Killing fleas is hard for two reasons. They are tiny and they are very acrobatic. Mainly they come to your house via your pets. Pretty soon, they are everywhere inside your house!
I don’t need to remind you how annoying they are. You have already experienced this. So, I will show you some effective methods on how to get rid of fleas in the house forever.
And yes, I will cover some home remedies as well. Have some patience…Read all the tricks shared here.
8 Steps To Get Rid Of Fleas In The House Fast Completely
Pets are the walking carrier of fleas. So, for the solution to be effective, you need to consider your yard along with your house.
In fact, take note of places where your pet roams as well. But for now, just follow these steps to solve the problem:
- Identifying The Fleas
Just because you saw a few fleas here and there around your house does not mean you have a flea infestation.
Because if you don’t have a problem, to begin with, following all the below-mentioned steps will be futile.
So, understand first whether the flea infestation is already underway or not. It’s already underway if you notice the following sign
If you notice any black or white color mounds of odd substance in your carpet or bedding, it’s a red sign of fleas in your bedroom.
The white substances are most likely the flea eggs and the black substances are most likely the flea poops.
If you are not sure, put the small black substance in water. If it turns into a reddish or brown color, it’s a flea poop!
- Infested Areas Identification
Once you are sure you have a flea infestation, it’s time to locate all the infested areas. Usually, you can find those pesky little fleas hiding in those areas:
- Under Carpets & Rugs
- Under Leaf Piles
- In your Bed & Mattresses
- In Cracks and Crevices
- Pest Feeding Areas
- Develop A Flea Removal Action Plan
Once you have successfully pinpointed those infested areas, it’s time to come up with an action plan. To be more precise, you need to fix an extermination day!
There are some preparations to take. You may develop your own plan and make preparations as deem fit, but I just follow the rest of the steps.
- A Thorough Vacuum Cleaning
Vacuum clean everything in your house that seems possible like your bed, rugs, carpets, couches, etc. If you have hardwood floors, vacuum cleans them too.
If the infestation is serious, perform a steam cleaning before the vacuuming to kill the adult fleas. Vacuuming will take care of the eggs.
The vacuum bags will contain will dirt including the flea eggs (if any). So, be sure to throw out the vacuum contents outside your home so that they can’t come back again.
- Wash Your Bedding & Sheets
As fleas love to hide in fibers, you should wash all of your clothes, bedding, sheets, towels, etc. with hot water.
Using hot water is a must to do the laundry to kill all the fleas hiding in them.
- Flea Medication For Pets
Yes, you need to make your pets free of fleas as well. Otherwise, they will come back and infest again.
Apply tick and flea medication to your pet and wait for a while before you give them a bath. If your pets bathe too soon, the medication won’t work and they will invite fleas back.
- Choose & Apply A Flea Extermination Solution
A chemical solution works great to exterminate them all fast. If you want to apply the chemical spray yourself, you have two options: Flea Sprays & Flea Foggers.
If you are looking for a quick and easy option, I recommend trying the flea spray method. You can use it on various surfaces.
Just spray it on the surfaces of your furniture, rugs, carpets, bedding, and anything else that is infested with the flea. It kills all the adult fleas and their eggs as well!
But if you have hard-to-reach areas where the fleas might be hiding, you should try the flea foggers option.
Before you apply this, I need to remind you that both humans and pets must keep out of the home for at least 24 hours after applying this. The poison needs time to work and it’s not safe for humans.
Being poisonous, you must cover all of your edible items and disable your smoke detector as well. It may sound daunting, but it really works when applied properly.
Try aerosol sprays if you are not so sure about foggers.
- Finishing Touch
You can’t stop until all the fleas are dead. You can only finish the exterminating task when you are 100% sure all of them are dead. Otherwise, you are facing a re-infestation again.
To have a flea-free long-lasting home, you must be persistent. Keep vacuuming and washing your bedding regularly. Continue to medicate pets against such fleas too.
Here is a video explaining a beyond-the-box idea to fight fleas.
How To Get Rid Of Fleas In Bed Mattress?
A healthy mattress is the single most crucial thing for your healthy sleep. But when you have fleas in the serene sanctum of the bed, it’s a serious problem.
Your pet is most likely the cause why fleas in your bed mattress but it can be there just having a blood meal!
