When you think of tick bites, people often think of them as kind of a hiker’s malady. You are traipsing through the brush, the mountains and trails when a rogue tick hitchhikes onto your pant leg and slowly creeps its way to an exposed area of skin. Though this is a common way people get ticks, did you know you can get ticks and infestations a lot closer to home? Ticks can infest homes and yards, making your chances of daily tick bites increase. Pets are especially susceptible to tick bites as these animals go outside and roll in the grass, bushes and dirt. Their hair is the perfect magnet for the opportunistic tick, waiting to grab onto your pet’s long hair and go for a ride. Many pet owners are even unaware that their pet has a tick, especially since dogs and cats have dense hair and ticks aren’t readily seen. Understanding the behavior of ticks will help prevent them. When it comes to the pest war upon you home, you must learn everything about your enemy that you can to keep them from invading.
Tick basics
Ticks do not bite their host and live forever, attached to them, drinking their blood forever. Feeding off the blood of a host is just a phase and part of the tick’s life cycle. A tick starts out as an egg and from that egg, it hatches into larvae. At his stage is when the tick needs to find a host and whether it be animal or human, they don’t care, they just want blood. Attracted to the CO2 expelled by the host, the tick must drink blood for 3 days in order to continue its maturing process. After 3 days, the tick leaves the host and sheds its skin at the nymph stage. Again the nymph needs a blood meal in order to reach its final stage as an adult tick. Again, as an adult, a tick needs a blood meal before mating. The male dies soon after mating and the female dies soon after laying her eggs. Understanding the tick’s life cycle, you can see that a tick finds a host several times during its life cycle, but if you, a family member or pet are nearby, you could become a victim more than once.
Ticks infesting your home
If your pet comes into your home and unbeknownst to you, has a bloodsucking pest attached to him, this could become a gigantic tick infestation problem. If that tick is an adult female and after a few days, removes herself from your pet in your home, that means she will be laying her eggs, in your home before she dies. Ticks often lay their eggs near baseboards or corners where carpet fibers are hidden and not heavily trafficked. And just how many ticks does a female tick lay before she dies. Oh, only several THOUSAND! As these ticks hatch, the larvae will be looking for blood and they will find it from you, your family and your pets. But this time, you are the only blood around. Finding your pets or children with many ticks attached to them is your first clue that these ticks are in your home. A stray tick found in a field during tick season is one thing, but finding many ticks on your children or pets means these ticks are closer to home or worse, IN your home. You need immediate tick control if tick bites are a regular thing with you or those in your household.
Getting rid of ticks immediately
If you have a tick infestation, you cannot wait even one more minute, you must remove it now. Ticks carry many dangerous diseases such as Lyme disease, Rocky Mountain spotted fever, babesiosis, Colorado tick fever and many more that can greatly affect your health and make you or those you love gravely ill. If you see ticks in your home, vacuuming them up is a good start, then throw away the vacuum bag outside. Next, it is paramount that you call a tick control specialist at Pointe Pest Control. We know that time is very important you need this infestation gone immediately. Our tick control methods are fast and effective, removing ticks in all stages of development from your home so your children and pets will no longer be at risk. We also concentrate tick control outside your home, especially during tick season so your pets will be less likely to bring them back inside. It is important to thoroughly check your pets and children before coming inside, especially after playing outside where ticks could be, so you don’t start the infestation over again. Pointe Pest Control is committed to helping you have a tick and pest free home year round, so call us today!