How to get rid of fleas
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I got four cats. They go in and out of the house. I live in Orange County, CA, but the cats have a mind of their own, and they like to bring in fleas from all over the neighborhood.
Yes, my house is infested with fleas.
Fleas are my worst enemy in life. These creatures are amazing. They are so small that you can't see them. They seem to travel at a speed of light. And to make the case even worse, fleas are indestructable. You can't crush it to death even if you're lucky enough to catch them since they are so small, flat as my wallet, and made out of steel.
Fleas suck. Especially between the months of late-April to early-October, where they enjoy the hot weather to keep reproducting its amazingly well made bodies.
I've been struggling to keep fleas out of my house for the past 3 years. Over the course of 3 years, I've tried numerous remedies, spending countless hours researching, and spending a ton of money trying out different products. I want to share some of my remedy methods, since I know for a fact that people have the same flea problem around the world.
If you think fleas suck, and wake up each morning with nasty bites, read on to see what you can do to try and get rid of them.
Vaccuming the House
Once you suspect that you have a flea problem in your house, the first thing you need to do is become a neat freak. Prior to getting fleas in the house, I hated to vacuum. I'm a guy. This is pretty natural.
But once you have a flea problem, you really don't have the luxury to use the "I'm a guy" excuse. You need to become a clean freak.
Once I suspect that my cats brought in another batch of fleas into the house, I have no choice but to start vacuuming the room where I was bit, and out of fear, eventually the entire house. And the bad news is... you need to do this everyday.
It sucks. I hate to vacuum. But your choices are get eaten alive, or vacuum everyday.
I must choose to vacuum everyday. Fleas suck.
Clean your bedsheets
If you thought vacuuming the entire house everyday was enough to get rid of fleas, well.. I guess you're still new to this flea thing. Bad news. You need to do much more to get rid of fleas!!!
This is why fleas suck. You really have to make this your second occupation in order to get rid of these pesky creatures.
So, the next thing you need to do after you vacuum your entire house is to change all of your bedsheets. Fleas love to hang out with you in your bed. And they like to get you when you're sleeping. Easy target.
This is such a drag. Just imagine the thought of having to sleep with 5-10 fleas a night. Yuck.
Unfortunately, in reality, this is what is happening. And worst case if you don't do anything about it is that fleas will start to make your bed into their home. They will start to live there, mate there, and start to breed right on your bed. How's that for a romantic night?
So what you need to do is to clean your bedsheets. Again, I hated to do this before I had fleas. I probably changed my bedsheets once a month when I was single, and back in college.
Now with fleas around, I need to change it every 3 days or so. And this is after I get eaten alive. It's probably recommended to change it everyay or every other day.
Changing the bedsheets pains me because of all the water resource I need to use. I live in Southern California, and we have a water shortage. These sheets are pretty clean aside from the fact that they've got a few fleas living in them. Thanks to these 2-4 fleas, I need to do the entire bed. This sucks.
But again, your choices are: get eaten alive at night and risk making your bed a place for fleas to breed in; or wash the sheets.
I choose to wash the bed sheets. Again, fleas suck.
Treat your cats or dogs with Advantage or Frontline
So now that you have your place of residence free of most fleas, you really need to get to the source of it all. In most cases, it is your dogs or cats that like to bring in fleas into the house. You need to treat these guys with flea medication so that you can prevent them from brining fleas into the house in the first place.
I usually buy fleas medication online, since the medication they sell at pet stores or drug stores are too weak to do anything. Advantage and Frontline are the two big flea remedies for pets. These work pretty well.
The crappy part of this is that these flea medications will cost you $50-60. It's $50-60 that you'd rather not spend, but it's something that is necessary. You can buy them at Petmed or Amazon.com for about the same price.
I have been using Advantage in the past 3 years. I've never used Frontline, since I've heard that you need to get this from a vet. But I do see it selling on Amazon and Petmed. Maybe I'll try out Frontline next time.
Each box of Advantage contains four doses of flea medication. They have medication for cats under 5lb., cats over 5lbs., small dogs, and large dogs. The medication must be applied once a month or so, but in my case it's more like once every 2-3 weeks.
