How to Get Rid of Fleas in the House Fast
Fleas are a major problem for many people in houses and offices. They can infest your carpet, furniture, and even your pets.
Some fleas fall off these wild animals onto furniture, carpets, and bedding. So, on how to get rid of fleas in the house fast, you’ll want to:
- Vacuum your carpets, furniture, and hard floors thoroughly. Be sure to change the bag in your vacuum cleaner often.
- Wash all bedding, curtains, and clothes that have come into contact with fleas or their droppings using a temperature of at least 60°C (140°F) for all items.
- Kill fleas on your pet by bathing them with a medicated shampoo, or using other methods, such as brushing their fur and giving them an oral medication
- Treat your yard to prevent the infestation from coming back.
Step by Step – How to Get Rid Of Fleas in the House Fast
Step 1: Use Flea traps
Flea traps offer an easy method to remove fleas from your home. They contain a chemical that attracts insects, which then die on their sticky surface.
– The most common type of trap is “sticky” as it has glue on one side or both sides for catching the fleas.
These can be used easily anywhere at all-around your home – under furniture, behind appliances like washing machines and dishwashers, along baseboards, etc.
– Place these near where you find them to have the highest concentration (like carpets).
– You may also place them next to animal habitats such as couches, pet beds/crates if they’re present in your home.
To make a DIY flea trap, you’ll require:
- Night lights
- Dinner plates or Bowls
- Dishwashing liquid
- Warm water
To make a DIY flea trap, fill bowls with warm water mixed with dishwashing liquid and place a candle at the center of the bowl.
Position the dinner plate or bowl on some wood and turn on the Night Light. Fleas will jump towards the night light and be stuck in the liquid soap. So, dispose of those traps which have done their work.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FYKOkaZN9cU
Flea traps are essentially heat scares with a light bulb turned on, so that the fleas can be attracted to them.
This DIY flea trap takes less than a minute to make and is perfect for minor infestations. All that’s needed are dish detergent, water, and an LED lightbulb (non-heat emitting).
- Ensure that the basic or bowl’s edge is shallow to allow easy jumping for the fleas.
- Also, position the flea trap near the floor to allow easy access by the fleas.
Step 2: Use Flea Sprays
You can apply flea sprays for homes such as the Vet’s-Best Spray on pet’s bedding – pillows, blankets, couches, rugs, and carpets to exterminate fleas & flea eggs on contact.
- However, avoid spraying on sensitive pet areas such as around their face – use a brush or flea comb instead.
What many people don’t know is that most flea sprays are also topically applied to any areas of concern such as furniture where they might reside during non-active hours.
- Fleas become active at certain times of the day so spraying outdoors and inside while there’s activity should do the trick for now!
You may not need to use many different products, but it will depend on how severe your infestation is!
- If unsure of any product’s toxicity or if there are children or pets in the home, please contact a vet before using.
Flea treatment is tricky for pets. All the eggs, which will hatch soon after they are laid, need to be killed at the same time as the adult fleas.
- So, use a flea spray + flea tablets to ensure that any future infestation is dealt with immediately.
Step 3: Use Flea Tablets
Flea tablets such as the Novartis Capstar are fed on cats and dogs to remove fleas with fast results – exterminating the bugs in about 30 minutes.
- Flea tablets are used in combination with a good flea shampoo.
The flea tablet helps to kill the eggs and larvae of the insect on contact, while the shampoo helps remove live fleas that may be stuck on your pet’s skin or fur.
- The best way to tell if an animal has been bitten by a tick is through its behavior – such as lethargy, having decreased appetite, not grooming properly (or dong it excessively), etc.
Flea tablets work well for dogs especially because they can get very dirty at times and hard to wash off effectively enough without some assistance from medication like this!
- But flea tablets won’t exterminate flea eggs, pupae, and larvae – plus they’ll only be effective for 24 hours and thus require re-treatment after this time.
Flea tablets will work best when your pet is visiting areas with a high risk of fleas like pet parks, pet hotels, grooming salons, or vet clinics. But it would help to combine flea tablets + flea sprays.
Step 4: Flea Foggers
In contrast to sprays and powders, which can reach only a small area at one time, fogging (e.g. with Hot Shot No-Mess) kills any visible insects in the room or house where it is used.
- IGR fogging also has the benefit of killing off any eggs before they ever hatch.
For safety, you’ll require to cover up dishes, utensils, and food plus seal off the doors and windows for an average of 2 hours.
