If a pet has fleas, they can threaten not only the health of the pet, but also people. These parasites can carry over 25 dangerous diseases. Therefore, the question of how to get rid of fleas in the house quickly at home is quite popular.
If fleas appear in the house, you need to get rid of them.
Causes of fleas in the house
Insects are often brought indoors from the street by a pet dog or cat, or by people on shoes, clothes, or in a bag of groceries.
Other common factors for fleas in the home include:
- movement of parasites through the ventilation system or cracks;
- entry from public corridors and entrances;
- from rodents;
- lack of hygiene, unsanitary conditions;
- dust that appears after major repairs.
The spread of fleas is often facilitated by dampness that occurs in apartment bathrooms and basements. Insects can move from attics and basements, especially if rodents have been poisoned there using chemicals. Therefore, parasites often attack apartments on the top or first floor.
Habitats
Having found out where fleas come from, it is necessary to determine their favorite habitats.
This:
- floor coverings: parquet, laminate, linoleum, carpet, carpet;
- cloth;
- bed sheets;
- Kids toys;
- bin;
- cushioned furniture;
- pet bedding;
- baseboards, gaps between them.
Parasites can live in wardrobes. There they make nests in the cracks of furniture and linens. Often such insects are found in birds kept in cages.
Types of domestic fleas
There are several varieties of domestic fleas: dog, cat, human, etc. Some of them carry dangerous infections.
Cats and dogs
Cat fleas are the most common type of parasite. They feed on the blood of not only cats, but also dogs (and even humans). This type of insect most often attacks people. Fleas can grow up to 5 mm in length. They have a dark body, slightly flattened on the sides. The mouthparts of insects are piercing-sucking. Their bite is extremely painful, leading to skin irritation, itching, and rashes. When scratching, pustular inflammation appears.
Dog fleas feed on the blood of dogs. If they do not find a main source of food, they can switch to a cat or person to satisfy their hunger. This type of parasite can survive without food for several months. Fleas' mouths are designed in such a way that they penetrate the skin and suck in blood.
The body of the insect is flat. Covered with a large number of bristles and ridges, due to which there is strong adhesion to dog hair. The structure of the body allows the flea to easily jump from one animal to another.
Bedding and linen
Flea habitats in the house.
Bed and linen fleas live in sleeping areas. They appear if the bed linen has not been washed for a long time or dust has accumulated in the crevices of the bed.
They attack people at any time of the day. Such insects reach a length of 2-3 mm.
Their body is shiny brown, slightly compressed on the sides. The body is covered with a chitinous layer that performs a protective function. The oral apparatus is presented in the form of a proboscis. Bites cause severe allergic reactions, as well as nervous system disorders.
Herbal and earthy
Grass fleas live in grass and feed on the sap of trees, shrubs and plants. Ground insects live in the sand or in the ground, but they satisfy their hunger only with blood. Outwardly, they strongly resemble ordinary parasites. They grow to 2-3 mm in length. The proboscis ends in the middle of the chest. When fleas appear in a house, they can bite animals and humans. The bite of such an insect causes severe redness around the wound, since the substance it secretes into the blood is a strong allergen.
Physical method
To get rid of cat fleas, you can treat your apartment with a steam generator or steamer. Insects, their eggs, and larvae do not tolerate strong heat. At temperatures above 45°C they die.
Steam treats carpets, upholstered furniture, floors and baseboards. Activities are carried out every 10 days until the cat fleas are completely eliminated.
For your information. You should choose steam generators that operate in a horizontal position. Some models do not have this feature.
It is not possible to get rid of all parasite eggs at once. They may be in some secluded corner of the apartment where steam does not reach. After some time, larvae will appear from them, and the fleas will begin to reproduce again.
Methods of destruction
To get rid of fleas, disinsection measures are carried out, which involve the use of chemicals and folk remedies.
Professional pest control
To eliminate fleas from your home once and for all, you can use the services of a special service. Professionals will help you quickly remove all insects from the room, but you will have to pay dearly for the work done.
Advantages of professional pest control:
- use of effective and harmless means;
- no re-processing required;
- specialists are dispatched even on weekends and holidays;
- a guarantee is provided for the service performed;
- During work, special equipment is used to permanently destroy emerging parasites.
Exterminators use special chemicals. Fog is used to kill fleas. Using a generator, insecticides that contain microparticles of chemicals are sprayed. In addition, when treating the most difficult to reach areas, specialists perform disinsection manually.
Chemicals
Help you fight fleas indoors on your own:
- aerosols and sprays;
- contact preparations in the form of suspensions or powders;
- crayons.
