Flea And Tick Identification & Prevention

Fleas and ticks are not related to each other. They don't even look the same. The former is an insect, while the latter is an arachnid. Fleas are agile and athletic, while ticks can barely crawl. Fleas only feed on you for a quick minute, while ticks have to be embedded for days to get a full meal.

The one thing these two very different pests have in common is that they are both external parasites. They both feed on your blood, and they both do so by biting you. So even though they're very different pests, they are after the same thing.

Here is a brief description of the fleas and ticks in our area to help you identify them:

• Fleas: These tiny parasitic pests are typically a reddish-brown color with flat bodies and long hind legs.
• American dog ticks: The largest tick species on this list, American dog ticks are brown, oval-shaped arachnids that can be identified by the white or gray markings on their bodies. These ticks measure 3/16 of an inch before eating or 5/8 of an inch after feeding.
• Brown dog ticks: Before feeding, these ticks are reddish-brown with flat, oval-shaped bodies. After consuming a blood meal, their bodies become round and turn more of a grayish-blue color.
• Western black-legged ticks: Also called deer ticks, these ticks are about 1/8 of an inch long with flat orangish-brown bodies and dark legs. This tick species is commonly associated with Lyme disease.

If you think you're dealing with any of these biting insects on your property, reach out to Bell Pest Control right away for assistance with pest control in Elk Grove.

In this day and age, fleas don't spread the sorts of deadly diseases they used to before the industrial revolution. However, you can rarely get serious infections like murine typhus, tularemia, or bartonellosis from flea bites. Both humans and pets can also have flea allergies, though these typically cause more discomfort than actual peril.

Ticks, on the other hand, are considered very dangerous. This is because they spread a myriad of serious illnesses, including:

• Lyme disease
• Rocky Mountain spotted fever 
• Babesiosis
• Anaplasmosis
• Powassan virus

Some of these illnesses can lead to permanent nervous system and cardiovascular damage, so it's vital to protect yourself from tick bites.

Most of the time, Elk Grove residents wind up with a flea or tick problem because these parasites are being brought onto their property by their pets, a wildlife infestation, or even them or their family members. Even if you don't have pets and don't spend much time in the wilderness, you're still vulnerable to flea and tick infestations when they hitch a ride onto your property on invading opossums, raccoons, or rodents. This is why it's important to keep wild animals away to protect yourself from fleas and ticks.

Fleas and ticks can hide in lots of different areas, but there are a few places you're more likely to find them. Fleas nest in areas with lots of hiding spots, such as carpets, shrubs, plush furniture, high grass, and even your pets' fur. Ticks, meanwhile, hide in places like bushes, grass, tree branches, and thick brush. You may find fleas inside or outside, while you're much more likely to find ticks outside.

It's not easy to get rid of ticks or fleas on your own. Foggers and dusts typically barely make a dent in breeding populations of these parasites. This means the best thing you can do if you wind up with an infestation is to call residential pest control professionals for help.

Here at Bell Pest Control, we offer the best flea and tick control in the Sacramento area. We stay on top of cutting-edge developments in flea and tick removal technologies and always ensure we hire only the best pest-elimination experts in the field. That means you can expect our flea and tick treatments to succeed where others have failed.

The best way to keep fleas and ticks from establishing breeding populations on your property is to contact us for professional residential and commercial pest control treatments for fleas and ticks. Taking steps to prevent and deal with wildlife incursions by investing in rodent control and exclusion, for example, can also be helpful.

For help getting rid of fleas and ticks, contact Bell Pest Control!