Fleas can transmit disease organisms for bubonic plague, murine typhus, tularemia and tape worm.

Over time, fleas can render a pet anemic, and severely infected pets may need treatment by a veterinarian.

These pests also bite humans. Getting rid of these pesky critters from your home, especially if your pets frequent areas with carpeting, can be particularly difficult.

We now have a new incentive for controlling fleas-allergies. We already know that some people experience a strong allergic reaction when bitten by a flea. The proteins in the flea's saliva cause this.  Now USDA researchers in Gainsville, Florida, have shown that allergy prone individuals react positively to flea body parts, shed skins, feces, and flea eggshells. For years, scientists have been aware of a similar allergic reaction to cockroach and dust mite feces and body parts.

The National Pest Control Association offers these tips for pest-proof living:

Inspect your home, paying particular attention to the pet's resting area, and carpeted areas where the pet frequents.

Vacuum carpeting, baseboards, furniture and pet's bedding often. Seal vacuum bags and dispose of them immediately.

Have your pet treated by a veterinarian as often as needed.

While the pet is removed from the house is a good time to wash the pet's bedding and treat infected areas, inside and out.

Entomologists say that this finding could make a difference for people who have been diagnosed as allergic to cats. They may not be allergic to cats at all, but to the cats fleas. This would explain why some people seem to be allergic to another person's dog or cat, but not to their own. As flea debris builds up in an infested home, it can become part of the allergen load in household dust.
 

When people and their pets begin spending more time out doors, encounters with these nasty little "stealth" pest become more common.

Ticks aren't actually bugs; they are bloodsucking parasites related to spiders, mites, and scorpions. They usually attach themselves to wild mammals, birds, and reptiles. But many will feed on your pets ... or even on you and your family.

Like insects and spiders, ticks grow by molting from stage to stage. Most have a three-host life cycle: the larva feeds on the first host, drops off to molt into a nymph. The nymph feeds on a second host, then drops off to molt into an adult tick, which in turn finds a third host to feed on.

After mating, the female tick drops to the ground and deposits anywhere from 3,000 to 6,000 eggs! These hatch into the larvae, which are also called "seed ticks." They climb onto nearby grasses or shrubs where they wait, front legs waving above them, for an animal (or person) to pass by.
Most ticks are found where wooded areas border grassy areas, a habitat found in parks, campgrounds, and many residential yards. Ticks are often carried into residential yards by mice and deer, and even on neighborhood dogs and cats. Ticks transmit many diseases to people and animals.

Lyme disease is the most common and widespread, but ticks also carry rocky mountain spotted fever, Colorado tick^-fever, tularemia, ehrlichiosis, and other diseases.

Fortunately, not all ticks carry disease, and even when they do, they usually have to feed anywhere from 2 to 8 hours before transmission can occur.

• Forget about those old remedies like burning or smothering the tick. These methods are more likely to stress the tick and cause it to regurgitate infectious material into the bite.
• Remove the tick as soon as you discover it. The longer you delay, the greater the chances that the tick will transmit a disease.
• Clean the bite area with a pair of fine-pointed tweezers with alcohol.
• Using the tweezers, grasp the tick as close to the skin as you can.
• Pull the tick out slowly but steadily. Remove any mouthparts left in the skin.
• Apply an antiseptic to the bite area and wash your hands and the tweezers.
• Don’t’ try to crush the tick with you finger nails. You may squeeze out more infectious material.
• Save the tick in alcohol. If a rash or illness develops later, see a physician and bring along the tick. email us for more information