Where did fleas come from in an apartment is the first question people ask when small biting insects are found. A lot of people think that the reason for the appearance of fleas in an apartment is pets, which, in fact, are carriers for these insects, but this is not entirely true!
You yourself can be their distributor, bringing them home after a walk along with dirt on your clothes and shoes. Or they will get into your apartment from the entrance or basement, or maybe from neighbors. At first, you won’t even suspect that these insects live next to you. You will only become aware of their presence when they become hungry, look for food, and find you and your pets.
Why are fleas dangerous to humans?
Fleas, whether cat, dog or flea, are dangerous to humans. They feed on the blood of animals and people, including those suffering from dangerous diseases. How dangerous are fleas to humans? Because they can carry these diseases! Among the infections and diseases carried by fleas are the following:
- plague;
- salmonellosis;
- typhus;
- relapsing fever;
- anthrax;
- trypanosomiasis;
- encephalitis;
- tularemia;
- listeriosis.
Interesting fact: cat fleas are more likely to attack humans than dog fleas.
Fleas rarely attack humans, mainly due to the absence of other living creatures. It is easier for them to hide in the fur of pets, and humans do not have such a thick coat of fur, so fleas are not able to live on humans, but they can bite.
How long do fleas live?
The average lifespan of a flea is 2-3 months. This indicator is relevant for ideal conditions, when the temperature and humidity of the environment are most suitable for a particular type of insect. If, for example, the air temperature rises significantly, the flea dies within 3-4 weeks. But cold, on the contrary, increases the lifespan of the parasite; a flea can live 1.5 - 2 years.
Flea
Fleas living on animals have a harder time surviving. Most parasites die when a cat or dog practices hygiene.
Attention! Oddly enough, the lack of food also increases the life expectancy of parasites. Without food, fleas will not reproduce, but they can survive for months.
Why are there fleas in cities?
Fleas are as common in cities as pigeons and crows. They first chose five-story buildings, and then the multi-story apartment buildings that appeared. In cities, fleas are comfortable: they do not freeze in winter, because apartments and basements are warm, they do not have to starve, because there are a large number of stray and domestic animals. And apartment buildings allow them to easily migrate and spread. Even if treatment has begun in one apartment, some of the fleas will have time to move into the next room through accessible exhaust systems or through an open door.
Established comfortable conditions contribute to con in cities and towns.
Preparing the apartment
Before the disinfestation procedure, you need to prepare the apartment. For this you will need:
- wash clothes, dry them and put them in airtight packaging;
- It is recommended to sprinkle carpets with salt and soda in a 1:1 ratio, wait 30 minutes, then vacuum - this will increase the likelihood of destroying larvae and nits;
- the floor and all surfaces are thoroughly washed, it is recommended to add vinegar to the water - 1 glass per 5 liters of warm water;
- place all food in airtight packaging;
- get rid of debris, dust and dirt;
- remove animals and plants from the apartment.
Where did fleas come from in a private house in the country or in the village?
We've sorted out the cities. Where do fleas come from in a private home? Most often they enter the house through animals - cats, dogs, chickens, rabbits and others. Since it is more comfortable and safer to breed in a warm house than in the grass outside, fleas remain permanently. Earth fleas can get into the house on your shoes and clothes; you just need to walk through an area of soil infested with them, and the parasites will attach themselves to you. There are cases when fleas enter a wooden house on the soles of shoes in the form of larvae or eggs and only after some time, having reached a certain stage of development, they begin to attack the residents.
What to do?
Two weeks for the egg to develop, a little more in the larval stage, and now, after quite a bit of time, an adult comes into life, which can live up to one and a half years. Although in practice, of course, they live for about two to three months, but these months will seem like an eternity until you figure out how to get them out.
These insects can be destroyed only by gradually implementing the following points:
- identification of places of accumulation;
- providing protection until absolute destruction;
- carrying out general cleaning and washing of things;
- insecticide treatment.
It doesn’t matter why fleas appeared at home, the main thing is to start exterminating them immediately and prevent their possible appearance again.
Why are there fleas in the apartment?
Most often, fleas appear in an apartment for the following reasons from different places:
- a domestic animal carried them on its fur;
- rats running behind baseboards at night are excellent carriers of fleas;
- entered from the basement or from neighbors through the ventilation system;
- got into the house from the attic;
- were brought from a store or warehouse with furniture or other household goods;
- were brought in with clothes or shoes after visiting parks or regular yard areas;
- transferred by a person after contact with a stray dog or cat;
- a cluttered room with unsanitary conditions is perfect for fleas to settle in.
Where do parasites hide in the house?
To make insect control as effective as possible and quickly eliminate the problem, it is important to know which places need to be given more attention. Fleas can move throughout the home, but they usually concentrate in the areas where they are most comfortable.
- upholstered furniture, mattresses;
- bed linen, towels;
- carpets, rugs (especially with natural pile), linoleum;
- fur clothes;
- Stuffed Toys;
- cracks in the floor, baseboards;
- pet bedding;
- household waste;
- any other places where cleaning has not been carried out for a long time.
Typically, insects live no higher than 1–1.5 meters above floor level. Therefore, bites on humans are most often on the legs.
