How to Get Rid of Fleas in Home

With fleas invading your home and causing health risks not only to your pets but also to you and your family members, the best viable response in such condition is to chomp at the bit and eliminate nasty fleas out of your home. Unless you are determined to rid your home of fleas, the risk of infestation will keep getting on your nerves. There is a list of helpful remedies you can apply to exterminate these blood-sucking and disease causing fleas from your home.

Clean Up Your Home Environment

Fleas not only live and feed on their hosts, mostly cats and dogs, but also leave their eggs on them. Then it is these hosts who import such eggs into the home and let them fall off and accumulate in clothes, flooring, car and everyplace they visit. Therefore it is very essential to clean up your house entirely and remove all these eggs lest they should hatch and perpetuate their population and eventually the infestation. Following are some measures that must be taken while purging your home environment from fleas and their eggs.

1. Since fleas’ eggs flourish in dry climate conditions, it is vital to remove them by religiously vacuuming everything in your home including carpets, bare floors and upholstered furniture. Also use the vacuum attachments in order clean the corners, floor and door cracks, and anywhere else where dust can accumulate.
2. Sometimes the vacuuming loophole lets the larvae come out of eggs and start nourishing speedily. To eliminate flea larvae you have to steam-clean the carpet, flooring and furniture of your home. For this purpose you can use either some good quality insecticidal shampoo or some insect growth regulator (IGR). This treatment is effective for eliminating fleas in every stage but keep your kids and pets off while using these chemical solutions.
3. Moreover, wash bedding, rugs and other clothes with warm soapy water. Soapy water efficiently exterminates fleas in every stage whether they are in the form of eggs, larvae, pupae or adults. Diligently spill the used water out of your house in order to avoid any possible risk.
4. If you come across fleas eggs that are normally in the form of gross salt and pepper, do not spill them; instead, kill them with warm water mixed with insecticidal shampoo.
5. Do not forget to at least vacuum, or if possible wash, the bedding and other areas where your pets usually rest. Use soap and water to nip the fleas and their eggs in the bud.

Follow Flea Prevention Measures

Your battle against fleas has not yet concluded. Once you have launched the efficient cleaning campaign diligently in your home, you still have to adopt some preventive measures in order to keep wicked fleas under strict control.

Following are some very effective preventive measures that will help you control fleas permanently in your home.

1. Vacuum your house on daily basis for a period of at least two months. This is to ensure that the previously done steam cleaning is not leading any remaining eggs to hatch.
2. After vacuuming, do not keep the vacuum bags open in your home as it may trigger the entrapped flea eggs to reproduce larvae once again. Instead, seal them up and dispose of them immediately.
3. Use some good liquid Insect Growth Regulator (IGR) to the home environment. IGRs are used to hamper the natural growth of insects and can last effective for up to six months.
4. Keep your pets’ movement limited to areas that can be easily cleaned. Allowing them to wander through bedrooms, basements, garages, and other furnished areas may not help you get rid of fleas to the fullest extent.
5. If you find fleas hosting on your pets infrequently, it is better to bathe your pet with warm soapy water to exterminate the fleas. However, avoid using insecticidal shampoo for bathing your pet because it may affect his health.
6. Comb your pets regularly with flea comb and soak the removed fleas into soapy water.
7. To keep a check on fleas, you should also use such bedding for your pet as can be easily removed and washed. Carefully remove the bedding and diligently wash it to get rid of fleas present in your pet’s bedding.