What I do, since I have four cats, is to get the Advantage box for large dogs. Since the medication content is all the same, I actually get more for my money by buying the Advantage box for a big dog. I then empty the medication in a small plastic condiment cup (like the one you get at El Pollo Loco to grab your salsa) and use a syringe to apply it equally to my four cats.
Since the medication content is the same, doing this will save you a lot of money if you have multiple cats or dogs.
Of course, cats hate this stuff, so they will run away, scratch you, and tries to avoid getting medicated at all cost. You'll also be down about $50-60 for the medication.
All this sucks. But your choices are to let your cats bring in fleas freely into the house, or make an attempt to prevent fleas from coming in the house.
I choose to prevent the fleas from coming in. All in all, fleas suck.
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Spray your yard with insecticide
Now that you've got your house covered, your pets covered, it's time for you to start trying going on the offensive. You will now go buy an insect killer - one that will kill fleas - to start spraying the yard with. You are now attempting to kill the source of trouble outside where they usually reside.
As I said before, at this point, this flea thing is becoming an occupation. Or you can call it an obsessive intervention to rid these guys out of your life.
Unfortunately, spraying the yard with insecticide has brought me limited success. Why? Because your cats and dogs will get fleas other than your yard, and will re-introduce them into your yard. And because fleas seems to be stronger and harder to kill than other insects.
I recently sprayed my front yard and back yard. I saw a ton of rolly pollies dead in my front porch. Some spiders, ants, and beetles died too. But my I still get fleas clinging on to my feet as I walk through the yard. And my house is still infested with fleas.
Fleas are tough. They are hard to kill.
Does this mean that you shouldn't spray the yard? Probably not. The insecticide will set you back about $10 at a Home Depot. But it's probably worth your time and money to treat your yard with. You do get to clean up on some of the other insect problems like ants, spiders, and beetles as yo do this. So there are some additional benefits of trying out this method.
Your choices here are: Go on an offensive to try and kill some fleas outside vs. not doing anything for you to defend your castle.
I choose to go on the offensive.
Of course, the time, the smell, and hassel involved in this isn't something you would prefer to do on a weekend. But fleas suck. And they make your life miserable.
Other Flea Remedies - Flea Trap, Garlic Pills, Rock Salt, and Planting Pennyroyal
So what I've described above is basically, "Beginning - How to Get Rid of Fleas."
I have had some success with the methods above. If I continue to do them everyday, I do notice a reduction in flea bites. Of course, I get lazy and start to procrastinate as I see a reduction. And that's when a new wave of flea infestations occur.
I am now in the process of trying out, "Advanced - How to Get Rid of Fleas."
Here are some of what I am trying out.
Flea Traps
As I was browsing through Amazon.com, I came across a flea trap. This is basically a trap that has a light with a stick pad on it. You plug it up somewhere, and set it up. Since the fleas are attracted to light, they will hop on to it, and get stuck on the sticky pads. Some reviewers said that they've caught 18 fleas just in the first night.
This does make a lot of sense. I've tried home made traps where I use soapy water in a flat tray container, alongside a table lamp at night. It's a home made trap, where some people swear by. Personally, setting up the trap each day was a hassle for me, and I risked spilling the soapy water as I moved it, so I didn't like to do it all that much. But thanks to this manufactured flea trap, it will become much easier to set up traps around the house.
These retail for about $10-15, and on sale at Amazon. I've never seen these at home improvement stores, so maybe they're a rare item. I'm going to try them to see if they help at all.
A reviewer said that it helps to move the trap every week or so to a new location. Also buying multiple traps will help too.
Garlic Pills
I've read somewhere that fleas don't like the smell and taste of garlic. I guess fleas have a preference on who they like to bite since my wife rarely gets bit, where I get eaten alive. Frequently, I'll wake up with over 15 bites just in one nigh's sleep.
This sucks.
So I have now purchased garlic pills. I don't mind eating a ton of garlic each day, but cooking it and smelling like garlic may make my friends repel me alongside the fleas. So I decided to go with garlic extract pills to see if they will do any good.
They do have the natual ability to lower blood pressure and high cholestrol, so I guess I'll get the health benefit even if fleas still like to get a bite of me.
I bought some garlic pills today on Amazon for about $9. I'm sure you can find garlic pills at your local pharmacy, grocery store, or supplement store.
