14 Ways to Get Rid of Fleas in the House Fast

Table Of Content

• The Government Is Paying People to Upgrade Their Home Comfort, Here’s Why
• Do fleas bite people?
• How to get rid of fleas in the yard
• Wondercide Flea & Tick Spray
• Use baking soda to remove fleas
• How long does it take to get rid of fleas in the house?
• Sawyer Products Premium Permethrin Clothing and Gear Insect Repellent

You can also make use of natural desiccant dust, such as diatomaceous earth, to help with flea control. This substance is naturally occurring, although breathing in the dust can be harmful, according to the University of Minnesota. Flea prevention is the best method to avoid flea-related illness and discomfort, according to the American Kennel Club (AKC). If you already have fleas in your home, though, you can employ a few methods to get rid of them. Multiple modalities may be needed in combination for the best results.

The Government Is Paying People to Upgrade Their Home Comfort, Here’s Why

You can spray the lemon juice and water combination wherever fleas might enter your home, such as doorways and outside of windows. Additionally, you may be able to spray your pets directly, but keep in mind that there's a risk of accidentally spraying their faces and causing irritation around their eyes, noses, and mouths. If you feel comfortable using desiccant products, you can dust areas where you note flea activity. As a desiccant, the dust dries out oils on the fleas’ exoskeletons, killing adult fleas. Since this product doesn’t work on all flea life cycle stages, it shouldn’t be used as a standalone treatment. Steam cleaning your carpets, furniture and pet bed is a brilliant idea if you have a flea infestation.

How To Get Rid of Fleas in Your Home - USA TODAY

How To Get Rid of Fleas in Your Home.

Posted: Wed, 17 Apr 2024 07:00:00 GMT [source]

Do fleas bite people?

Look for fleas, eggs, larvae, pupae, or flea dirt stuck to the tape. Get fresh tape whenever the tape wrapped around your hand is no longer sticky. Fleas can live in these dark, warm hiding places for about two or three months without any blood to drink. The easiest way to check if your wood furniture has fleas on it is to wipe the furniture down with a light-colored, damp cloth.

How to get rid of fleas in the yard

Amanda Rose Newton is a pest specialist and horticulture expert, reviewing pest control and gardening content for The Spruce's Cleaning and Gardening Review Board. Her passion for pest control and sustainable gardening allows her to review plant and pest content for best practices and accuracy. She is a board-certified entomologist and volunteers for USAIDs Farmer to Farmer program.

For fast and safe treatment, it’s best to have a professional pest management company treat your home. As long as your pet is on flea preventative, that’ll be enough time to rid your home of fleas for good. And don’t forget to wash throw blankets on the sofa and bed sheets—anywhere your pet hangs around. Finally, use your preferred insecticide, which experts say is a necessity for moderate to severe infestations. Follow the instructions on how frequently you’ll need to exterminate your home.

Stop any treatment if you notice that it’s causing irritation to your pet’s skin, or another kind of allergic response. Inform your vet if your pet has any known sensitivities to medications or ingredients. Even if you use a topical flea medication or spray, you still need to continue cleaning. Fleas lay a lot of eggs, and the cycle can start over if you aren’t vigilant. The advent of topical flea treatments for pets have made insecticides pretty outdated. Topical prescriptions stop or augment the flea’s reproductive cycle and rapidly kill an infestation.

If you do aim to use an insecticide or other chemical cleaning treatment, please proceed with caution. If the weather isn’t ideal and there isn’t a host to feed on, flea larvae may remain dormant for months while waiting for better conditions to develop. This is a key reason dealing with infestations can be so difficult. Pets can pick up fleas from being outside in nature, around other animals, or when humans track in the insects on our shoes or clothes. To get rid of a flea infestation, you must treat yourself, your pets, and your home.

How long does it take to get rid of fleas in the house?

As well as ensuring you comb your dogs and cats with a flea comb regularly, there are plenty of natural ways to help avoid a nasty infestation. The most effective way to get rid of fleas on pets is to combine several methods for reducing the number of adults, eggs and larvae in the home and on your pets. These include vacuuming areas where your pets frequent, providing flea treatments to all pets in the home and hiring a professional pest control company to treat in and around your house. To use salt against fleas, sprinkle it liberally over an area that has an active infestation. You can also brush it in fabrics, so it penetrates into the fibers to damage flea eggs, too.

Sawyer Products Premium Permethrin Clothing and Gear Insect Repellent

Use the hottest water that can be tolerated for the bedding, clothing and fabric that may have been exposed to fleas. You can use your regular laundry detergent and dry thoroughly on a high heat to kill of any remaining eggs and larvae. This is where homemade bug sprays and deterrents come into their own. Created from items you would find in your store cupboard, they are quick and effective ways to get rid of fleas inside the house. You may also be able to find flea-killing sprays and powders at your local grocery store.

Check the cloth after each stroke to see if you have picked up any signs of fleas. If you see red spots on the cloth, there’s a good chance it’s flea dirt and that fleas are living in the furniture. Brooke spent nine years as a veterinary assistant before becoming a human nurse in 2013. Brooke loves all animals and currently shares a home with three dogs, two cats, five fish, and two snails. She has a soft spot for special needs animals and has a three-legged senior dog and an internet-famous cat with acromegaly and cerebellar hypoplasia. Brooke stays active with yoga and obtained her 200-hour yoga teacher certification in 2020, she also loves spending her free time researching and writing.

In order to prevent fleas from traveling indoors on pets, it’s best to regularly treat your yard with an insect control product designed to eliminate fleas. Matta recommends the brand he represents, Ecologic’s Lawn & Yard Insect Killer, which uses mint oil and geraniol as actives that are considered minimum-risk pesticides. “I recommend this product because it is safe to use around children and pets," he says. "It kills ants, fleas, ticks and more, and can be used on lawns, landscapes and around home foundations." A fail-safe way to get rid of fleas is to sprinkle baking soda down, give it a rub and then vacuum up any residue. You may have to do this a few times before you remove all the fleas.

Fleas can be tricky to kill because they’re rather good at hiding, and they can live for a year or longer, says Cornell University’s Insect Diagnostic Lab. Also, depending on whom you ask, experts say a flea can lay anywhere from 500 to 5,000 eggs during its lifetime. If you miss any bugs, you could be trapped in a life cycle of misery trying to remove them from your home as they repopulate. Unfortunately, getting rid of fleas is not an instantaneous process.

They are also a brilliant way to clean a microwave and clean an oven. One of the easiest homemade bug sprays, simple boil water and lemon together in a pan, let it cool down overnight and decant the lemon-infused water into a spray bottle. These larvae can end up in many parts of your home, including furniture, floors, and pet beds.