Almost all drugs negatively affect the nervous system of insects, blocking the transmission of impulses. Because of this, fleas become paralyzed and die. Such products contain different active ingredients: pyrethroids and organophosphates.
Preparations of the pyrethroid group are characterized by a slightly delayed action, resulting in a long-lasting effect. Products based on organophosphorus compounds have an ovicidal effect, that is, they help rid the room of adults and eggs. These include the drugs Dichlorvos and Karbofos.
Chalks are used to control fleas. This poison is used to treat surfaces in places where it is not possible to use another product. The crayons are slightly toxic, so they are mainly intended for preventive purposes.
Means for getting rid of fleas.
Powder is a drug that helps kill emerging fleas. Characterized by long-lasting effects. It is easy to spray in cracks, under cabinets and carpets. This remedy has a poisonous effect when the parasite comes into contact with it.
The most powerful chemicals:
- Spray Raptor. It helps fight blood-sucking parasites and does not harm humans. This remedy can poison even hatched larvae, since its effect lasts 3 weeks.
- Sinuzan. The drug is considered professional. Quickly and permanently rids the room of fleas. Its only drawback is its pungent, unpleasant odor.
- Chlorpyrimark. Helps kill fleas, bedbugs, ants, flies, cockroaches in the apartment. The effect of use lasts 1.5 months.
- Biorin. Product of increased toxicity. It lasts 8 weeks, and insects begin to die immediately after treatment. Has a pungent odor and is unsafe for pets and children.
- Pyrethrum. This is a powder that is made from ground chamomile inflorescences. They treat all hard-to-reach places in the rooms.
Before using any drug, you should carefully study the instructions.
Folk remedies
Not all chemicals are effective or safe. When using them, a severe allergic reaction may develop. Therefore, harmless folk remedies come to the rescue.
To get rid of fleas, you can make herbal infusions. They have a specific smell that repels insects. Basically, parasites cannot tolerate the aroma of tansy, eucalyptus leaves and wormwood. Take 1 tbsp. l. plants, pour 200 ml of boiling water and leave for half a day. The liquid is used to wipe walls, floors, clothes, and household items.
Bunches of fresh grass laid out on the floor provide quick results. Another effective method is the use of essential oils. Fleas do not like anise, clove, mint and eucalyptus aroma, so it is recommended to treat all surfaces in the room with such oils.
Parasites do not tolerate the smell of pine needles; when it appears, they immediately leave. If fleas have infected an animal, you need to fill its bedding with pine sawdust. When washing clothes or bathing a pet, it is recommended to add pine decoction to the water. Parasites cannot tolerate the smell of garlic. A fraction of the product is crushed and mixed with brewer's yeast. The resulting mixture is used to wash the floor.
If there are fleas in the house, citrus peels are used to rid the room of them. To do this, the peel of a tangerine, lemon or orange is laid out in places where insects were found. Ordinary salt and baking soda are also used for these purposes. Take these components in equal proportions, mix and scatter on the floor. Salt, once on the parasite's shell, begins to corrode it, leading to the death of the flea.
Folk remedies for getting rid of fleas.
You can remove pests using tar oil. To do this, the product is ground on a grater and diluted with hot water. The solution is used to treat the surface of furniture, walls, doors, and floors.
Vinegar is used to prevent the appearance of parasites. All surfaces and floors are treated with a highly concentrated solution, and hard-to-reach places are sprayed with it.
Heat treatment
In order for fleas to live, they need an optimal temperature. If it changes for the worse, the apartment parasites will die. Therefore, it is possible to create such unfavorable conditions for them.
To do this:
- Freezing. This involves ventilating the apartment in severe frost, when the temperature drops below -20°C. This method is effective, but has its drawbacks. For example, pipes may be damaged.
- Heating. In this case, the temperature is artificially increased to +50°C. Engineering communications are not affected, but this procedure is more difficult to complete. To do this, they call in special teams with heat guns.
Safe folk remedies
Folk remedies usually help when the individuals have not yet spread throughout the entire home, or as an auxiliary to the main chemical preparation. If you see that there are a lot of bloodsuckers, it’s better to immediately start using more effective chemistry to prevent uninvited guests from invading your home.
How to remove fleas using improvised means?
- Citrus. Pests cannot stand this smell. You can place the zest along the baseboards
- Wormwood, bay leaf, tansy. Also unpleasant for parasites. You can place bunches of these plants in the corners of the room. The smell will repel insects.
- Baking soda. Dilute soda and salt in water (1:1) and spray the areas where the individuals live with this solution.
- Garlic. It is used as a decoction (1 head of garlic per 1 liter of water). Pour the broth into a spray bottle and spray the suspected habitats of the parasites.
