Spring brings in the fleas

GOLDEN TRIANGLE, Miss. (WCBI) – The sun is shining, and the plants are budding out across the area.

The beginning of spring also means fleas are starting to wake up to find their next meal.

For those fleas, you look like a buffet.

“Fleas tend to reproduce during the warm weather, so the cool weather doesn’t provide the environment for them. Warm weather provides everything that they need first of all they need a blood meal usually after they’ve had a blood meal four to eight flea eggs drop usually immediately. So you could have a pretty big infestation pretty quick,” said Bugs-B-Gone employee Wayne McBride.

Your favorite furry friend could be the one bringing in these unwanted guests.

But, even if you don’t have pets, you may not be safe from the pests.

“If your neighbor has pets, if you have a free home area where your neighbor’s pets come into your yard, you go outside and do some gardening or whatever, and they get on your pants leg, or your socks follow you into the home you can get an infestation that way as well,” said McBride.

There are some steps you can take to make your home less hospitable to fleas.

“Vacuum regularly. It sounds funny, but the more you vacuum, the more chance you have of getting rid of the eggs and fleas, and then empty the contents of the vacuum cleaner regularly. Don’t let it sit in the vacuum cleaner. They will hatch out in there it will actually re-infest the house,” said McBride.

It’s also a good idea to get your fur baby on some kind of flea preventative.

It’s easier to stop an infestation before it starts.

“If you catch it early you’re more likely to not have issues down the road. If you let it go and you let it go, it gets worse and worse you could have thousands, or even possibly hundreds of thousands of fleas, in the yard in the home at the same time,” said McBride.

Recent rains could cause flea populations to grow according to Hartzfleas.com.

They said fleas thrive in a warm, humid environment.