Fleas and ticks have gotten worse year after year. Unfortunately, due to their small size, you may not realize you have a problem until you, your family, or your pets have been bitten. Here’s how you can protect your yard with flea and tick control techniques.
Flea And Tick Control For Your Yard
While fleas and ticks get lumped together as bloodsuckers, it’s important to note that they are not the same. Here’s how to tell the difference.
What Do Fleas Look Like
Fleas are smaller than ticks and reddish-brown in color. They have shiny exoskeletons and are only about 2.5 mm in length, making them hard to find. While they can live on your pet, they don’t live on humans, but they certainly can bite us. They can’t fly, but they make up for it in spades by being expert jumpers. They have been known to jump as high as eight inches in the air. This may not sound like much, but proportionally, that’s 150x the height of their body. Generally, fleas get into our homes when they hitchhike on our pets who carry them in without realizing it. They will quickly infest areas where your dog or cat sleeps. Their bites leave behind red, swollen, itchy bumps. In severe cases, they can actually cause an allergic reaction and spread diseases like tapeworm. Some pets are extremely sensitive to the bites of fleas and can actually develop a type of dermatitis from it.
What Do Ticks Look Like
Ticks are not the athletes that fleas are. Instead, they’ll hide in places like tall grass where they can cling to the ends of the plants, waiting for an animal or human to brush against them. When this happens, they will detach from the plant and latch onto the victim. While fleas don’t live on humans, ticks most certainly do. Their coloring can be brown, red-brown, yellow, or black. If engorged with blood, they can appear larger.
Why Get Flea And Tick Control For Your Yard
Aside from the immediate itchy bite marks, these bugs can spread diseases to both humans and animals. Lyme disease, Rocky Mountain spotted fever, and tapeworm, are just a few. Some people can even develop allergies to eating red meat after being bitten by ticks. It’s a rare condition called alpha-gal syndrome. The most effective means of preventing pest infestations is requesting a flea and tick control service from Papa Turf. This will get to the heart of the matter by killing the bugs at all stages of their life cycles. There are other practices you can follow to discourage future infestations.
Don’t Let Grass Go Unmowed
Fleas and ticks needed shady places to hide during the heat of the day. If you let your grass get more than three inches high, they might choose their lawn to have a siesta. So make sure to mow regularly.
Don’t Give Them Resources
Tall grass provides shelter. Overwatering gives them hydration. By overwatering your lawn or flower beds, you’re giving pests a source of fresh water – and you’re not doing your plants any favors either! Excess moisture leads to mold, mildew, fungus, and other diseases that could affect the health of your plants. Another place they can find moisture and refuge: dead yard waste. If you allow grass clippings, dead leaves, or a pile of twigs to sit for a while, fleas and ticks could move in. If you elect to have a flea and tick control spray, you won’t have to use bug spray to protect yourself in your own backyard. You should absolutely still use it when going into wooded areas, however.
Keep A Flea Comb Handy
One of the easiest ways to stop fleas and ticks is to brush your pets with a flea comb after they come inside. It will remove any eggs, adults, or flea dirt – the polite word for flea poop.
Build A Fence Or Wall
If you happen to live near a wooden or low-lying area, consider having a privacy fence or retaining wall installed around your property. This can add value to your home, and it will help keep pests out by creating a physical barrier around the place.
Don’t Place Hardscaping Near Wooden Areas
If you’re thinking of building a gazebo, patio, deck, treehouse, playscape, or other hardscape feature, consider having it closer to your home or the center of your property. If it’s too near a wooded or wild area, fleas and ticks can use it for their shelter.
Get Pest Control Near Atlanta
Your yard should be a place of refuge from the hustle and bustle of everyday life, a place to make memories with your family. Don’t live your life in fear of flea or ticks harming your family. Enlist the help of the experts at Papa Turf! We are a pest control company with over 30 years of experience. Our flea and tick control program is fast-acting and will eradicate fleas and ticks no matter which part of their life cycle they’re in. So take back your yard today! Call 770-389-0884 or leave us a message to learn more about how we can rescue your yard.
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