What To Watch Out For During Flea And Tick Season

Flea and Tick Prevention

Wisconsin lawns are great for entertaining in the summer, but lurking in the shadows is a hidden threat. Fleas and ticks are tiny, blood-sucking insects that can live in many places around your yard. They lie in wait until they can hitch a ride on your cat or dog and gain entry to your home. So before you let the pets and children play outdoors, make sure you understand the threat thatfleas and ticks can pose to your family.

Identifying Fleas And Ticks

Fleas and ticks are tiny creatures and hard to see unless you get one on you. Fleas are reddish-brown, wingless, with narrow bodies no bigger than 1/6 of an inch long. Fleas prefer the blood of your pets rather than humans. But fleas pose a much bigger risk when they get into your home than ticks do. Fleas in the home are not anything to shake a stick at. A female flea can lay up to fifty eggs a day for up to six months, which can land in your carpet and furniture upholstery. Fleas can cause allergies, tapeworms, and Murine Typhus.

The American dog tick, lone star tick, and deer tick are common species that feed on the blood of small mammals and livestock. These ticks are known to transmit Lyme disease, and Rocky Mountain spotted fever. Ticks can be brown, black, reddish-brown, or yellowish in color. Ticks are capable of biting in their larval, nymph, and adult stages. Ticks prefer the taste of deer and human blood.

The best way to avoid them is to stay away from the areas they live in. Fleas and ticks love wooded, brushy, or areas with tall grass. They also dwell in cool shady areas of your yard, such as under trees, bushes, decks, and porches.

How To Prevent Fleas And Ticks

You can utilize several methods to prevent fleas and ticks from causing you a headache this summer. All of them include ways to reduce flea and tick hiding spaces in your yard.

Set Your Mower To The Correct Height

Fleas and ticks like to hang out in tall grass. When you don’t mow your yard regularly, these lawn pests might think it’s an open pasture and a great place to wait for animals or humans to pass by. When you keep the grass short, it discourages fleas and ticks from putting down stakes and forces them to look elsewhere, hopefully outside of your yard.

Keep Trees And Shrubs Trimmed

Trees are usually the last place we think of harboring fleas and ticks, but they can, and when a tree grows too close to a house, insects and other pests can enter your home.

Trust The Professionals At Buzz Off Mosquito Solutions

You might not have control over biting insects in parks and other recreational areas but you do have control in your own yard. Before mosquitos start giving you and your family problems, call the experts at Buzz Off Mosquito Control Solutions. We have a variety of pest control services including mosquito, fly, and flea & tick control services. We offer our mosquito control service to both residential and commercial customers.

Give us a call at (715) 281-3289 or send us a short message here. Don’t forget to follow our monthly blog for the best mosquito control tips in Wisconsin.