Rock Salt
Placing rock salt in little containers underneath sofas and beds is said to help repel fleas in the area. I'm not exactly sure what it is about rock salt that fleas don't like, but if it worked for some, it may work for another.
I'm going to try out the cheap remedy starting today to see if this will work or not.
Fortunately, rock salt is pretty cheap. You can buy it for $2-3 from most grocery stores.
Hey, whatever that may work.
Pennyroyal
I've only known of Pennyroyal from a Nirvana song. Pennyroyal is a plant in the mint family. It is said that planting them will help to deter fleas from living in that area.
So, since I am into gardening lately, I'm going to try this as well. I've never seen, or looked for Pennyroyal seeds, so I don't know if you can get them at a local nursery or not. I will continue to look for them so that I can plant 72 pennyroyal plants using my seed starter.
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Conclusion
So here is my 3 years of research and experience on How to Get Rid of Fleas. Fleas suck. I hate them. And it is too bad they are so fast, so small, and so strong.
I hope this will help you to get some ideas on combating your own flea problems. If you also have ideas or remedies that worked for you, please use the comment box below to share them with us.
We all should make the goal of making fleas go extinct. Fleas really suck!!!!
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Hi Bruce,
Thanks for your comment. I hope my little post helped out a bit with your flea problem. Fleas sure suck. I'm still over here battling with them every day and night.
fleas are a crapper. I only have one cat and basically, it's the same hell with one as four.
You have some good ideas, especially getting the big dog bulk to save money. I thought that stuff was sold by strength--so I learned something new. I basically use a powder outside and that helps. My cat sleeps under the house during the day and gets relief there. I dont usually get bit, except maybe the fleas dont like waiting in line til the mosquitos are done with me. Orange county seems to be a draw for critters. One week I was infested with possum. disgusting creatures that my cat wouldn't even look at. they shit right where they eat(and where I eat too) I was kind and gentle.(that doesnt work) Finally I got tough and would catch them and make them stay in a little bag for a couple hours. they got pretty mad and didnt come back. They stick together until they are older. the sow gets huge.\
Thanks for the post its most helpful. I may have to try some of the products you listed here. My cat also eats much better than myself. So I'm on a budget. take care.
Solarcaptin,
Thanks for your comment.
I think I'm going to try out the powder myself too.
I'm also surprised to have so many critters in OC. I have a little shed in my backyard, and possums and skunks love to make it there home. I keep patching up what they dig, but they dig new holes, almost destroying the foundation of it.
I recently bought the Skunker online, and caught 3 skunks and 8 possums. http://www.theskunker.com/
Anyway, fleas and possums are both a drag. Hope you continue to keep both of them away.
i just started my war with them incredible and evil fleas myself! i also heard bathing your cat in Dawn dish detergent works too. thanks for the info! (=
Really enjoyed you article. Just got a cat and our problem was ticks. Started using frontline and have kept the cat in the house. Husband said we can let him out after the first freeze. Socks (the cat) is not real happy but he is learning to live with it.
Dawn does work to "stun" the fleas, but it doesn't kill them all, and poor kitty cats don't like baths.
I have found that using a good quality carpet fresh can help, because the bugs are overwhelmed by the chemicals and come to the surface before you vacuum, and are less likely to bed into the carpet when it is overloaded with smell-good stuff.
I have also learned that cedar is one of the best pest deterrents ever. I've lived in home with a high cedar content, and they never have any kind of bug, aside from an occasional little bitty house spider. If you happen to have a cedar chest, just look at it and around it. The fleas are not nearly so active there.
Unfortunately, I have never seen an infested home freed of fleas. I'm sorry! :(
We, too, live in the OC in CA, and I swear the flea problem has been much worse this year. Despite the fact that kitty doesn't go outside, we still have them. Indeed, we discovered, somewhat by accident, that the pesky critters were coming in the screens on the open sliding doors!!! Anyway, you don't need to wash linens every day - just throw them in the dryer on "cotton" for about 10 minutes. Cooks them.....and get rid of those white sheets and socks, too. White attracts fleas.