- Essential oils. They repel with their smell. Any strong-smelling essential oil is diluted in water (10 drops per 1 liter of water) and the floor is washed with this water. You can also use vinegar or ammonia.
- Cold. If you are trying to get rid of pests in the winter season, low temperatures outside the window will be a good help. You need to leave the windows in the house open for several hours. Bloodsuckers cannot survive at sub-zero temperatures.
Preparing the room for processing
Before you start treating a room for fleas, you need to prepare it. If an animal lives in the house, its bedding is washed in hot water or thrown away. Do the same with the blanket on chairs and sofas if your pet likes to lie on it. All tile and wood floors, linoleum and carpeting are thoroughly vacuumed and wet cleaned.
Upholstered furniture is vacuumed or cleaned with detergent, carefully treating the locations of the sofa cushions. After cleaning is completed, the replacement bag is removed from the vacuum cleaner, placed in a plastic bag and thrown outside into a container. It is also recommended to treat the animal for fleas.
If there is an aquarium in the apartment, it is necessary to cover it tightly with a lid and turn off the artificial air aeration compressor. If even one drop of insecticide gets into the water, all the fish will die. When preparing the room, toys and other things are removed from the floor. Animals that are kept in a cage (hamsters, reptiles, birds) are taken out of the apartment. Dishes and food are carefully packed in film or hidden in a closet.
If it is necessary to treat the courtyard area of a private house, it is necessary to remove all objects located there. The bedding in the dog house is thrown away or washed in hot water. It is recommended to mow the tall grass and clear the yard of various rubbish.
Destruction of parasites in the basement
Fleas often live in basements with high humidity and poor ventilation. Therefore, these rooms also need to be treated against insects. Leaking pipes that cause a lot of moisture in the basement should be repaired. Fleas often lay eggs in cracks, so such cracks should be thoroughly cleaned of debris. There is always a lot of dust in the basement, so before cleaning the floor is sprayed with water so that particles of debris with parasite larvae do not settle on the ceiling and walls.
The concrete floor in the basement is washed using bleach or a strong soap solution. To ventilate the room, open all hatches and windows. Processing of the basement begins after the floor is completely dry. To do this, dilute the disinfestant according to the instructions, without exceeding the required dose. You can use the drugs Diazinon, Tetrix, Sinuzan and Kukuracha.
Many chemicals must be diluted with water. Using a sprayer, the drug is applied to the floor and walls. To completely rid the room of fleas, it should be treated 2 more times. This helps destroy both adults and eggs.
Exterminators
When an infection reaches terrifying proportions, you cannot hesitate, you need to call in professionals. Nowadays, there are many services that professionally carry out pest control of premises, eliminating pests for a long time. In addition, such services provide a guarantee that the insects will not return again. Of course, this will require certain financial costs, but the result will please you for a long time. Therefore, if you find large clusters of parasites, we advise you not to put off calling specialists.
Actions after disinfestation
You should enter a cleaned and treated apartment after it has been thoroughly ventilated. Carry out wet cleaning of places that have to be touched, except for the floor. When sprayed, the chemical may accidentally get on door handles, armrests, or table surfaces. Treatment with a soap-soda solution neutralizes the effects of the insecticide.
Types of fleas.
The bed is covered with clean linens, armchairs and sofas are covered with washed bedspreads. Then the lid is removed from the aquarium, the artificial air compressor is turned on, and children and pets are brought in. It is not recommended to wash the floor for 2 weeks after treatment. Upholstered furniture and floor coverings should be vacuumed every day to remove dead insects.
Security measures
When sprayed, the concentrate gets on the skin and mucous membranes, so work should be done while wearing gloves, a respirator, safety glasses, a headscarf and a closed uniform. Precautionary measures help prevent poisoning.
When certain types of insecticides enter the human body, nausea, dizziness, diarrhea, and weakness in the body occur. The doctor should prescribe symptomatic treatment. You can also purchase medications yourself at the pharmacy: sorbents in tablets or powder.
Processing should not be carried out near open flame sources. This is due to the fact that some products (usually aerosols) contain flammable substances. After the procedure, you need to wash your hands, face with soap, and eyes with clean water. You should also rinse your mouth.
Practical recommendations
In order to no longer encounter such a problem as fleas in your apartment, you need to adhere to the following recommendations:
- treat your pet regularly with anti-flea products;
- regularly wipe floors with insecticidal solutions or bleach;
- do not accumulate unnecessary things in the attic;
- periodically knock out pillows, mattresses, rugs, carpets;
- change bed linen every 3 days.
In addition, cut wormwood or tansy should be kept in the basement of the house. Fleas do not like such plants and will avoid these places.