Why are there fleas in the apartment if there are no animals?
Listed above are the most well-known and common causes of fleas in an apartment, and even if you do not have a pet, they may apply to you. For example, if your neighbors have a pet, he may leave you a “surprise” in the form of fleas on the rug in front of the front door.
If you work in a warehouse or in a room with poor working conditions, where unsanitary conditions are widespread and incoming products are not checked, and the room is not regularly treated, then you can bring fleas on your work clothes. From the same room, fleas will go to the buyer of a new sofa or household appliances, and he will be perplexed - “where do the fleas come from in my clean apartment, where renovations were done just yesterday?”
Relocating fleas from clothes or things
The flea feeds on the blood of any creature, and therefore people suffer from bites no less than animals. The flea gets to people in several ways:
- when a person is near an animal in which insects live;
- after a hunt, clothing may be infested with fleas, especially if a person spent some time near a fox or badger hole;
- going down into a cellar or basement, being near a heating main or a well causes fleas to move from their habitable place to a person.
A great danger of bringing fleas on themselves awaits people who, due to their duty, have to spend a lot of time in the favorite places of life of pests. For example, a plumber who fixes pipes in the basement is likely to return with a few fleas.
Pests lay hundreds of eggs in things, from which larvae emerge - white worms. When buying a used item or transporting furniture or other household items from one place to another, you should carefully inspect them before leaving them in the apartment.
How to find a flea nest in an apartment?
A flea bite cannot be confused with anything, as it is very unpleasant, and there is constant itching at the site of the bite. If you exhibit these symptoms, you need to look for where these bloodsucking creatures live in your home and get rid of them as quickly as possible. If you observed that fleas are at a height of 40 centimeters above your floor, then somewhere nearby is their nest or source of entry into the apartment, for example through the ventilation system from neighbors. If you have pets, then first of all, inspect them. Most often, they are the carriers and distributors of fleas. After this you can treat all surfaces. And first of all, you need to remove all bedding for further washing, ironing or steaming. Upholstered furniture, mattresses and plush toys should be thoroughly vacuumed and, if possible, treated with a household steam cleaner. Treat the enclosed area, and after a few hours, open the doors and windows for ventilation.
Please note: it is not enough to simply vacuum the furniture and plush dust collectors, it is important to quickly dispose of the collected parasites, so install a disposable paper bag in the vacuum cleaner and after cleaning the room, be sure to pack it in a plastic bag and take it to a street trash bin. Do not use the garbage disposal to avoid spreading fleas throughout your multi-story building!
Most likely, you will not know where the fleas came from in your apartment, but you can prevent their spread. Do not delay the moment of starting their destruction, because if they manage to lay eggs, you will have to fight them for a long time, in a larger space. The newly hatched larvae will lack food - the blood of the animal - and they will move onto the furniture in search of another victim, which may be you. Try to check your pet for bloodsuckers once a week. The flea is easy to recognize - it has a bilaterally flattened body, in the photo it is shown in an enlarged form from various angles.
What types of fleas are known?
About two thousand varieties of fleas are known. 30 of them can occupy human habitations. The names of the species depend on the habitats of the parasites:
- earthen fleas or otherwise cruciferous (they settle in vegetable gardens, dusty, damp basements, dirty rooms);
- pets (including dogs, cats, humans, rats);
- bedding (takes up mattresses, pillows, bed linen);
- sandy (live on the sand, under furniture, carpeting).
- adult body size 5 mm;
- the sides of the body are flattened;
- color yellow-brown;
- jump high;
- The body of the parasites has bristles, with the help of which the fleas cling to the fur of animals and human clothing.
Cruciferous fleas
In order not to confuse fleas with other insects, you should study their appearance:
If parasites have appeared, you need to find out the reasons for their appearance in the living space and take the necessary measures to block access to new pests.
Disinfect your apartment from fleas
How to get rid of fleas at home?
You can fight fleas in different ways: some prefer folk remedies, while others prefer modern insecticides. The choice is yours. We will tell you about the main ways to get rid of fleas in an apartment, and also support them with reviews from experienced “home exterminators”.
Traditional methods of fighting fleas in the house
To begin with, we can remember what our grandmothers told us: you can fight fleas with herbal decoctions. This is true, but not by all, only by such as wormwood, mint, eucalyptus and pajamas . You can place fresh herbs around the house, or you can use their essential oils by placing cotton wool soaked in them around the apartment.
What will it give? As our ancestors assumed, this method can be used to drive insects out of the apartment, since they do not like the strong smells of herbs. Will this method help? If you live in a private house, it is possible. It will not be possible to smoke them out of an apartment this way; domestic fleas have adapted to many things and are no longer afraid of odors.
Soda with salt for fleas in the apartment
There is another simple folk remedy for fleas - a mixture of salt and soda. To prepare this product you need only three ingredients: salt, soda, water, they are in every home. Equal amounts of water and soda are mixed in water and dissolved. The solution settles for about 12 hours, after which it can be used: sprayed on carpets, soft toys and other fleecy surfaces. The effectiveness of this folk recipe is also not too great. Some fleas will die, and some will hide or run to their neighbors. In addition, this infusion will not help destroy flea eggs.
