Ticks Control and Flea Control

Ticks and fleas are parasitic arthropods that live by drawing blood from their hosts. They are significant public health pests, being associated with the transmission of several serious diseases. ALLGone Services provides high quality flea and tick extermination services throughout the Dallas / Fort Worth Metropolitan area.

Ticks

Ticks are not insects. They are members of the class Acachnida, which also includes mites, spiders, and scorpions. All adult ticks have eight legs, two body segments, and are fundamentally parasitic, surviving on blood drawn from their hosts. Although there are many species of ticks, three are important public health pests in Texas: the American dog tick, the brown dog tick, and the deer tick.

American Dog Tick

The American dog tick, Dermacentor variablis, is dark in color, with faint, pale yellowish markings on the scutum (the dorsal surface). Adult males are about 1/8 in length, while females engorged after a blood meal can be as large as one-half inch.

The preferred hosts of American dog ticks are dogs and other canines, but they will readily feed on other animals, including humans.

American dog ticks have been implemented in the transmission of Rocky Mountain spotted fever, tularemia, tick paralysis, and ehrlichiosis. They have not been shown to spread Lyme disease.

Brown Dog Tick

The brown dog tick, Rhipicephalus sanguineus, is small, brownish in color, and is unique among ticks in that it can complete its entire life cycle indoors.

As with the American dog tick, the preferred hosts of brown dog ticks are dogs and other canines. But the brown dog ticks' preference is stronger: Brown dog ticks usually will feed on humans and other non-canine animals only when canines aren't available.

Brown dog ticks typically feed only three times during their lives: Once while in in the larval stage, once while nymphs, and once as adults. They leave the host to molt from larvae to nymphs, and then again from nymphs to adults; and then leave again to mate after their one feeding as adults.

Brown dog ticks are known to transmit canine ehrlichiosis (Ehrlichia canis) and canine babesia (Babesia canis) in dogs; and are capable of transmitting rickettsial diseases in humans (although this is uncommon in the United States).

Deer Ticks

The deer tick, Ixodes scapularis, is a small, dark-colored tick that is one of several species in the genus Ixodes known to transmit the bacterium that causes Lyme disease.

Now among the most common tick-borne diseases, Lyme disease, if left untreated, can cause serious damage to the heart and nervous system. It's also becoming a veterinary problem, with veterinarians attributing an increasing number of cases of joint problems in dogs and horses to Lyme disease.

Deer ticks usually feed on large mammals like deer, horses, and cattle, but they'll feed on almost any warm-blooded animal -- including humans -- if they need to. In urban areas, it's believed that rodents are among their more common hosts, so addressing rodent problems is often part of an effective program for deer tick control.

Fleas

Unlike ticks, fleas are insects. They belong to the order Siphonaptera, which encompasses about 2,380 species in several families, subfamilies, and genera. They are tiny insects whose bodies are narrower than they are tall, and who have very powerful legs adapted to jumping.

The three flea species that most commonly come to the attention of pest control operators are the dog flea (Ctenocephalides canis) and the cat flea (Ctenocephalides felis) and the human flea (Pulex irritans). Another notable (and notorious) flea specie is the Oriental rat flea (Xenopsylla cheopis), which is the primary vector of bubonic plague.

Fleas are also associated with the transmission of typhus, tapeworms, and fleabite dermatitis. In fact, a majority of tapeworm infestations in children may be caused by fleas having been accidentally ingested while playing with a family pet.

Flea names are somewhat misleading. Although many fleas are named after the animal they are (or were) believed to most often feed upon, fleas aren't very picky. They can and do parasitize animals other than the ones they are named for.