The Kitchen: A Prime Target for Pests

The kitchen is one of the most attractive areas for pests due to the availability of food and moisture. Some of the telltale signs of a pest problem in your kitchen include:

• Droppings and Urine Stains: Rodents like mice and rats leave behind small, dark droppings near food sources, behind appliances, and inside cabinets.
• Gnawed Packaging: If you notice holes or chew marks in food packaging, rodents or insects could be to blame.
• Unusual Odors: A musty or oily smell can indicate the presence of cockroaches, while an ammonia-like scent may point to rodents.
• Ant Trails and Nesting Areas: Ants tend to form visible trails leading to food sources, while cockroach nests can be found in warm, dark areas like behind the refrigerator.

The Attic: A Hidden Haven for Pests

Attics provide a warm and secluded environment, making them ideal nesting spots for pests. Look for these signs:

• Strange Noises: Scratching, scurrying, or thumping sounds in the attic may indicate the presence of rodents, squirrels, or even raccoons.
• Insulation Damage: Chewed or shredded insulation is a common sign of nesting activity.
• Droppings and Urine Stains: Rodent droppings and yellowish stains on insulation or wood can be clear indicators.
• Nest Materials: Birds, rodents, and other small animals often use paper, leaves, or fabric to build nests in attic corners.

The Basement: A Damp Retreat for Pests

Basements are dark, damp, and often overlooked, creating a perfect habitat for various pests, including insects and rodents. Be on the lookout for:

• Silverfish and Centipedes: These moisture-loving pests are often found near leaky pipes or in damp corners.
• Termite Mud Tubes: Subterranean termites create small mud tubes along basement walls or wood structures.
• Spider Webs and Egg Sacs: Many spiders may indicate an underlying insect problem.
• Rodent Droppings and Gnaw Marks: If you see chewed wires or small black droppings, mice or rats could be present.

Walls and Ceilings: Silent Signs of Infestation

Your walls and ceilings may hide pests inside, causing damage that isn’t always immediately visible. Here’s what to look for:

• Hollow-Sounding Wood: Termites and carpenter ants tunnel through wood, weakening structures from the inside.
• Bubbling or Peeling Paint: Moisture buildup caused by termites or other pests can damage paint.
• Grease Marks or Tracks: Rodents often follow the same pathways, leaving behind dark, greasy smudges along walls and baseboards.
• Mysterious Noises: Clicking, tapping, or rustling noises inside walls may indicate an infestation.

Furniture and Upholstery: Unexpected Pest Hideouts

Pests don’t just stay in hidden crevices; they can also inhabit furniture, upholstery, and bedding. Here are signs to watch for:

• Bed Bug Bites or Stains: Small red welts on your skin, blood stains on sheets, or tiny black fecal spots are signs of bed bugs.
• Fabric Damage: Moths and carpet beetles feed on natural fibers, leaving behind holes in clothing, curtains, and upholstery.
• Dust Piles or Shed Skins: Termites and other pests may leave small piles of dust or shed skins on furniture surfaces.

The Garage: A Gateway for Pests

Garages offer an easy entry point for pests seeking shelter, especially during extreme weather conditions. Here’s what to check:

• Rodent Tracks and Gnaw Marks: Look for chew marks on stored items and footprints in dusty corners.
• Insect Nests: Wasp nests, spider webs, and ant colonies can often be found in garage corners or storage boxes.
• Dead Insects: An accumulation of dead insects can indicate a larger infestation nearby.
• Cracks and Gaps: Small garage doors, walls, or windows openings can serve as entry points for pests.

What to Do If You Suspect a Hidden Pest Problem

If you’ve noticed any of these signs, taking action early can prevent a minor issue from turning into a full-blown infestation. Here are some steps to take:

1. Conduct a Thorough Inspection: Regularly check hidden areas, including behind appliances, in storage spaces, and around entry points.
2. Seal Entry Points: Close any cracks, gaps, or holes around windows, doors, and foundation walls.
3. Keep Your Home Clean: Reduce food and moisture sources by storing food in airtight containers and fixing leaks.
4. Use Traps and Baits: For minor infestations, traps or bait stations can help control pests.
5. Call a Professional: If the infestation is severe or persistent, consider hiring a pest control expert to assess and develop a treatment plan.