I have a lot of cats and live in South Texas so I have a very bad flea problem. They come in the house/my cats don't go out. Never use the dog wipe on products for cats if they have tick killer (i.e., Frontline Plus). That will kill your cats. Also, never put the wipeon stuff or flea spray on old or sick cats. It is hard to use much insecticide without endangering your cats because they have very delicate systems. Be careful.
Getting rid of fleas can seem almost impossible. For the longest time I lived at altitude where it was not an issue at all. But my latest round in my home took over one year to fully get rid of, I miss the altitude.
I liked all your suggestions. I have one about the garlic. i give my dogs the garlic tablets to keep fleas off them. You can get it for dogs at PetSmart or health food stores. It works good here in TN. Our ground never freezes so you have to keep giving the garlic to them year round. I have used both Frontline and K9-Advantix. Both worked good but more expensive than the garlic tablets.
Wow, I used to have fleas. Once I found out my cat was taking her daily trip through the mobile park and bringing home guests, I got out the table salt and sprinkled it on the carpets. Fleas crave salt, blood has salt, but fleas then get thirsty, and by putting an aluminum pie pan in the general infested area but out of traffic, with a light bulb to attract the fleas, they jump for the light and land in the water and drown. Salt also makes the fleas bloat and they die. This works because my mother in law showed me this 24 years ago and it does work. Try it! As for infestations, I go to the hardware store and get Sevin garden dust and sprinkle under cushions and furniture to help control. Thanks for sharing. I also use Frontline on my cat.
Never realised it could be such a serious problem, really, I'm surprised.
I also have cats, 5 of them, with very long hair, even in the house they cacth fleas. I treat them with advantage, frontline doesn't work at all with them.
Even if there are fleas in the home environment they will return to the cats and die. I don't have that kind of problem, it gets solved for itself with the cats product that works like a poison everywhere they stay and lay down....
I just finished a book on the topic called, Flea Control Secrets.
Pennyroyal is pretty toxic to pets and I am glad you used it in the garden.
Lately there has been a lot of problems with adverse reactions of spot-on flea treatments on pets--specifically on cats when dog products are used on them.
I hope you will check for more information over on the epa website at http://budurl.com/EPASpotOn
You should NEVER use a flea topical (Frontline, Advantage, Advantix) that is label for dog use on a cat. There is evidence using the inappropriate dosage can can harm to internal organ and even death. Please use only the formula for cats. And please do not say I have used the dog formula for years with no problems. You may not know there are problems as they can be internal.
As fleas will continue to breed in the vacuum cleaner,it's a good idea to put a cat flea collar in the bag to kill any fleas collected.Sprigs of lavender in sofas and mattresses are another useful deterrent,also good for bed-bugs.
I am stuck living with my parents, who have 3 outside/inside cats. They have the worst flea infestation I have ever seen! because this isnt my house and they arent my pets, theres not much i can do. I got tired of being bitten while sleeping in my bed, so i have started using oils such as citronella or eucalyptus mixed with lotion or water. I apply it before bed and the fleas have been leaving me alone for the most part. I dont like the smell but i hate having scabs all over my legs even more. Im sure there are oils with a more pleasant smell that are just as effective but Im just using what I have on hand. This may be good for a short-term solution while you are treating your house! I will be sooo sooo glad when I can take my poor itchy dog and get out of this house! his usual flea meds have done absolutely nothing for him since moving here.
Hi, I can sure relate to this with an 85-lb dog, moving from Spain through UK to Canada with him and now a 3-month-old kitten. I am an affiliate for natural wonder pet products. Gary who makes these products himself from natural, safe ingredients has been researching safe options to come up with his own brilliant forumla. I am using the TripleSure natural flea and tick spray which you can use on your pet and bedding, carpet etc. for all stages of this nasty little insect's life cycle but not on cats less than 1 year old. We are approaching winter now so by the time I need to worry about this again, my kitten will be old enough. You can read more about his products and get his free 5-part mini series of how to tips on my site here http://lgtmarketing.com/track/t.php?l=6998. I have found this information and the products to be a font of great solutions and help and only provide link here to be of assistance. There is also another natural product called Mosquito Barrier, which I have used in my yard, extremely effective, natural garlic formula which has been tested in malaria zones in sub-Saharan Africa where the mosquito is the national bird :( You need 48 hours with no rain and a low wind day to apply this but it is very concentrated and you dilute it so it goes a long way. I have no affiliation with this one but love the product, which also works against ticks http://www.mosquitobarrier.com/
Fleas suck. Frontline doesn't work for my dog, so I'm sort of irritated that I bought a 6month supply.