Folk remedies for fleas are not the most effective, but they will help drive fleas out of a private home when they have just appeared and have not had time to spread.
Appearance of a flea
If pinpoint bites appear on the human body, and small insects are jumping around the house, in order to determine their species, you need to understand what human fleas look like. Human parasites are very similar to other types of blood-sucking, wingless insects.
The pests are very small, they have a flattened body . Parasites have a small head and no wings. The size of an adult insect is about 3 mm.
A bloodsucker that bites a person has 6 legs, and its hind legs are more developed. This gives him the ability to jump over a long distance (1.5 m).
An insect that prefers to suck human blood has a developed oral apparatus. This allows him to inject and easily draw the red liquid from the vessels.
Modern flea treatments - insecticides
There are also modern methods of flea control designed for self-treatment of an apartment at home. More and more people are recommending liquid products, because they are very easy to use, they are quite effective - dilute them in some water, spray them, ventilate them, and the fleas are gone. Another advantage of modern products is that they leave no smell in the apartment, at least after ventilation there is no smell left. Dichlorvos certainly stinks, but even this product is released with a pleasant floral aroma and no odor at all. It is recommended to wash clothes and bedding at high temperatures using powder. If it is not possible to wash some items or is prohibited by the manufacturer, you can disinfect them with a steam cleaner or a steam generator iron.
You should very well wash the upholstered furniture in the apartment, wash the carpets, rugs and disinfect them along with the floor. But if you choose caustic chemical sprays, you need to familiarize yourself with safe use techniques, because you or your loved ones and pets can get terrible poisoning.
But if you still decide to use them, then you need to follow safety rules. It is imperative to carry out the above-mentioned methods of combating these parasites with gloves, a respirator and goggles. Dichlorvos is a very good remedy and, as a rule, effective, but after it residents need to leave their home for several hours.
It is best to ventilate the room once a day, wash and change bedding, contact a special service at the first sign, if you have a pet, then it is better not to remove the flea collar from it, periodically take pillows and mattresses out into the sun and steam them with a household steamer .
The most famous and effective remedies for fleas in the apartment: Combat, Gett, Raptor, Biorin, Sinuzan, Chlorpirimark, Deltsid, Tsifoks and so on.
You can choose the one that suits you according to price and availability at your nearest store. Pre-read reviews of drugs on the Internet. Here are some of them:
Katya, Moscow
“Fleas appeared on the entire floor of the dorm, they brought wormwood from the park and spread it everywhere - to no avail! We ran to the hardware store, bought Combat SuperSpray for 450 rubles, but there was nothing else. There was just enough for all the rooms on the floor. Due to the slight but pungent smell, we had to evacuate outside. Two hours later they came and ventilated. The next day the fleas were gone. Vacuumed and washed the floors. Now it's clean and fleas don't bite. It’s still not clear why fleas appear in an almost empty room.”
Vitaly Semenovich, Samara
Spray Raptor just saved me on a business trip! They moved me into terrible conditions, I thought fleas would eat me. Well the supermarket had a selection of insect repellent sprays. In terms of price-quality ratio, I chose Raptor; Dichlorvos is too caustic, although cheaper. In general, the aerosol really destroyed all the fleas, a week has passed, I finally got some sleep, the bite marks are almost gone.
Signs of fleas at home
It is quite easy to determine that fleas have appeared in an apartment or house. You can remain in the dark at first, while there are still few insects and they are not very active, but every day the signs that parasites are neighboring you become more and more obvious:
- the behavior of pets changes - they become restless, irritable, often itch, and sores appear on the skin;
- household members have bite marks on their bodies (most often on their legs below the knee), which itch and do not go away for several days;
- Small dark dots were noticed on the floor, furniture, linen or soft toys.
If at least one of the signs is noticed that confirms that fleas live in the apartment, it is necessary to urgently take measures to destroy them.
Traditional methods of combating flea infestations
Herbal tinctures, which have a pungent and characteristic odor, not only help expel parasites from your home, but also serve as a good preventive measure for their reappearance.
Flea tincture recipe: eucalyptus 1 tbsp. l., tansy 1 tbsp. l. and wormwood 2 tbsp. l. Mix everything and pour one glass of boiling water into the mixture. Leave for 10 hours. Strain, place in a spray bottle and irrigate the room.
Make a bag out of cotton fabric and fill it with pine sawdust. You will get a pillow for your pet that will repel fleas with the aroma of pine.
On the threshold of the apartment, scatter sawdust from coniferous trees mixed with wormwood . Parasites will not jump close to such a barrier.
Ventilate your apartment daily , as fleas are sensitive to cool air. In summer, air woolen items, bedspreads, mattresses, etc. on the balcony.
Recipe with soda. Prepare a mixture of baking soda and salt in equal proportions. Sprinkle it in places where fleas are likely to live and after ten hours, vacuum the surfaces. For prevention, repeat the procedure.
Yeast recipe. Mix brewer's yeast with crushed garlic and sprinkle it on your floors and carpets. After 10 hours, go through with a vacuum cleaner.
