Fleas are not just some little insect nuisances; they can adversely affect your pets and cause harm to their health. With this in mind, it is wise to keep your house free of them. Here are some useful tips on how to keep your house free from fleas.
Getting rid of fleas goes beyond some simple tips on bathing and grooming your dog. Stopping a flea infestation is an all-out battle. The process could take days, or even weeks, due to the life cycle of fleas. Achieving total flea eradication is not an easy task; it has to be done right to be effective. These are all you need to know about flea eradication in your home.
Attacking the Source
Pets are responsible for most flea infestations. Your pet may have contacted fleas from other animals through contact or by running around in grasses and the like. The first thing to do while fighting fleas is to treat the source of the infestation quickly. It doesn’t make sense to get rid of fleas in the house if your pets will keep on causing an outbreak.
You could begin keeping your house free from fleas with a flea comb. Pay extra attention to areas where fleas love to stay, like the neck and tail. Kill the fleas you comb of by dropping them into hot soapy water. Next thing to do is to contact you vet for flea control services for your pet. Try to get the best treatment that will for the type of fleas attacking you and for your climate. You can get many effective and safe flea treatments for your dogs and cats on the market. They could be spot treatments, topical, shampoos, oral, dust or dips, or sprays. What matters is that these treatments are effectively applied on a regular basis.
Never forget to treat every pet you have for fleas. Treating the seemingly most infested one while leaving the others, fleas or their eggs could still spread from the ones not treated. Most treatments need to be applied monthly or once every few months. The best action to ultimately get rid of fleas is to adopt prevention. This includes using topical or oral applications that protect your pet even before the increase in flea population during “flea season.”
Preparing the House for Cleaning
To keep your house free from fleas you’ll want to clean the area in preparation for treatment. Remove stray items like clothes, shoes, papers, boxes, etc. from the carpeted areas of your home. You should take out the things under your bed and in your closets. Also, move out the furniture if you can. The large, heavy objects sitting flat on the floor can be left behind since fleas cannot get underneath them.
Removal of Pets and Children
All household pets, including birds or fishes, should be brought out of the house. Cover any food bowls or water dishes, as well as bird cages and fish aquarium tanks. Generally disable systems that run your pet’s environment, such as heat rocks in reptile houses, and aerators in fish tanks. It’s best to do this when no one’s home.
In the case of heavy flea infestations, pet owners are advised to destroy and discard pet bedding totally. If the infestation is mild, thoroughly washing the bedding in hot soapy water will suffice. The process of washing in hot soapy water should continue weekly for at least one month, till your sure infestation has ended. After this, it is also advised that you wash your pet’s bedding regularly to keep fleas of permanently. To keep your house flea free, you may want to dry clean the bedding, but there’s the risk of transferring fleas to other customers and the dry cleaner.
Making a Strategy to Kill the Fleas
After clearing your house, go around and try to spot the fleas and their larvae. On a carpet, fleas will look like tiny dark spots which disappear as fast as they appeared. Fleas gather in areas where your pets sleep and rest most. You’ll also find them in areas without heavy foot traffic, and also in places that don’t get much direct sunlight.
Observe for highly visible blood stains and dried faces left behind by fleas. They can be spotted easily on your pet’s bedding. These secondary signs of fleas that resemble tiny specks of black dandruff or black pepper are also known as “flea dirt.” They are the primary food for flea larvae before maturing into pupae. Cleaning it off, remove the food source for growing infestation. Take note of areas with flea dirt as they usually are the breeding sites for fleas. These areas will require extra attention in order to keep your house free from fleas.
How to Rid your Carpet of Fleas
With your house now cleared up, thoroughly vacuum the house using a beater-bar style vacuum. Vacuum under the bed and any other furniture still in the house.
It’s crucial you pay much attention to the areas where your pets spend a lot of time and sleep. To be sure where your pets sleep during the day, check for furniture and spots with a lot of pet hair. Apply the same attention to places where you and your family spend a lot of time and also sleep. Fleas can be harmful to humans too, so ensure you do a complete job, for you and your family, as well as your pets.
The goal is not to just kill fleas, but to address the bigger problem which is associated with infestation: Larvae, pupae, and flea eggs. Getting rid of adult fleas alone is just a temporary fix, as a new generation of fleas will soon begin the nuisance all over again. Vacuuming addresses this problem by clearing of both the adult fleas and its eggs and offspring. Vacuuming will also get rid of “flea dirt” thus cutting off food supply for developing fleas.
Vacuuming additionally stimulates fleas still in their cocoon to come out prematurely. This is important as the cocoon is resistant to most insecticides. Vacuuming also assists insecticides in getting deep down into the fibers of your carpet, where stubborn, young fleas may hide. This is added protection to keep the house flea free.
You’re Not Done Yet
When you’ve finished vacuuming the throw rugs and carpet, also vacuum the linoleum, hardwood floors, and tiles. Then, turn to the cabinets, upholstery, bed, pillows, and even your cushions. In case you have a vacuum bag, make sure you tightly seal it in a garbage bag after removal and then dispose of it. Get a new replacement. Continue this process every other day until the fleas are totally gone.
In cases of severe infestations, vacuuming should come after steam cleaning. Most of the adult fleas will die from the heat, but some eggs may survive. Keep vacuuming every other day after steam cleaning to kill fleas as they hatch. Some fleas may still survive to adult stage. The next step is using an insecticide. This step is almost always necessary in moderate to severe cases.
Sadly, most common insecticides do not kill flea pupae because of the cocoons, so you might see a few fleas in about two weeks. Continue vacuuming to make the fleas leave their cocoons, making them vulnerable to residual insecticides. Continuous vacuuming should adequately control any remaining flea population as long as your pets have been treated. In truism, it is quite stressful doing all this work. Calling a pest management professional could prove a lot easier and have more effective results.
How to Eradicate Fleas in Your Yard
To test if you have fleas in your yard, put on a pair of long white socks that’s up to your knee level. Take a slow walk around your yard, especially around vegetation, under decks and in places where your pets spend a lot to time. Fleas will naturally avoid areas with direct sunlight or heavy foot traffic. As you go around the yard, the fleas will attach themselves to your socks where you can easily spot them, due to the color contrast. Do this a number of times at different time of the day during the week.
Some of the factors that can lead to and encourage flea infestation in your yard and surroundings include protective enclosures like your dog house, heavily shaded areas, crawl spaces where feral strays and wildlife might stay. Try to block holes in your hedge or fences through which strays and other wildlife can come in. Also, keep your pets away from strays and pets you’re not sure off to avoid contact fleas and other bothersome pests.
You may want to remove low-hanging branches and brush to allow for more sunlight into the yard. This will reduce your flea population drastically. In severe cases where treatment is necessary, growth regulators and residual insecticide are sometimes applied. Ensure you apply treatment according to directive/instructions on the label. Paying a pest management professional is the best option for effective results. This will help in keeping you, your family, and pets safe and free from those little biting insect nuisance.