I hate carpets and this place has carpeting. If you're a homeowner, then get rid of the carpeting and your flea problems will diminish by a 90%. As someone already wrote, cedar is great and you might add cedar chips to your pets sleeping area.
Other's have mentioned it, and I hope you read it, MAKE sure you're not harming your cats with stuff made for dogs.
I liked the garlic idea for pets and will look into something for my dog. Good thought there.
Fleas suck!
This is a fantastic page. I just got married, and my welcome present to my new home was my husband's flea infested cat. He didn't notice the problem because he never gets bit, but I am seriously COVERED in bites, each night I get perhaps 10 news ones so I have around 60 or 70 now in total. It's the worst. We took the cat to the vet, got advantage and now the fleas are onto me even more. We're following the advice of this website religiously, and if it doesn't work, I'm going to have to hire an exterminator and just rent a hotel for a weekend.
My poor cat has a horrible reation to fleas. Every summer she scrathes all her fur off around her neck. We use advantage but that only works for a few weeks (and the damn bugs just feed on me during that time). I read somewhere about soothing my cat's pain by giving her an oatmeal bath once every 6 months (more often if it's a dog). Just put a cup of oatmeal in a coffee grinder until it is a fine dust then mix it with warm water. Bonus: The cat smells great! if only for a few days.
fleas are in the matress what can i do?
I had a really bad flea problem at my last house. I'm very sensitive to the bites to it seems like they ravage me while other people in the house don't get bit at all. My legs were sore from all the bites by the time we got them under control. We used Sevin Dust 5% (10% is not safe around pets, I know this from when I worked in lawn & garden). My cats are indoor critters, so they aren't bringing fleas in, but they are suffering equally when we have fleas. My big cat was traumatized by the carpet. If he touched it, he would freak out and look for the nearest elevated surface to escape. The sevin dust worked at that house, but we needed to move last fall. The first house we visited was nice. I liked that there was no carpet. The second house was okay, but they had cleaned the carpet and it was still damp and smelled like dogs. When we got home, I looked down and my clothes were covered in fleas. I screamed and stripped in the driveway. I too had become traumatized by fleas. This house has been fine until this last week...fleas again...so I get to start this whole thing over again here. Wish me luck!
if you spray the filter of your vac cleaner , or put a flea collaer inside the vac bag , it will keep them from breeding inyour cleaner bag or filters!
is vacuuming just once and treating ur cats enough? i had about 6 fleas in my room but all i did was that
we also have a flea problem...we have 10 cats that come and go..i have tried the Victor M230 Ultimate Flea Trap but i havent caught any fleas...ive caught a fly and numerous gnats...has anyone else tried that trap id be interested to know..we buy a large dog dose from r vets and use that on all the cats but i notice also that within 3 wks it looks like they r back and need to be done again...is this safe for the cats?
Good advice, battling my second infestation in ten years, these buggers bite. We're trying borax throughout the house and cat dip for fleas. Been thinking of trying the soapy trap too but haven't yet.
Thanks kindly,
Ben
Thanks for all of the great tips!! I will be starting this today. But so far, we have only seen about 5 fleas each on each of our two dogs. It seems like to me, you should be rid of these by now. Have you tried the foggers to kill them for good. If you do that, and all of the other stuff you are doing, I would think you would have zero fleas ever.
Hello, All :( , I also have flea problems, I hate Fleas!!! What's worst is I recently started my Petcare business and love it so much until FLEAS!!! I am sure I will stop offering service of that kind in my home, after having to recarpet the entire house and having pest controll do a cleaning for it... I'm so unhappy, how these things are turing our lives upside down, my daughter was complaining of bites but I had no idea to think of fleas! We thought bed bugs, which am not sure if to bed happy its not or to be happy its fleas! I'/m just MAD AS HELL!
