Tick season has arrived and some experts are predicting a summer with unusually large tick populations. The brown dog tick species is getting the most attention as these types of ticks spend more time indoors with humans than any other tick species. These ticks can also reproduce swiftly. Experts say that if a home should be invaded by one female brown dog tick with eggs, then five thousand or so ticks could eventually find themselves living the high-life in the same home. In fact, the brown dog tick is the only tick species that can successfully undergo all of its life cycle changes entirely within a home and away from their natural habitat. This makes these ticks a major threat to humans and not just their pets.
Many pest control professionals and entomologists received questions regularly concerning ticks in houses. For the past decade, ticks have been receiving a lot of attention for the diseases that they spread to people traveling outdoors. Nobody seems to be aware that there also exists a tick species that infests people’s homes. People often contact their local entomology offices to ask what types of ticks are invading their homes. As we have already discussed, these are brown dog ticks. Since brown dog ticks infest people’s homes, they can be difficult to control and infestations are particularly tricky to eradicate.
These ticks are officially known as Rhipicephalus sanguineus Latreille, and they are often found infesting homes located in the Gulf Coast states. These ticks prefer to feed on the blood of dogs, but if a home does not contain dogs, these ticks are just fine feeding on rodents or even humans as a substitute. In the state of Florida brown dog tick infestations have been increasing with each passing year. Naturally, the amount of infected dogs and infected humans living in these infested homes has also grown. Unfortunately, typical pest control protocols cannot do much to control brown dog tick infestations within homes. Brown dog ticks can carry and transmit Rocky Mountain spotted fever, but luckily they are not believed to be capable of carrying and transmitting lyme disease. Currently pest control developers are working on new forms of brown dog tick control, but the process is slow-moving.
If you found a tick infestation within your home would you consider relocating?
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