One of the problems with Texas is that it rarely gets cold long enough to affect the flea or tick populations. Adult fleas cause the most problems for pets in Texas because there is not usually a “true winter.”
Fleas can cause various problems for pets. Some are allergic to an allergen in the flea saliva causing the animal to have a reaction. This causes the animal to scratch repeatedly, which often leads to a secondary bacterial skin infection. If there is a large flea infestation, they could cause anemia, especially among small animals that do not have large amounts of blood. Fleas can also carry diseases such as tapeworms or Bartonella, and they can infect both pets and humans.
While there is no way to completely prevent fleas, a key factor to controlling fleas is breaking the life cycle. Since more fleas lay more eggs, The best treatment kills either the adults or one of the juvenile stages and then is repeated to kill the ones that hatch from eggs not affected by the initial treatment.
Ideally, repeated treatments during several phases of the flea lifecycle is best when dealing with an infestation. The easiest stage to target is the adult flea since these live on the pet.
The key to controlling fleas is to break their life cycle. Treating the pet host is the most effective step but, when there is a large flea presence, this is best supplemented with in-house and landscape treatments by professional exterminators.
Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service suggests it may be best to contact a professional exterminator when there is a large flea burden present.
In addition to treating animals and inside of homes, it may be necessary to treat the outside environment. This can be done by professionally power spraying areas of the yard that are high in flea population which cannot be adequately penetrated or covered by do-it-yourself sprayers.