Fleas suck! I do not know what works to get rid of them yet but I do know some things y'all have not commented on:I have had fleas pretty much every fall since I moved into one community (figure the dog walk place of choice is where dogs exchange em). But only in September - not all year. (I am metro-Detroit area so winters probably dampen down any problems). I have only ever had to put one drop of Frontline or Advantage on each dog ONE TIME and never had the problem again until next year. I think it is a special case if there is only one bed in the house in use and everyone (animals and people) sleep in it. I think in that case the bed itself gets treated as the stuff rubs off and it kills everything -- they have no chance to lay eggs - voila!
Now, however, the dogs died and I only have cats (who are small so the dose is smaller) and (who sleep all over the house). Nothing gets the full treatment. This year it is as if the Frontline does NOT WORK! I find lots of live fleas on my cats only a week after treatment! For those who say these products work, nothing else required, I believe you will find this is a special case for medium sized dogs or larger who sleep in bed with you. Not cats. Nor if you have multiple beds in use (such as if you have kids).
(2) Steamcleaning kills eggs -- it bursts them. I am going to get a steam cleaner and see if all my problems are solved. I have bare wood floors and throw rugs but I still want to steam clean? I intend to try it anyway.
(1)
Oh! I KNEW there was one more thing I wanted to say:
If you or your pet has a flea allergy this is a sign you are not getting enough B vitamins or that you cannot break down the B vitamins (due to an enzyme mutation or long-standing deficiency). You can look on the web for a diagram of the "methyl cycle" that is the name of the biochemical pathway that has to work properly to prevent insect bite allergies. This cycle produced SAMe (which most people know as something to treat depression). Usually you can just put a bit of Brewer's Yeast on pet food to add B vitamins because that food is high in B Vitamins. (It may cause runny stoll however). You will find most pets LOVE it. For yourself, you can try a B Vitamin twice a day (these are water soluble and some of the B's will not stay in your system all day). If that does not do the trick pretty quick (say in 3 days?) then you cannot break down one of more of the B vitamins. In that case you want to purchase active B vitamins (pre-broken down into the form your body uses -- this passes defective enzymes and nutritional deficiencies). There are many such. The one I use is called Thorne Basic B. You can look into what is in it and find any brand name you want that has those things (there aren't that many brands but at least 6 to choose from). That should work. If it still does not, you may need TMG (get a pill). I willa also say this, if you are not making enough SAMe you are more prone to cancer due to damaged DNA since you need SAMe to protect your DNA. So consider a bug bite allergy as warning that you need more B vitamins!
Hey my comment about flea allergies -- please do not misconstrue...there are many types of allergies. Those people who get anaphylactic shock from a bee sting probably won't be helped by B vitamins. I am talking about minor swelling and itching reactions due to fleas or mosquito bites. Active B vitamins will reduce those to no more than 10 minutes of itching and then no more itch. If you have a serious allergy all bets are off.
I'm embarking on my own flea-eradication process and, based on the research I've done, want to share some important info that may save your pets' lives. Several things are dangerously toxic to pets: As noted, Pennyroyal is very toxic to cats, as is garlic, lavendar and a host of other things (do some online research before using these things). NEVER give meds/products to cats if they are labeled for dogs -- you can kill your cat. The flea traps -- the home-made night light next to a pan of soapy water, as well the commercially available version, appear to have some success and I intend to try this approach starting tonight. Salt is another safe and ostensibly effective approach -- the info I found says to sprinkle iodized salt (the kind you buy at the grocery store) on your carpet, let it sit for 10 minutes or so, then vacuum it up. Finally, a number of essential oils are ok to use, including lemongrass, cedarwood, peppermint, rosemary and thyme. But NO lavendar! There's so much contradictory info on the internet, it's hard to know what to do sometimes. So I hope this info helps in keeping your pets safe -- and alive. I'm going to opt for the more natural approach for now: salt; flea traps; essential oils; flea comb daily; and frequent vacuuming and washing all bedding. Yes, my life promises to be truly exciting for the next several months!
Really very informative hub.I appreciate your work. Thanks for sharing with us.
Bruce 2 years ago
Good job writing this article, I too have the flea problem which occured like 2 days ago... I so hate these insects. Though your guide helped me a lot as I noticed a great reduction of fleas or total. Hopely I don't see them again lol. Fleas suck, thanks :)
bruce