Final Thoughts

Hidden pest infestations can cause significant damage and health risks if left untreated. You can protect your home and family from unwanted intruders by staying vigilant and recognizing the early warning signs. Regular inspections, proper home maintenance, and professional intervention when needed will help keep your living space pest-free year-round.

The post How to Tell If You Have a Hidden Pest Problem first appeared on Action Pest Management - Broken Arrow Pest Control.

Fleas are tiny creatures that can be big nuisances for you, your pets, and your household. These little critters usually enter homes by catching a ride in the fur of your pet; from there, they can quickly reproduce and multiply. Before you know it, your home is infested. You think you’ll find some relief when winter hits since most insects and bugs die off at this time anyway.

Do fleas go away in the winter? While cold temperatures can kill off outside flea populations, fleas, unfortunately, do not go away in the winter if they are in your home or on your pet. Fleas caught outside may be more likely to migrate inside or find a pet to inhabit. Flea activity may seem scarce during the winter as the fleas can do dormant in this time; however, flea eggs on your pets or in your house can hatch in the winter.

Once your house is infested with fleas, it can be difficult to get rid of them. Their tiny size makes it easy for them to hide and the flea’s ability to jump quickly from one place to another keeps them from getting crushed or caught. When it comes to ridding your home of these durable little creatures, it’s important to know more about them. Keep reading to learn how to get rid of fleas, even during the winter months!

Will Winter Temperatures Kill Fleas?

Fleas thrive in warm and humid environments while cold temperatures can be enough to kill adult fleas, larvae, and eggs. The colder temperatures that come with winter can be enough to kill off outside flea populations. When the temperature hits 37 degrees Fahrenheit, fleas will start to freeze; however, there must be a prolonged time of these freezing temperatures before the fleas will die. Man, these buggers are hard to kill.

There need to be continuous days where the temperatures do not get above 37 degrees Fahrenheit for the fleas to eventually die. If the low for the day is below this temperature but the high for the day is above, the fleas can de-thaw and go about their business. If you live in a southern area where winter temperatures stay mild, then you should not trust the weather to do the job of killing off fleas.

Can Fleas Survive in My Home During the Winter?

Fleas are notoriously hard to get rid of. When temperatures start to drop outside, fleas will be more apt to cling to the warmth of your pet and find their way indoors to where temperatures are higher. You could easily find yourself dealing with an infestation, even during the winter months. Once the fleas find their way indoors, they can hide in upholstery, cracks, clothing, and carpets. You may not even realize that the fleas are there until it’s too late.

Winter Flea Infestation Prevention Tips

Just because it’s winter doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t take some preventative measures to keep your home free of fleas. Just because you don’t see them doesn’t mean that they aren’t there. This is especially true if you have dealt with flea infestations in the past. Flea eggs can stay dormant for a while before hatching, causing an entirely new problem. Follow these steps to prevent fleas from thriving in your home during the winter:

Bathe Your Dog Regularly

Once it starts to get cold outside, many pet owners refrain from giving their pets a bath. During the winter, many dogs may go for long periods of time without being washed. This gives fleas the perfect opportunity to start multiplying and thriving.

You should continue to bathe your dog regularly during the winter months to ward off any unwelcome flea guests. You can bathe dogs with a flea shampoo every 1-2 weeks to help prevent fleas from reproducing and eggs from hatching.

By giving your dog a bath frequently, you will be able to check their coat for signs of fleas. If your dog has fleas, they may have red itchy bumps on their skin and black clumps of feces in their fur. Keep an eye out for these signs of flea infestation. Chances are that if your dog has fleas, your home probably has fleas too.

Vacuum and Clean Your Home Regularly

One of the best ways to prevent fleas from thriving in your home is to regularly vacuum and clean your home. Vacuum all carpets and rugs, as this is where fleas love to hide. Dust around window sills and cracks that would make ideal hiding places for critters.

Even if you don’t notice a flea presence in your home, there could be dormant eggs hidden in carpets and rugs. By vacuuming regularly, you can remove the eggs from your home before they hatch. This measure will prevent a flea population from forming or getting worse.

If you do happen to vacuum up living fleas, it’s important to know that fleas are the best escape artists. If you empty your vacuum into the trash can in your kitchen, the fleas can easily escape and go right back to where they were. For this reason, empty your vacuum into a sealable bag or empty the bag into a trashcan outside. This will keep the fleas from escaping and getting back into your house.

