try these tips in addition to the above: 

• Wash pet bedding weekly. 
• Vacuum pet areas weekly and empty the vacuum canister or bag into an outside trash can. 
• Bathe pets regularly. 
• Use a flea comb on pets when they have been outside the yard. 

Are DIY Treatments For Fleas & Ticks Effective?

Ticks rarely infest a house, usually choosing instead to stay in the yard. Fleas, however, can take over your house. A flea infestation is a daunting thing. Not only does the house need to be treated, but your pets need to be treated at the same time, with the treatment usually needing to be repeated in ten days to catch newly hatched larvae and new adults. You may be tempted to use a DIY bug bomb to treat the problem, but not only are they ineffective, but they can cause far more problems than they solve. They rarely help with fleas and contaminate the area with potentially toxic pesticides. In fact, it is best to consult a professional who can treat the yard and house at the same time while you board the pets for the day with someone who can treat them for fleas, too.

Get Professional Help

Adams Exterminating Company can eliminate fleas and ticks in your yard. When you call us, we will schedule a no-obligation estimate to eliminate the fleas and ticks you are having problems with. We will inspect the house and yard and come up with a personal home pest control plan for your property. The initial treatment will address the issue both indoors and outside, and after that, we will come out and renew the exterior treatment every other month. Call Adams Exterminating Company today to get rid of those dangerous ticks and fleas.