How long does it take a fogger to kill fleas? Foggers are not the quickest method of killing fleas, but they do not take long.
- The fogger pesticide must absorb into the body before it can take effect enough to cause death.
NB: Flea-treat the pet before taking it back to the house treated with flea foggers.
Step 5: Vacuuming for Fleas
If you’re too uncomfortable with fogging your house, vacuuming can work to a certain degree as well.
When we say vacuum, what we mean is a hard floor cleaner with one of those disposable bags (never use a bagless vacuum).
Vacuum all areas where bugs might hide: under furniture, rugs, bedding/curtains, etc., but remember never put anything down the tube; only suck up debris or dust on top of surfaces with no gaps underneath.
- Also, discard the contents of a crevice tool and clean any nooks you can find.
If you have a vacuum with strong enough suction and covering as much space as required, the eggs will be sucked up. Use it on floorboard (crevices or cracks), beds, furniture, and curtains.
NB: 1) Feed your pet (cat or dog) a flea tablet. 2) Vacuum the house to find and kill fleas and dog hair before you start spraying.
- The flea tablet will remove the adult fleas while the flea spray will exterminate the flea eggs.
The vacuum bag needs to be kept outside the house and detached carefully until it can be discarded in a sealed bag, an incinerator, or by other means.
Step 6: Hire Flea Exterminators
A flea exterminator will come to your home and spray, fog, or steam the entire house.
– Fleas are small enough that they can easily move through cracks in floors, walls, and furniture.
This is why many people do not realize they have flea infestations until it starts causing problems like allergic reactions on a child’s skin or intense scratching from an animal.
– Some signs of a flea problem include live fleas found near sleeping areas; larvae (immature stages) frequently seen around pet bedding such as dog beds, cat litter boxes, bird cages; fecal pellets – tiny black spots near floor baseboards under furniture where pets sleep or rest their heads.
The exterminator will use a vacuum to remove any adult fleas from your carpets and furniture. They will also fog, or steam the entire house including inside walls with insecticide.
– When they are finished, you should notice that there is little evidence of flea activity in your home. This means less itching for everyone!
– Flea infestations can be controlled by using preventative measures such as monthly spot treatments on pets and vacuuming daily to keep them out of our homes.
How to Prevent Fleas in your Home
Preventing fleas is one of the most important ways to take better care of your family and pets. To help you avoid an infestation altogether, read my helpful tips below.
- Clean and groom the cats and dogs properly: Ensure that the pet’s skin and coat are clean and dry before treatment with a product, which helps to reduce the risk of an allergic reaction.
- Apply monthly treatments on pets: Spot treatments should be applied from neck to tail at least monthly. This will help prevent fleas from jumping onto your dog or cat when they come in contact with other flea-infested animals or people.
- Vacuum daily and wash bedding weekly: Flea eggs hatch within two weeks so vacuuming around the home is essential for removing any potential breeding ground! Be sure to also vacuum furniture such as couches if possible. It’s also important to wash bed sheets weekly in hot water – this kills off any larvae and their eggs.
- Yard: Fleas will likely appear on the pet and in your home but they can also live outside year-round if there are no flea treatments applied to this space. Keep grass mowed short, remove any clutter or potential sources of food for the insects such as fallen leaves, pine needles, or other debris that may accumulate near yards where pets spend time outdoors.
- Flea collar: These collars work by releasing a chemical called cyphenothrin into an animal’s skin when it is worn around its neck. This kills off adult fleas that jump onto them so they don’t have access to biting the dog – perfect for houses with outdoor dogs!
- Outdoor Insecticides: If you’re having trouble with your pet, wash your sheets at least twice a week.
Conclusion
In conclusion on how to get rid of fleas in the house fast, there are a number of ways.
- For instance, you can use vacuum cleaners to suck up fleas and their eggs from carpets or other areas in your house where they might be nesting.
- You can spray surfaces with natural flea repellents, like lavender or rosemary. You could also use a steam cleaner to clean up your house quickly and efficiently, without using chemicals that might be harmful to you or the environment.
- Flea-treat the pets in your house and make sure to vacuum or steam clean often.
- Finally, in some cases, it may not be practical to get rid of all the fleas at home yourself because of how many there are – so consult professionals who know how best to kill them in order to help make sure they don’t come back!
The best way is probably to try out various methods until you find one that works for your household because everyone has different living habits which contribute to how easy or difficult it will be to get rid of these pests.
