The people who have had the misfortune of experiencing fleas infestation know perfectly well how much annoying and disturbing these almost unnoticeable bloodsuckers can be. Unfortunately, the insects are a hard nut and without proper thoroughly elaborated plan you have no chances of getting rid of them quickly and for good.
Fleas multiply extremely quickly and if you ignore the fact of having them in your premises, you’ll pretty soon face a major problem. Thus, as soon as you detected the problem, take all the measures for fighting it.
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How to Get Rid of Fleas in the House: Top 10 of Most Efficient Means
Fleas are not only pesky bloodsuckers that can be greatly annoying – they also spread various unpleasant illnesses and can provoke irritation. That is more, remaining unnoticed due to their tiny sizes, fleas are able to turn your pets’ life in nightmare and seriously undermine their health in many ways. It’s clear that you need to think about some ways of fighting the boogers that really work! Let’s consider the options.
Solving the problem will require thorough plan and quick actions. You need to understand that that it won’t be enough to exterminate only adults; you have to destroy their eggs as well. Don’t forget, that treating only one infested area will provide poor results and at the end of the day you will have what you have started with. Pretty quickly fleas will find any clean area and will move there making all your efforts in vain.
Remember, all possible areas around should be thoroughly treated! And if after several days of treatment you noticed newcomers, this means that unfortunately haven’t eliminated all the eggs and newbies have hatched already after your procedures.
Chemical products
If your house or garden areas are badly infested, using strong chemicals is alas the only way out in your case. You can get equipped with fleas killing products in any local supermarket. There are a lot of reliable brands that produce really effective treatments thus one can always pick up one of them or several for more quick and secure results.
Frontline fleas control – remember this name, as it is considered a golden standard once it comes to fighting fleas. It’s a real bestseller and stands on the top position in the course of long years already. Facing the problem, try Frontline Spray that is extremely easy in use. This outstanding product can be without any doubts called a must when you face fleas problem, thus do not hesitate buying it.
Among others you can also opt for Advantage or Sergeant’s Fogger – both are quite available and really reliable treatments for eliminating your bloodsucker’s problem.
Citrus Spray
If you have your reasons not to use toxic products in your premises but still need to fight the insects, you might want to get acquainted with natural remedies friendly for children and pets, yet highly effective with fleas. One of such means is a citrus spray which costs you almost no funds and effort to make.
Cut lemons into big pieces and place in the boiling water. Let it remain this way overnight and then just spray it on the infested places trying to cover every centimeter. Citric acid is known to be a strong insecticide destroying the insects and making them leave your premises. If you can observe the colonies of the bloodsuckers, just use citrus juice which acts very quickly and will effectively free you from the unwanted pesky guests.
Essential Oils
There’s a row of essential oils that proved to be highly effective in killing fleas. Choose any from these:
- Lemon oil,
- Pine oil,
- Tea tree oil,
- Peppermint oil,
- Cedar wood oil,
- Lemongrass oil.
Diatomaceous Earth
It’s another widely spread and highly effective remedy for controlling fleas in your house. DE (the short name of the product) presents hard shelled algae which has a feature of dehydrating the insects. Just one use of the diatomaceous earth will let one eradicate big groups of the tiny intruders infesting your home.
What is important, the product is absolutely non-toxic and has no negative affect on your pets or children, and still is highly effective for destroying infestation thoroughly and completely. To kill the bloodsuckers on your pets you need to sprinkle a small amount of it along your cat’s or dog’s spine and provide a proper massage. Avoid getting in the eyes!
The next step is sprinkling the earth all over your premises not forgetting about furniture, rugs and other items. Provide light brushing and leave the treatment for about four days before vacuuming it up.
Boric Acid
This is one of top popular remedies because the acid really works with flea infestation. Among its other advantages is the lack of any odor as well as lack of any harm for your home animals and children, thus you do not have to worry about its affect on you. It’s a natural pesticide so you won’t just notice it at all except for its great effect on your tiny bloodsucking guests. With them boric acid is going to be pitiless and harsh.
Soapy Water Trap
This type of trap for fleas can be also pretty effective. These insects are easily attracted by light and the feature can be used for killing a lot of them at once. Just pour some soapy water and place a light source next to it: when the bloodsuckers will hop towards it, they will just drown in this water. The procedure should be repeated continuously, until the last booger is gone. Unfortunately, the eggs can’t be damaged this way.
Vacuuming
The combination of vacuuming and salt can create real miracles when it comes to exterminating fleas from your flooring or carpets. Also the method will cost you nothing as salt is very cheap and vacuuming is free at all, thus it’s really worth trying!
That is more, the vibrations that vacuum produces in the process of cleaning, provides pupae hatching so it will be much easier for you to exterminate the colonies of bloodsuckers with the help of some pesticide later.
Apple Vinegar
The vinegar has proved to be a working natural remedy that can help you forget about having pests in your place. It’s highly effective in destroying ticks and fleas. To prepare the remedy you need to pour several drops of the vinegar in water. The ratio of the liquids used is somewhat of 2:1. Mix the treatment thoroughly and pour the solution into a special bottle for spreading it. Spray the mixture in the places where your pets usually sleep.
Another way of applying is to wet your pets’ coat with the solution and then softly comb it spreading the vinegar water all over the hairs. This will work perfectly up to 4 days!
Rosemary
Rosemary leaves can be a real helper once the necessity of fighting fleas in your yard or premises arises. The recipe is both simple and effective. The leaves should be grinded into powder which afterwards should be sprinkled all over the locations your pets use for rest or sleep regularly.
You can also prepare some rosemary dip to use it for treating your pets’ coat and thus exterminate fleas. Just boil some leaves of this plant for half an hour and process your pets with it. The procedure is really effective, but should be obligatory repeated once a week in order to protect your home animals from new invasion.
Cedar Chips
If you chance to have some cedar chips at home, do not hesitate to use it for fighting fleas invasion as it really works! Place a handful of chips under your pet’s bed lining or just in it and wait for some time. The fact is fleas can’t stand this smell and will go away in no time as they detect it around.
The chips can be very helpful outside as well: use it around your house foundation as well as along fence line and in the yard. When your pet will bring any fleas in its hairs cross your yard, the insects will abandon your premises very quickly due to the smell.
The Reasons of Having Fleas in Your House
In fact, you can never know how and when the bloodsuckers have entered your dwelling. You really can’t know for sure how you got these annoying insects but of course there are certain ways they get into your home.
Of course, the most popular and frequent way is getting indoors riding one of your pets. If your door or cat walks outside from time to time and then comes back to sleep in the house, most probably very soon you’ll see fleas in your rooms.
But sometimes even people who have no pets at all suffer infestation. The fact is that fleas can easily get inside by themselves. In summer, when it’s hot, the bloodsuckers do not need any host for surviving: they will happily settle in your garden for example or a backyard.
It often happens that infestation is already here when you move in a new home: empty building is a favorite place for the bloodsucking creatures.
Preventing Tips
Of course no one can have a warranty for not having fleas in his house especially when you have animals. But any person has chances to avoid the risks of getting the pests and decrease them sufficiently. It’s not complicated: just make your premises not so desirable and hospitable for the insects.
First, you need to keep your house clean round the year, cleaning it regularly and thoroughly, paying special attention to corners.
The second important point is checking all your pets for the insects as soon as they come back from their walk outside. Try to treat your pets regularly with special means to avoid the risk of infestation.
You might also want to try applying some insects’ preventatives. Check for this and consider the option.
Caulk all the crack and hole in your house to prevent the creatures enter your house.