Flea Control Services

Rafiki Pest Control LTD

What is the world's most faithful pest? A flea, that's right; once they like you, they will stick to you by all means. Did you also know that human fleas prefer to infest hairy spots like the head and underarms and find a host in the pubic area? Besides disturbing, it can get highly embarrassing when you get that intense, irresistible, and persistent itch in public. 

If you do not watch out, fleas will infest and cover your whole home, from bedding and furniture to even the smallest cracks on the floor. In this article, we will help you learn how to do a flea inspection and treatment, detect early signs of flea infestation, teach you how to avoid them and tell you why you must get professional help to exterminate flea infestation effectively. 

Interesting Flea Facts You Ought to Know First

• 2,500 plus Species of Flea: The world gives shelter to over 2,500 Flea species, including cat fleas, Dog fleas, Human fleas, Oriental Rat fleas, Snow fleas, and Hedgehog fleas, among others. 
• They Survive On Blood: Fleas consume a victim's blood for survival. If a flea attacks a human or a pet, it starts sucking on its blood in just five minutes and last for more than two hours. 
• Long Claws: Fleas possess surprisingly strong claws, and it will be hard to dislodge them once they attack you. 
• Rapid Multiplication: A female flea can lay thousands of eggs in her lifetime and 45 to 50 eggs daily. Sometimes, they lay these eggs on their hosts; if they are not eliminated effectively, the infestation can get out of control. 
• Extremely Skilled Adaption: Many newly hatched fleas can stay dormant inside pupae or cocoons when the conditions in your home are not favorable to them, only to come out young and hungry, ready to feast when the conditions get right.
• Serious Health Risk: They pose grave health risks to pets and the whole family. Besides severe allergies and serious skin irritation from itching, they also transmit dog tapeworms and serious disease-causing bacteria to pets and their owners. 

Signs of Flea Infestation

Fleas easily spread by hopping from one infested person to another or from an infested domestic animal to another. They are so small, and you can hardly notice them until the invasion grows too huge and is badly out of control. To inspect and detect an early risk of flea invasion, watch out for any of these signs:

• Notice your pets start to lose patches of fur for unexplained reasons
• Observe your pets well to see if they often scratch, bite, or lick their fur more than before
• Check out for pale gums on pets resulting from loss of blood
• Inspect pets for many reddish-brown and tiny pests on their fur.
• Inspect your floor carpet, mat, furniture, and bedding for live fleas
• A red and very itchy bump that grows bigger and worse with every scratch on your legs

Most Common Flea Hiding Spots

Fleas are perfect at lying low, and if you suspect their presence in your home, you must first inspect them in the prevalent flea hiding spots:

• Stuck in a pet's fur, especially in the tails of dogs and cats
• Bedding
• House Furniture
• Floor Carpets
• In the yard/compound around trees, shrubs, and vegetation
• Seat cushions and rugs

How to Inspect Your Premises for Flea Infestation?

No one likes the disgusting fleas, but they seem to like house pets a lot. While your beloved pets are out playing in the yard, they may be infested by fleas, and once they get back into your house, they quickly spread them together with their eggs everywhere in the house. To determine if these tiny, embarrassing insects are in your home, you must do a thorough inspection:

• Step 1. Keenly check your pets for live fleas throughout their fur. Comb through the coat with a clear comb and use a flashlight to check the comb for flea droppings, eggs, or the live flea itself. Be keen on the groin area, tail, leg folds, and neck.
• Step 2. Use a flashlight to inspect the whole house. Inspect the bedding, home furniture, carpet, and rags for signs of live fleas or dirt.
• Step 3. Take your time while carefully inspecting your yard/compound. Use a bright flashlight to check the areas near trees, vegetation, bushes, around patios, and places where leaf debris has gathered. 

Note: To be sure that the dirt you come across belongs to fleas, collect it and place it in a bowl of soapy water. If the dirt changes to red, it indeed belongs to fleas. 

How to Avoid Fleas?

A flea sucks on its victim's blood. They commonly find hosts in domestic animals, pets, and people. The typical and most straightforward way these annoying pests enter your home is through your pets. The preventive measures below will help you protect your pets and family from flea bites and flea-borne diseases. 

• Clean your pet often using shampoos meant for removing and killing fleas.
• Spray your carpet often with a concentrated flea spray. 
• Keep the grass, vegetation, and trees in your compound trimmed constantly.
• Often, spray your compound to stay safe and keep fleas far away.
• Wash your bed, clothing, and pets separately in hot water.
• Ensure a pest control expert controls flea infestations to ascertain they are effectively exterminated. 

DIY Flea Treatment

Controlling and exterminating fleas with home or OTC remedies can be very exasperating, demanding, and unsuccessful. You must first interrupt their life cycle to eliminate them permanently. They also possess unique adaptive measures and have armored bodies that make them hard to exterminate as they furrow and thrive deep into floor carpet, bed clothing, and fabric. 

While Professional Flea Control is the recommended method, we have provided you with carefully picked and helpful DIY measures.

• You must treat your pets like dogs and cats in your compound. Consider their age, species, and health (you might consider contacting your veterinarian) before treating them. Carefully read all the labeled instructions on the Flea Spray, Flea Drops, or Flea Bath. 
•  For a successful Flea Treatment, you must treat your house soon after the pets. Ensure to treat every infested area and the places your pets frequent. 
• Clean bedding and infested clothes in a washer with concentrated flea treatment; consider steaming and dumping old garments that can't be treated. 
• Vacuum and apply steam treatment on infested furniture.
• Use concentrated Flea Spray to treat the carpet and give it ample time to dry completely before re-using it. 
• Finally, you must consider outdoor places, including the yard. Concentrate on areas where your pets and stray animals prefer to spend time.

DIY Flea Extermination might take about five or more weeks to be effective, and it involves mixing different insecticides to achieve the desired results. 

Permanently Get Rid of Fleas in Just 2 Hours

Because of their unique life cycle that must be tampered with by a pest control expert, you cannot easily control fleas once they invade your house. Eggs laid on house pets can quickly spread everywhere in the house and compound as the pets scratch off that persistent and irritating itch. Fleas can soon result in a severe flea infestation that may run out of your control within very few days. 

The only effective method to permanently exterminate fleas is getting professional help. Our licensed pest control experts are professionally trained in flea pests' secret and adaption ways. They know all the professional tricks of effectively exterminating them at every stage of their life cycle. 

Upon your request, they will visit your premises and perform a keen inspection to determine the exact type of flea infestation. They will then apply the best veterinarian-approved treatment on your infested pets and treat your whole premises to ascertain no chances of future flea re-infestation.