What causes flea infestations? “Usually, it boils down to pet owners not doing preventive treatments on their pets,” said Glenn Fordham, owner operator of Olympic Pest & Termite Control in Talmo, Ga.
On occasion rodents, wildlife and feral cats cause issues. Fordham had fleas that kept appearing on a client’s ceiling. “It was several trips out there before I figured out they were coming out the ceiling and not from the floor,” he recalled. The fleas were crawling out of a light fixture opening and had arrived on a raccoon nesting between the roof and ceiling. Removing the raccoon and treating with dust eventually fixed the problem, said Fordham.
In Southern Louisiana, fleas can be more pervasive in some areas than others, said Kerry Lindsey, Terminix Service Company. Even customers without pets can get infested; they pick them up outdoors and bring them inside just by walking to their mailbox.
But overall, the incidence of flea infestations remained the same over the past year, reported 55 percent of PMPs in the PCT 2021 State of the Flea Control Market survey. The most common flea species encountered by PMPs were cat fleas (84 percent) and dog fleas (66 percent).
Explore the July 2021 Issue
Check out more from this issue and find your next story to read.