Flea Control in the North West
I offer a flea control service throughout Lancashire and the Northwest. Covering Preston, Bolton, Bury, Wigan and everywhere in-between. I offer a full flea control program from initial survey to find out the true extent of your flea problem to spraying and advice on how to stop re-infestation.
Common Flea Species
Its said that there are nearly 2000 known species of fleas but for the purpose of pest control in our area the species that we need concern ourselves with are normally the dog flea ‘Ctenocephalides canis‘ and the cat flea ‘Ctenocephalides felis‘ though during the course of my work as a pest controller I have also come across bat fleas, bird fleas and on one occasion fox fleas.
Flea Food
Each of these fleas are species specific meaning they will only thrive on their host species, the problems arise when the flea infests human homes. Though they wont thrive on humans themselves they can still bite and feed off human blood and make our homes their breeding ground.
Flea Lifecycle
Because of the complex life cycle of the flea, control is not just a case of spraying and hoping you have killed the fleas, the pest controllers job is also part detective as he must identify the type of flea which will hopefully lead him on to the true source of infestation. So fleas biting a customer during the night may be linked to birds gaining access to the loft space and using it as a roosting/nesting site. During one visit to a pest control call-out in Bolton a colleague of mine was faced with a flea infestation that a number of other pest controllers had failed to cure. My colleague knew that the area of Bolton he was in had a number of large old houses covered in ivy and surrounded with large tree so using his experience he at once checked the loft for birds, finding a large roost of starlings. So as well as treating the fleas he was also able to give advice on bird proofing the loft so as to break the re-infestation cycle.
When flea numbers reach a certain level then it is thought upto 95% of the flea population is to be found in the form of eggs and larvae. These are often to be found deep inside the carpet base or hidden away in cracks or skirting boards where there is very low light levels. The eggs will take as long as two weeks to become adult fleas so a simple spray bought over the counter is not going to stop the cycle of re-infestation. I often find customers have spent a massive amount of money on DIY sprays, flea bombs and powders, all these will do, at best, is reduce the amount of adult fleas you see. Within a day another lot of adult fleas have developed and you are back to square one.
When I treat your home for fleas, be they cat fleas or dog fleas I will use a long acting residual insecticide that is most suitable for the property, I will often also use an Insect Growth Regulator. This is either mixed into the insecticide or sometimes sprayed from a separate pressure sprayer. The aim of this is to effect the growth of the flea larvae and to interrupt the breeding cycle of the flea.
IAN SMITH 07821 318954