Look for Signs of Fleas

If there are visible signs of fleas in your home, then it’s time to take action and get your home treated for the pests. If you don’t know much about fleas, then you probably don’t know what visible signs you can look for. One of the most notable signs is little black specks on your window sills, in your bed, or on your furniture. These black specks are flea waste. It can also clump up in your pet’s fur. Check your pet’s sleeping area for signs of flea waste as well.

Another common sign that there may be fleas in your home is if your pets or even yourself are suffering from unexplainable itchy red bumps over your skin. Fleas feed on blood, so in order to survive, they have to bite other living things. These bites leave behind small itchy bumps.

If you find yourself waking up with these bumps over your body, chances are there may be fleas in your bed. Other times you may find yourself getting bit is when you sit in chairs or play with your dog. These are all areas that fleas will typically live.

Treat Your Home for Fleas

One way you can prevent fleas in the winter is by preventatively treating your home for fleas. This means that you treat your home even if there aren’t any visible signs that fleas are there. The reason for doing this is that fleas love to hide; they are very good at it. There could be flea eggs, larvae, and adults in areas of your house where you would never find them.

Flea treatments usually work into every nook and cranny of the house to kill any unwanted guest. You can use flea defoggers that set a fog throughout the house, filling every available space, or you can get the home professionally treated by a Broken Arrow Pest Control team. Either way, these preventative measures could save you from a flea infestation come Spring.

Once your home is infested with fleas, it can be hard to get rid of them. By taking preventative measures, even during the winter months, you can save yourself the stress of dealing with an infestation in the Spring. Do you have further questions about preventing fleas? Contact our team for all your pest control needs.

The post Do Fleas Go Away in the Winter? first appeared on Action Pest Management - Broken Arrow Pest Control.

There are all sorts of infestations that can, unfortunately, get out of control in our homes, or even our places of business. One of the most frustrating kinds of infestations are, you guessed it—flea infestations.

Fleas aren’t just in dirty homes, or even just on your pets. They can be in the cleanest places and even travel with you inside the places you reside in which makes an infestation of these pests even harder to control.

Thankfully, Action Pest is very familiar with complicated and unique cases of flea infestations, which makes us Broken Arrow’s #1 Flea Exterminator.

Our team here at Action Pest has more than 20 years of experience in this business and isn’t afraid of getting our hands dirty. With this experience, we can offer solutions that are individualized for every client and their pest control problems. Because we take the time approach each customer this way, we can make sure that your infestation will be taken care of in a manner that doesn’t compromise the safety of you and your family while at the same time making sure the problem is handled for the long term. We believe this makes us Broken Arrow’s #1 Flea Exterminator.

Reasons You Need A Broken Arrow Flea Exterminator

Hiring A Flea Exterminator Is Safe

Fleas are annoying, and we understand that a basic human tendency is to get upset, drive to the store, and buy the first flea treatments that you see on the shelf. The problem with this is that it is not effective, and it isn’t the safest option for you and your family.

Professional Flea Exterminators in Broken Arrow are highly trained when it comes to dealing with poisons and flea treatments, and know how to administer them in a way that will keep you, your family and your pets safe from any accidental harm.

If you want to avoid these kinds of mistakes, hiring a #1 Flea Exterminator is the way to go.

Hiring A #1 Flea Exterminator Saves Money

Most people who have dealt with flea infestations in Broken Arrow will tell you that once they have administered a store-bought flea treatment, the fleas have come back stronger than ever. This means that you have to go back to the store, buy more of the treatments, get your clothes and sheets dry cleaned, and start over again every single time.

Eventually, this starts to affect your wallet, and it will continue to affect it unless more permanent solutions are put into place. Ultimately, hiring a pest control service will save you all of the money that you would have otherwise spent on countless, unnecessary treatments and dry cleaning services.

Save yourself some money today by choosing to skip the painful process of doing things on your own, and call a #1 Flea Exterminator.

Hiring A Flea Exterminator Is Effective

A flea infestation can be extremely tedious and sometimes overwhelming. You can try method after method and seem to be getting nowhere in your attempts to solve the problem.

Professionals know that this is exhausting, so the last thing that a #1 Flea Exterminator wants to do is waste a client’s time. This is why a pest control service is careful to inspect your home in great detail to find the best methods of attack against your infestation.

Once the inspection is complete, the team will move in with a plan that has been pre-determined to have long-lasting effects and execute it with quality services and professionalism.

