If you’re constantly fighting a losing battle to the creepy-crawly, annoying, little fleas that you find around the house, on your pets, or on your clothes, we’ve got good news! You can be rid of them, and it won’t take hundreds of dollars, the frustration of dealing with pest controller, or too much time out of your daily routine.
Protect your home, your pets, and your family from fleas — check out our top ten most clever hacks for getting rid of those annoying, painful pests.
Craft Your Landscape to Keep Fleas Out
You might think that you’re destined to live with fleas forever just because of the climate of your city, as well as the way your yard is set up. We’ve got news for you, though, you don’t have to be stuck with fleas, no matter where you live.
Start by changing the way you look at your landscaping.
Fleas live outside and are brought into your home by pets and people, so it makes sense to start your flea elimination outdoors.
Plant things in your yard that will help to keep fleas away like sage, catnip, mint, basil, and even lemon balm. You can even go the extra mile and keep pots of these by your door, on your porch, or in your home!
The next best yard trick? Keep your lawn mowed. Like we said, fleas live outside and they can nestle in your grass just waiting for your poor pup, cat, or child to waddle by. The longer the grass is, the better fleas can hang on to your yard and ambush your family. Keeping your grass nice and short should help to eliminate these issues.
Shampoo Power Does the Trick
It’s time to amp up the shampoo portion of your flea routine for your pup.
Fleas are typically brought into your house by your pets, so you want to make sure the pesky little biters aren’t making a meal of your pooch.
Instead of just using flea shampoo on your animals, consider adding an extra few ingredients to amp the power up. For each 1/2 cup of flea shampoo, add in 1/2 cup of lemon juice (freshly squeezed), and two cups of water.
Make sure you spray your pet with this mix at least once a week, more if they are having frequent flea outbreaks.
DIY Flea Collars
You don’t need to spend big bucks on a high-class flea collar in order to keep your animals safe from the the tiny, black, annoying bugs. Try making your own!
Buy a cheap, well-fitting collar, or use a bandanna you have lying around, for your dog or cat. Take a few drops — around 3-5 — of lavender oil and a few tablespoons of water. Using an eyedropper, apply the concoction to the inside of the bandanna and tie it around your pet’s neck.
This mixture should help prevent new fleas and kill off existing fleas that your dog might have on his neck already.
Dishwashing Soap + Candle = Sweet Release
You’ve probably heard of using citronella oil to get rid of fleas. While that works most of the time, there are a few other candle-related, DIY options you can use to effectively rid your place of fleas.
Try taking a bowl of warm water and filling it with dishwashing soap. Next, place a few floating candles on top of the mixture, light them, and move anything flammable away from the bowl.
Fleas are attracted to light, and will most likely bounce around trying to get to the candle wick. When they do, they’ll jump into the soapy water and drown — a morbid, but useful hack for taking care of the flea issues yourself.
Craft Your Own Flea Spray
Flea spray doesn’t have to be expensive, and best, it doesn’t have to contain a bunch of harmful chemicals that could affect your health.
Consider using natural ingredients to craft your own effective flea spray that you use in your home, on your pets, and even on yourself.
Add things to a custom mixture using lavender, witch hazel, rosemary, aloe vera, boric acid, salt, vinegar, and water. Check to make sure that it won’t leave marks on things by spraying a small sample, and once it proves faithful, use it on all your belongings to rid them of fleas!
Dish into The Rosemary
One of the best things you can do to get rid of fleas is to dive right into rosemary. Used for hundreds of years to cure medical issues, it’s a great resource for getting rid of fleas.
Boil rosemary and use it in your cleaning products, add it to your pet’s flea bath, and consider dousing the house with a homemade rosemary mixture to kill off any fleas that might be lurking.
Nothing Beats a Deep Clean
If you haven’t taken the steps to prevent fleas, you’ll probably find that you’re going to need to do a supreme, deep clean to get them out of your home.
We’re not talking just a quick vacuum and a few spritzes of cleaner here and there — it needs to be intense. We suggest hiring a company to help you deep clean or taking matters into your own hands.
Set aside a day to get down to business.
Deep-wash all the fabrics in your home, including your mattress pads, sheets, towels, and more. Make sure you give all your clothing the clean they need and send everything you own through the washer and dryer to kill off fleas that might be holding on tight.
Next, try a homemade flea spray to add to your deep cleaning routine. Consider using natural, but powerful solutions like witch hazel, aloe, boric acid, and lemon to aid you in your cleaning routine.
Plug in that Vacuum
Nothing kills off fleas like a solid vacuuming routine. While it definitely won’t get rid of the flea problem at its source, vacuuming every day will help gather up excess fleas and prevent — most of them — from repopulating in your home.
Additionally, vacuuming every day will suck up the flea eggs that are in your carpet or embedded into your furniture, preventing future hatching.
Make sure you set your vacuum to the lowest setting in order to deep clean to the bottom of the carpet. You might even want to invest in a better vacuum in order to properly prevent flea issues.
Dehumidify Your Home
Not everyone knows this, but fleas absolutely hate dry areas. Typically, they move to humid spots to feed, which is why states with such high humidity typically see such terrible flea infestations (we’re looking at you, Florida).
The equation is simple, get rid of the humidity, get rid of the pests.
Invest in a good dehumidifier or two and keep them running at night to help reduce the moisture in the air in your home. Keep an eye on how the dry air affects you, though. You don’t want to cause any issues with your health in order to kill off the fleas.
Flea Baths All Around
Never underestimate the power of a good flea bath.
Like we said, pets bring in fleas from the outside area, and even if you have done everything you can outdoors to prevent fleas, it’s likely you might end up with a few every now and again. The solution? Get them off your pet! Not only are they inconvenient and gross for you, they’re wildly uncomfortable for your pets as well.
Bathe your pets in warm water, a special flea solution, and even consider getting them (or making them) a flea collar.
Come up with a flea-bath regimen and stick to it to keep your dog or cat safe from the dangerous, annoying flea infestations.
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