We have arrived at the end of our three-part flea series. If you missed the first two articles about what you need to do before a flea treatment and what will be going on during a flea treatment, you can visit those posts to get the full story. Let us now discuss what you need to do after a flea treatment to ensure that the family of fleas is fully eradicated and does not re-infest your home.

You might remember from our previous discussions about flea biology that young fleas can be very difficult to eliminate. Insect eggs are so tiny, but they’re surprisingly durable. It’s very difficult to get a pest control product through the walls of an egg. Additionally, flea pupae are like little fortresses. All told, there are two phases of the flea life cycle that are quite a challenge to eliminate. This means that we have to get clever and turn their habits against them to fully stop a flea infestation.

Do you remember that flea pupae are motion-activated? The fleas inside their cocoons will wait to emerge until they feel vibrations nearby. Since most of the fleas hatched and grew up in a sunning spot that is much-frequented by your cat Whiskers, the fleas assume that the vibration is Whiskers returning to lie down. They quickly emerge so that they can have immediate access to a host. Luckily for us, vacuums provide all of the vibration needed to stimulate the waiting pupae. The vacuum tricks the fleas into emerging at the wrong time. They are then exposed to the product that the technician used to treat the carpet, and they are also at risk of being sucked into the vacuum.

Because the adult fleas were probably laying eggs for several days, you’ll need to vacuum every day for at least two weeks to ensure that you stimulate all of the pupae as soon as they develop. You must also empty the vacuum cleaner in an outside trashcan every day. As we’ve said before, vacuum suction does not kill most pests; it is simply a way to gather many of them together and move them outside.

If you vacuum every day for at least two weeks, you should be happily rid of your flea problem in no time at all. This is another example of how pest control is always a joint effort between an experienced technician and a willing homeowner. A professional flea treatment is much less effective without the daily vacuuming by the homeowner.

Thanks for joining us as we’ve walked through the process of keeping Whiskers and your home flea-free.

In our last post, we discussed what you need to do to prep for a flea treatment before the technician arrives. Now let’s discuss what will be happening during the treatment.

First, let’s cover your job during this time. You remember how we said that you should reward yourself with a smoothie after all of your hard work? You should enjoy some downtime since you need to be out of the house for four hours. Well, on your way to your favorite smoothie joint, you should drop Whiskers off at the pet groomer. It is imperative that you have your pet treated for fleas before reintroducing him into your treated home. Unfortunately, popping on a flea collar won’t cover it. When pets are not properly treated for fleas, the flea treatment on the home is largely negated. Make sure that Whiskers is squeaky clean before bringing him back in the house.

You may remember from our previous post about flea biology that the fleas’ life cycle can make controlling them a challenge, particularly their pupae, which are highly-resistant to pest control products. In fact, they have some instincts that would be really cool if they weren’t so annoying. So, while Whiskers is reveling is his bath, our technician is at the house, executing a multi-tiered approach to flea control. Of course, specific treatment plans vary, depending on each customer’s circumstances, but our main plan is to treat carpeted areas and any necessary furniture with two types of products. The first product is designed to knock down the adult population quickly to interrupt the breeding cycle. The second is intended to keep the larvae and pupae from developing correctly. This means that they won’t be able to make successful transitions into adulthood, which again interrupts the breeding cycle. For this, we often use products called IGRs (Insect Growth Regulators). These are specifically designed to affect insect growth (often in the way they shed their skins), which means that they do not negatively affect humans, dogs, and cats. This is a great tool in a pest professional’s arsenal.

Now, you may be wondering why you need to be out of the house for four hours since that’s not typical during a regular pest control treatment. Of course, anyone can have an allergy to some ingredients, so it can be wise to keep everyone away since we often have to treat large areas at a time. However, we mostly recommend that four-hour time block because the products we use are slick. If you get them on your socks from the carpet and then walk to the hardwood, you could slip, and we don’t want that to happen. So don’t worry; we’re not bombing your house with pesticides.

Next time, we’ll discuss what you need to do after the flea treatment is complete and wind this series down. As always, you can contact us if you want more information!

Since we’re on the subject of blood-sucking pests, we might as well cover the other creature that you’re likely to encounter if your indoor/outdoor cat named Whiskers starts to have some unexpected hygiene problems. This will be the first installment of a three-part series about fleas. Fleas are tricky in a way that many other pests are not, and they often get out of hand with unexpected speed. Because of this, homeowners need to be very involved in the process of eliminating fleas, so we divide our flea treatment plan into three sections: before the treatment, during the treatment, and after the treatment.

Let’s take a look at that first section today. You’ll probably first notice that you have a flea problem because you might see little blackish specks jumping around on your furniture or on the carpet. Even adult fleas are tiny compared to many pests (this helps them move quickly within a forest of pet hairs), and it may take time to realize that they are around in numbers. Once you’ve confirmed that you have a flea problem it’s best to act quickly before they have a chance to get settled into a breeding cycle.

Once you’ve called to set up a flea treatment, you should begin a cleaning frenzy. Just before the appointment, get everything off the floors that you don’t want treated. This includes your children’s toys, the shoes in the bottom of your closet, and the stack of books by the desk. In many cases, the technician will be treating large portions of the floor and sometimes the furniture as well if Whiskers is a couch potato and has set up a flea colony there. You need to be sure that anything you don’t want treated is well out of the way so that the technician can do his or her job efficiently and effectively.

After all the small items are off the floor, get Whiskers out of the house and put all pet bedding in the washing machine. You may not know this, but your regular house dryer is strong enough to kill many pest eggs (including bed bugs), so a thorough run through the washer and dryer will do wonders for any flea problems in the pet bedding.

While the laundry is running, grab the vacuum and sweep all of the carpet in the entire house, including bedroom and linen closets and any upholstery furniture that Whiskers has been on. Now, here’s the important part. You must remove the vacuum bag from the house or empty the canister in an outside trashcan when you’re done sweeping. Getting sucked up into the vacuum does not kill most pests, and if you just put the vacuum back into the closet without emptying it, the fleas will walk right back out and re-infest the house. The vacuuming should be completed very shortly before the technician arrives (for reasons that we’ll discuss in the next post).

The prep work is almost done! Your remaining tasks include making sure that the lawn is mowed as short as possible since fleas hide in tall grass and the technician will treat around the outside of the house to keep fleas from setting up shop in the grass by the walls. Shut off the fish tank, and have a plan ready so that you, your family, and all of your pets (except the fish) can be out of the house for about four hours after the treatment.

Congratulations, you have finished the preparation for your flea treatment. Go reward yourself with a smoothie while the technician gets down to business at the house. In our next post, we’ll discuss the technician’s treatments along with some flea biology. Later, we’ll cover how you should follow-up after a flea treatment to be sure you don’t end up having another invasion from the same family of fleas.