Hiring professional exterminators is one of if not the most effective ways to eliminate any pest from your home or place of business.

Hiring A #1 Flea Exterminator Solves Problems

Flea infestations can cause more problems than you think it would, and they aren’t always obvious.

One of these problems is that fleas aren’t just inside, but they are outside as well. Professionals can inspect the outside of your home to determine if the flea infestation has originated there, or if it has started in another location. They will also be able to do proper outdoor treatments so that the indoor treatments aren’t futile.

If you want to make sure every single flea that is in or around your home is eliminated, call a professional that can help you find where the real problems are.

Hiring A #1 Flea Exterminator Helps Your Pets

Pets make our lives better, but it can be difficult when they are carrying fleas with them. You may be investing in liquid or pill flea prevention treatments for your furry friends, but that by itself isn’t enough to keep the pests away for very long.

You must combine the regular flea treatments for your pet with a monthly or bi-monthly treatment to ensure that the fleas stay gone once both methods are applied. This makes sure that your pets are taken care of, while at the same time taking care of you and your family.
If you have pets that are undergoing flea treatments, call your local flea exterminators to combine both methods for the most effective approach for making your home pest-free.

What Are Some Of The Other Services Flea Exterminators Can Provide?

While we are happy to provide extermination services for your flea infestation, that isn’t the only thing that we can offer our clients. Action Pest Management is proud to be able to offer Broken Arrow pest control services that include:

• Ant Control
• Bed Bug Control
• Bee Control
• Bimonthly Services
• Breeding Site Treatments
• Environmentally Safe Products
• Estimates
• Fire Ant Control
• Tick Treatments
• Fly Control
• Free Estimates
• Free Inspections
• Gnat Control
• Inspection Of Harborage Areas
• Home Inspections
• Household Pest Control
• Insect & Disease Control
• Insect Damage Repairs
• Inspection Letters & Reports
• Inspections
• Integrated Pest Management
• Liquid Treatments
• Mice Control
• Moisture Control
• Monthly Services
• Mosquito Control
• Office Building Inspections
• Organic Pest Control
• Outdoor Pest Control
• Pest Exclusion
• Termite Certificate
• Termite Inspections
• Wall Injections
• Warranties & Guarantees
• Wasp Control & Removal
• Reptile Control
• Prevention Treatments
• Quarterly Services
• Rat Control
• Roach Control
• Spider Control

If you see something above that you are also struggling with, please don’t hesitate to give us a call! We know that each customer has unique needs and no infestation is the same, and we are prepared to handle it.

Questions To Ask Before Hiring A Flea Exterminator

Now that you know some of the reasons that you should hire a flea extermination service, it’s a good idea to ask the proper questions to make sure you are getting the best possible service for your money. Consider asking yourself some of the following questions about the pest control company you are looking into:

Does This Flea Exterminator Have References?

Any Flea Exterminator will be able to provide positive information about themselves on their website, but what matters more is what other previous clients have to say about their work.

Any pest control company that has been successful in the past should be happy and compliant when asked to share references or testimonials. A big red flag is when they are hesitant or just flat out refuse to show you other people’s reviews. This probably means that either the company is very inexperienced, or the customers have only had negative reviews.

This is a great way to do preliminary vetting of the extermination service before you sign anything.

How Much Experience Does This Flea Exterminator Have?

A great way to ensure that you are hiring a company that will deliver excellent extermination services is to check on how long they have been in the business and how much experience they have.

As a general rule of thumb, the more years that a pest company has under their belt, the higher the level of experience they will have.

Not all newer companies will deliver poor service, however, it’s still a good idea to check on any references that they do have before moving forward with a contract.

Is This Flea Exterminator Bonded & Insured?

Certain things are required in a pest control company that shouldn’t go ignored. If you are a professional company within the United States, you are required to be licensed.

Each state requires different things, so staying up-to-date with these regulations will be important as you move forward with your search.

Another crucial requirement for a pest control company is that they are bonded. This essentially means that the extermination company will be liable for any accidents or damages caused at your property.

Contact Broken Arrow’s #1 Flea Exterminator

We hope you have found this information helpful in your search for an extermination company. For all of your pest control needs, but especially flea extermination needs, contact Broken Arrow’s #1 Flea Exterminator—Action Pest!

The post Who Is The Best Flea Exterminator In Broken Arrow, OK? first appeared on Action Pest Management - Broken Arrow Pest Control.