Contents
Fleas infestations are a constant pain if you cant get rid of them. They will bite you, your family, and your pets until you are itching on every part of your body. In this article I’m going to teach you how to remove fleas quickly and efficiently with multiple different techniques that you can chose from.
Flea Treatment Summary
- Clean your sheets, dog, clothes and everything that can hide fleas clean. Wash them when you see the start of an infestation
- Spread Diatomaceous Earth throughout your home to kill the fleas. After its sat for a few hours vacuum it up.
- If you have a pet clean your pet while the Diatomaceous Earth is killing the fleas in your home. You can give your pet a bath using flea shampoo. If you want to make sure your pet is flea free you can also use flea drops.
- Set up Flea traps around the house. Read the flea trap section below to find out how to make homemade flea traps.
- If the infestation persist you may need to switch to other more toxic chemicals such as flea foggers or flea spray.
Don’t panic and be patient
I know from experience that fleas are incredibly over whelming and can drive you mad. At one point I had such a massive infestation that I always had at least two fleas on me at any given time. They were on me when laying down watching TV, they were buried in my socks because it’s warm and moist, and they covered my ankles in bites. I didn’t have enough money at the moment to buy the things I needed to get rid of them so the infestation just got worse until I was constantly paranoid about having fleas on my body.
It had to stop so I took control of the situation by relaxing and think that “Yes, they do itch, and yes they do bite. But that’s all they can do.” This mindset helped me to get through it and I hope it’ll help you too.
Keep in mind that getting rid of fleas is a process. Fleas take a while to get rid of because each stage of their life cycle requires a different way of killing them. To completely rid your home of fleas you need to stay optimistic and follow the steps below.
Clean Everything
Clean everything you have! You need to take all the sheets you have in your house from pet beds to stray clothes. Wash your bed sheets, your dog or cat sheets. Throw it all in the wash no matter what it is (unless it says do not wash, I don’t want you ruining anything).
While everything is washing take a vacuum cleaner and vacuum spot in the house, even your hardwood floor. Flea eggs and larvae hide in your carpet and the cracks between the tiles of you hardwood floor so vacuum it all.
Wash your pet. Your pet is likely to have flea eggs, larva, pupa, and adult flea on it. It’s the primary target so take out all of the fleas on it as fast as you can. Yes your cat may hate baths but it’ll will still love you afterwards as long as you feed it something yummy.
If you want to spend the money a steamer is great at taking out fleas. Fleas drown really easily when they are placed in soapy water, they also die very quickly when they are put under extreme heat. Steaming will also remove any flea poop which can help to reduce flea larva seeing as they do eat adult flea poop.
Diatomaceous earth
Diatomaceous earth is a natural substance made from the fossilized remains of diatoms which is a hard shelled form of algae. It’s and off white color and feel a lot like flour. It’s actually edible though I wouldn’t recommend eating it straight up, probably won’t taste very good. Believe it or not some foods already have diatomaceous earth in it.
Diatomaceous earth doesn’t need to be eaten to kill the fleas. What it does is dries out the fleas when they breathe it in. It absorbs the oils and fats inside of the flea leading to their death.
Flea Traps
These are fun to use, in a somewhat deluded kind of way. All you have to do is set up a flea trap and it will passively kill fleas while you sleep!
Buy a trap– You can easily buy some really effective traps too if you don’t want to make a homemade trap. These traps usually work a lot better than the homemade ones anyways.
TV trap– Set up a long but not very tall pan in front of a TV. Fill the pan with soapy water so that when the fleas jump into it they can’t escape but just die instead. All you need to do then is turn on the absolute worst TV show you can possibly think of and let it play. This is much easier to do throughout the night because the fleas are attracted to the light and if it the only light in the room it’s much more likely to kill them.
Lamp trap- This works the same way as the TV trap. You just need to set up a pan of water with soap in it and turn a lamp on above it allowing the light to shine into the pan of water and soap. The fleas will go for the light and then man overboard they are trapped. That’s one less flea you have to worry about laying an egg.
Candle Trap- This is another light based flea trap. In my opinion this is the most convenient because you don’t have to worry about wasting electricity or your TVs bulb. Just take a small bowl and fill it with water and soap as with the other traps then place a small candle in the center of the bowl so when they jump for the candle they are caught in the bowl. If your house smells really badly this can also help fix that if you get a scented candle. Knock two birds out with one stone.
Flea Spray
Flea sprays can take out fleas from the root Insect Growth Regulators. This means that they can kill flea eggs, and flea larva. Some flea sprays don’t contain IGRs but if you buy flea spray with IGRs they can be very effective.
Flea sprays can contain toxic chemicals so you need to be careful and make sure you buy natural fleas sprays.
Flea sprays are easy to use, just take the flea spray and spray it throughout your house in areas such as carpets. There are flea sprays you can spray on your pet if you buy that type of flea spray.
You can buy natural flea spray here.
Flea Foggers
This is a sure way to take out a large number of fleas at once. Flea foggers release chemicals into the air that when inhaled by fleas will kill them. I suggest using this method as a last resort because flea foggers are toxic and can be harmful to humans and pets as well.
When using flea foggers you’ll want to place them in each room of your home. If you don’t want to buy that many flea foggers then you can also place them in areas of your home that your pet spends the most time.
Make sure everyone is out of the house when the foggers go off, pets included. Cover as many kitchen materials as possible such as; silverware, plates, pans, bowls, etc. Pet food bowls and water bowls should be put away too. If you have a fish tank you should cover that as well.
Once the flea foggers are done going off and you go back into your home you need to open all the windows in your home to make sure all the toxic chemicals in the air are vented out. You will also need to wash all dishes even if they were covered, wash any sheets or laundry that may have been exposed as well.
If you would like more information on flea foggers you can read more here.
Steaming your carpet
As I’ve told you earlier in the article fleas don’t cope well with soap and water or with heat. That’s why this method works fairly well. The combination of both will easily kill fleas.
Note though that if you do have diatomaceous earth spread out on your carpet, it will no longer work when if wet after you use the steam cleaner. If it’s wet it will prevent the fleas from breathing it in which is essential for it to kill them.
Some people have said that this technique doesn’t work because the fleas aren’t submerged in the water long enough to drown. This is true but even if it doesn’t kill them from drowning it should suck them, and their eggs and larva into the steamer where they will drown.
If you’re interested in purchasing a steamer that does and amazing job at killing fleas click here.
Last Resort: Remove carpet and get tile
If all else fails and you cant seem to get rid of the fleas get rid of the carpet instead. It will cost some money but it may save you from a continuous amount of flea bites. Keep in mind this is an absolute last resort. I’m not telling you to go out and get a brand new carpet right off the bat. That’s a lot of money. Try the other methods and even before removing the carpet you should call an exterminator.