And don’t mistake it for baby bed bugs like most people do! Fleas are generally smaller in average size with oval shape.
Forget sound sleep, they will bite you relentlessly! Here is how you can remove those blood-sucking fleas from the bed mattress:
- Wash All Sheets & Bedding
Ghastly little creatures like fleas can’t survive the hot water. So, the first step is to strip your mattress of its sheets and bedding. Now, wash them in hot water.
But keep in mind, hot water can damage some fabrics. You have two options to wash them.
You can use your washing machine setting it to more than 95 degrees or you can simply wash them in plain but hot soapy water. Both methods will do the trick. Just make sure the water is more than 95 degrees hot.
Keep the bedding sheets in hot water for at least 30 minutes. Within this time, the fleas should be dead.
Use dedicated bags to move the bedding from and to the laundry room to avoid infesting other rooms of the house.
- Vacuum The Naked Mattress
And for that, I don’t recommend a bagless vacuum. This second part is also crucial. Vacuum the entire mattress at least 3 times including the sides and edges.
After you are done vacuum cleaning the mattress, dump the bag outside, and dispose of it.
- The Final Action
Even if a single flea can survive the above two processes, they will come back! You don’t want them to give that chance.
So, as the final step, I recommend using food-grade Diatomaceous Earth (DE) to kill the rest of them. The DE is perfectly safe for humans but deadly for fleas!
This is what you can do…
When the bedding sheets are dried, slip on the mattress cover. But before sealing the mattress up, spread DE inside it. Now seal the mattress cover.
Keep the mattress sealed for at least one month to kill both the adult fleas and their next generation!
How To Get Rid Of Fleas In Your Yard?
During the exterminating process, a whole lot of fleas will take shelter in your yard. And you can be 100% sure that some of the flying bugs in the yard are fleas!
So if you don’t take action to remove them from the yard, you will re-infest your home and pets again.
If you have a very large yard to cover, identify all those hidden spaces where it’s shady, warm, and humid. Spots with plenty of sunlight won’t be flea-infested for obvious reasons.
Observe where your pets usually sit down in the yard. Use every mechanism to identify your target zones.
Once all the target zones are spotted, follow the steps:
- They love to hide in tall grasses. So, mow your lawn and rake the exposed surfaces. Don’t compost the lawn grass.
- Keep all the bushes clean. Remove dead leaves and twigs from the flower beds to make sure enough sunlight can reach there. Sunlight equals no flea!
- Your pets like to lie down under the bushes or on the flower beds. Spread cedar chips on those spots.
Home Remedies To Get Rid Of Fleas
So, what to do if you have fleas in your house and you don’t want to hire a professional pest controller?
Can you do it yourself with whatever you have in your house?
Yes, you can. Of course, such home remedies won’t bring the same result as it would by a professional.
But it will get the job done and keep those pesky insects at a minimum. Here are 8 most effective home remedies you can try:
- Flea Repelling Plants
Not just fleas, there are some plants that keep other biting insects away from your yard and house. There are some chemical compounds in those plants that keep those fleas away.
I strongly recommend planting these bug-repelling plants in pots and flower beds around your home to make a natural barrier.
More so, these plants add beauty to your home as well. You can pick from a wide range of fleas repelling plants. Here are a few of them:
- Lavender
- Spearmint
- Penny Royal
- Chrysanthemums
- Rosemary
It won’t get rid of them but rosemary is a great natural fleas’ repellant and effective enough to repel and prevent them.
You need to make an herbal flea powder using rosemary and other ingredients which I am about to talk about soon. And the cool thing about the powder is that you can apply it directly to your pet as well!
Let’s see how you can make the rosemary powder to treat fleas.
Place some wormwood, peppermint, fennel, and rue with the rosemary into a pestle and mortar. Grind them good until it takes a powder form.
When the powder is ready, sprinkle it on your pet bedding, window sills, carpets, furniture, and any other places where there might be a flea’s presence.
- Diatomaceous Earth
How about killing the fleas by dehydrating them? Yes, the diatomaceous earth is perfectly capable of killing not just fleas but other insects as well.
The fine powder is made of fossilized algae and it has many applications like killing fleas. The good news is it’s non-toxic for both humans and pets.
