Potentially Lethal Ticks
Like almost all parasitic insects, spider-related ticks fall into the category of being relatively benign if they merely suck the blood of animals out. However, in a natural environment teeming with organisms, you will often find ticks laden with dangerous bacterial and viral lifeforms that can infect you with a variety of illnesses:
- Lyme diseases – delivered by Borrelia burgdorferi bacteria. Its cousin, Borrelia mayonii, causes similar symptoms to Lyme disease
- Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever (RMSF) – delivered to humans by Dermacentor variabilis
- Anaplasmosis – also recognized under its former moniker granulocytic ehrlichiosis (HGE), usually delivered by deer ticks, who are also mainly responsible for Lyme disease transmission.
Other infections, such as ehrlichiosis, babesiosis, and tularemia, occur less frequently but cause the same range of unpleasant symptoms: fever, debilitating fatigue, headache, and muscle aches all over the body. Overall, ticks are greatly diversified with over 800 species. Fortunately, only a few – hard and soft ticks – serve as vehicles for disease transmission to humans and animals alike. The predominant culprits for tick-derived diseases are black-legged or deer ticks and Dermacentor variabilis — colloquially known as American dog tick.
Although not dangerous on their own, if you happen to be allergic to tick bites, you will experience a rash with a varying degree of severity, pain, swelling, burning sensation, and even difficulty breathing in the most extreme cases.
Making Your Yard Inhospitable for Ticks
You will usually find ticks in leaf piles, shrubs, trees, and taller grass around your house. Pay special attention when your dog decides to lunge into neatly piled leaf mounds. They will most certainly get a tick, and it is not difficult for multiple ticks to transfer from your pet to you.
As we mentioned previously, ticks are related to spiders, so they have eight legs. They vary in color and size:
- Some shade of brown, black, or red
- From smallest comparable to a needle pin to largest comparable to marble
In order to lessen the chance of these disease-carrying bloodsuckers nesting in your yard, there are simple measures to implement:
- Clear out potential tick nests. Like many insects, ticks are instinctually attracted to shady and moist spaces. It would include leaf piles, upturned boats and kayaks, sheds, wooden fences, sandboxes, decks, compost piles, and other objects that fit the description of moist, shady, and close to nature. A patch of gravel can facilitate an excellent barrier between nature and your house
- As you may surmise, deer ticks, the most common disease carriers, are called that because they latch onto deer, which then wander into your yard. Deer have their own needs, so make sure that your yard is lacking in providing their needs, namely the type of grass they like to chew on. Many plants don’t attract deer.
On top of that, you can erect physical barriers around your house and use deer repellant spray on the border of your property to prevent them from spreading ticks.
How Do Flea Sprays Achieve Their Effectiveness?
A flea spray works in two stages by implementing a cocktail of lethal chemicals. One set of chemicals is designed to kill fully mature bugs. It includes chemicals like various kinds of pyrethrins, tetrachlorvinphos, imidacloprid, and etofenprox. Another set of chemicals deals with a flea’s developmental stage by cutting it short. The predominant one is IGR in the form of s-methoprene, which mimics flea’s growth hormone. Of course, instead of pursuing the flea’s original hormonal purpose of growth, it suppresses it to halt the infestation of your house.
Which Flea Spray For Dogs And House Is the Right One for You?
If you are particularly concerned about safety for your pets and yourself, it might be best to use a combination of different flea sprays. One kind may be the best flea spray for house for surfaces that penetrates the soft fiber of carpets and couches, making them inhospitable for any possibility of flea reproduction, and another kind that you spray directly on yourself or your dog/cat without worrying if it will be safe.
If you can, find an all-in-one solution flea spray for house that is both preventative for a longer period of time and can immediately kill any flea or lice infestation. We mentioned PetArmor at the beginning of the article. Learn about others below.
Some Tips on How to Apply Flea Sprays
No matter which best flea spray for house you chose to get, it would be prudent to spray your furry pets and space separately. First, spray the furniture and carpets without the pets’ present. Then, ventilate and vacuum the rooms thoroughly across your house. Lastly, spray and brush your pet before it enters a cleaned room. On the other hand, if you only want to prevent the infestation, spray your pet before entering the house. If your pet enjoys special bedding, it would be better to put it in a washing machine in at least 60C rather than spray it.
What Else Should You Keep in Mind About Fleas and Other Bugs?
Here is a handy overview of all the most important things and strategies to keep in mind while you deal with flea infestation. In the end, all the flea sprays listed here work quite well, but you have to decide if things like the scent or the extra convenience of natural sprays matter to you.
Should I Vacuum Before or After Applying The Spray?
After, but make sure to spray the inside of the vacuum bag/sponge as well before starting to hoover, so the remaining live bugs don’t have a chance to jump out.
Should I Use Natural or Chemical Flea Spray For House?
Safe flea spray for house is often labeled as natural, given that its ingredients are derived from plants that have developed their own bug defenses over millions of years of evolution. These sprays can be safely used for both animals and house surfaces.
When Should I Use a Chemical Bug Spray?
Depending on the region where you live and the type of fleas you encounter in your house, you might come across resistant bugs. In that case, deploy Bayer Advanced, Zoecon Precor 2000, or Enforcer.
What Is IGR?
Insect growth regulator is a special type of insecticide that is developed to destroy insects’ growth cycle by mimicking growth hormones in non-adult bugs.
Alongside Fleas, Which Bugs Are Commonly Affected by These Sprays?
Lice, ticks, bed bugs, ants, and spiders. Cockroaches would be affected by stronger types of flea sprays.
What Behaviors Should I Discourage to Avoid Parasite Infestations?
Don’t let your dog jump into leaf piles outside your house. Don’t leave food in the open to attract wild animals, keep your lawn grass short, and cultivate grass near your house that is not appealing to deer, so they don’t bring in deer ticks.
Is It Enough to Apply Flea Sprays Only on Surfaces Without Using Them on Pets?
Yes. While natural flea sprays are perfectly safe to use in both scenarios for your house, chemical sprays applied to surfaces and pet beddings will kill bugs on touch with your pet’s coating, for a prolonged period.
Flea Spray For House Takeaway
Bugs, especially the bloodsucking and disease-carrying kind, can upturn your life overnight. Just the thought of sleeping in a bed crawling with tiny biters would leave anyone uneasy and anxious, let alone succumbing to one of the bacterial and viral infections a flea may carry. To remove such threats from your life quickly and rapidly, one should first take precautions to avoid it by spraying your pets with natural flea sprays listed here. At least twice a month with a flea and tick spray for house.
When that is not enough, when the dreaded infestation occurs, don’t shy away from using the most professional-grade solutions on the list. PETARMOR Home and Carpet Spray offers the best of both worlds without endangering the health of your pet or your family.
Lastly, it is one thing to pick the right flea spray for dogs and house, but always keep yourself and pets out of the room for at least half an hour in a well-ventilated room after you have applied them. In the meanwhile, a well-maintained yard with short grass and few damp crevices will lessen the chance of ticks attaching themselves to the skin of yourself and your pets.