Identify all the places where the fleas’ activities are very high. Wear a face mask and sprinkle the powder to all those places in thin layers.
When you are done sprinkling the powder, leave it for 2 days to do its magic. After that, vacuum promptly.
- Lemon Spray
In addition, to treat wasp stings, the lemon spray is a great home remedy to treat fleas as well.
I know you already familiar with the lemon spray treatment for various purposes, but let’s see how it can prevent fleas too.
You need to make a great citrus spray and then apply this spray on your furniture and other infected places.
Slice a big lemon. Get a pint of water and add the slices and bring to the boil.
Now, let the citrus solution sit overnight. Then get a spray bottle and pour the solution into it.
Now spray the solution into all the fleas-infested areas like the sofas, chairs, pet bedding, etc.
- Dish Soap
Did you know you can create a flea trap using just plain water and dish soap? Sounds interesting and easy to achieve, right?
In case you don’t know, fleas are nocturnal insects. So, to make this method work effectively, you need to do this at night.
Well, get a plate or bowl and fill it with warm water and dish soap. The solution will become glue. Place the bowl in places where you see their high activities.
The high viscosity of the glue solution will trap the fleas. When you keep doing this every day, the number of fleas will be significantly reduced.
As opposed to whatever you have read from other sources, do not lit a candle near the bowl to attract the fleas.
Yes, it works better that way but it has a potential fire hazard if done unattended.
- Baking Soda + Vacuuming
Yes, vacuuming works tremendously better to get rid of fleas by removing them from furniture and carpets, but you can make it more effective using baking soda!
So, I recommend you trying this flea home remedy as well where you will be increasing the effectiveness of vacuuming by a lot.
This is how you should do it…
Sprinkle the baking soda on your carpets and furniture. Get a hard brush and rub it. Now vacuum your home thoroughly and empty the vacuum content outside of your home.
- Herbal Flea Spray
The good thing about this natural flea home remedy is that it’s safe around your children and pets.
And if you want to get rid of fleas naturally with vinegar, you should pay attention to this method.
Even before preparing the spray, you should vacuum your entire home properly. Wash all of the infested cushions or bedding.
Now, let’s see how to make the herbal flea spray.
Get a large spray bottle and pour 4 liters of vinegar, 250 ml of witch hazel, 500 ml of lemon juice, and 2 liters of water.
Now, apply the flea spray on your carpets, pet bedding, floors, window sills, furniture, etc. When you do this repeatedly, fleas won’t bother coming back!
- Salt + Vacuuming
It involves vacuuming after applying salt just like the baking soda method described above. But it works like applying diatomaceous earth.
Let me explain…
The agent of the salt kills the adult fleas by dehydrating them. And as you already know, it’s quite non-toxic to humans.
So, give this a try if you don’t have baking soda available right now.
Sprinkle the finely ground salt on all of the carpets of each room. Let it sit there for 2 days. Then vacuum clean it and throw out the vacuum content outside.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
It depends on how serious the infestation is. Usually, it takes 10 days to 1 month.
The bedroom is full of tight spaces and cracks. They hide in those areas to lay eggs and better protection for larvae and cocoons.
No, fleas can’t live in human hair because of inadequate protection of fur. For the same reason, they like your furry pets!
They hate any strong smells like clove, lavender, citrus, eucalyptus, citronella, and peppermint. All of them work great as fleas’ repellent.
Only when there is no blood source to feed on.
No. They have made an infestation because your house has an ideal environment to live and reproduce. You must take action!
Yes. Vacuuming can kill up to 96% of adult fleas and 100% of younger fleas.
Bottom Line
Fleas are not just annoying; they are deadly as well since they carry deadly diseases as well. But that should not scare you as you have learned many ways on how to get rid of fleas in the house forever.
Keeping your home, yard, and surrounding clean is the best preventive measure against fleas. Ensure this, and fleas won’t bother you.
I have fleas everywhere in my house. Every night I spray from top to bottom. Am going crazy itching everywhere on my body. I can’t sleep. From head to toe am itching.
And my son as well. Vet gave me spray to put . And my cats had there drops. I need help 😫 can’t take it. It’s more in my through lounge. Can’t stay still.plzz help. Shaheen.