According to Professor Slapeta, it could take at least three months to get rid of an
After tending to the fleas on your pet, it's time to get rid of the infestation in your home. In most cases, it takes three to four months to completely get rid of a flea infestation since it takes fleas this long to go through their life stages, according to the American Kennel Club.
It doesn't take much fleas before it becomes a serious infestation problem. In just a couple of months, fleas can lay about 500 eggs. Between one and twelve days, many of these hatchlings are hidden. They are tiny larvae that fit in tiny floor cracks, carpets, and furniture.
Some of the best ways to get rid of fleas at home include cleaning bedding, vacuuming regularly, and wiping down floors and skirting boards to help destroy fleas at each stage of their lifecycle.
Fleas are bad for your house and your health
While this is more likely to become a problem if you do have pets, fleas in a house without pets can cause serious problems for your family. A flea infestation should be taken care of as soon as possible.
Dee added: “People might feel a little embarrassed to find out they have a flea infestation as fleas are often associated with dirty environments – but this is a common misconception.
The mixture of the warm water of your washing machine and the detergents that you use should be enough to kill most of the fleas and eggs that have taken up residence in your laundry.
However, fleas can only live up to one to two weeks without a host on your bedding or mattress. While fleas sometimes bite humans to eat, pets and wild animals are typically the favored hosts for fleas. So, it's important to keep your pet away from your bed if they are suffering from a flea infestation.
Most successful flea treatment programs require at least 2-3 treatments at 14-day intervals using both an insecticide for the adult fleas and an Insect Growth Regulator (IGR) to prevent immature stages of fleas from developing into breeding adults.
The good news is, the fleas in your house are most likely to be cat or dog fleas, so although they will bite humans, they don't consider us a suitable host to live and breed on (they prefer dogs and cats). This means, eventually they'll just die off.
The active ingredient in FRONTLINE (fipronil) kills fleas by affecting their nervous system, making them hyperactive before dying. These dying fleas often rise to the top of your pet's haircoat, so the presence of visible fleas after treating your pet, is a sign that the product is working.
While some could last 2 – 3 weeks, they could also live for up to 12 months on the host it finds, so it is unlikely they will go away on their own.
Adult fleas will be killed within a few days but the floor should not be vacuumed, swept or washed for at least two weeks after treatment because there will still be eggs which will continue to hatch.
Fleas generally cannot live in human hair. While most species prefer to live on the furs of animals, they can use humans as temporary vectors. In such cases, fleas can infest and bite humans. You may get infected if there is a serious case of flea infestation in your environment.
You don't necessarily need to use any chemicals or special cleaning solutions to get rid of the fleas. In fact, all you need is a high heat setting. Fleas can't withstand temperatures of 35°C for very long, a temperature that any washing machine should be able to reach with ease.
Fortunately, washing your clothes, bedding, rugs, and other textiles effectively kills fleas in any of the four life stages, thanks to the detergent chemicals and the heat and turbulence encountered during washing and drying.
It feels as if every time you walk across your carpet or sit down on your couch, more bites appear. While you can hop in the shower every time you're in a flea-infested area of your home, doing so will only get rid of those fleas on your skin.
Look for small, dark spots on your floors, carpets, and furniture. In fact, these might be flea droppings. The more you find, the more severe the infestation.
They can also plague you, your spouse, and your kids with itchy bites, or make you sick. The most common disease fleas spread to humans is Murine typhus, which comes with symptoms such as rash, body aches, fever, loss of appetite, chills, couching, stomach pain, nausea, and vomiting.
An oral fast-acting tablet that contains Nitenpyram is the safest way to kill fleas on dogs instantly. You can also bathe your dog in hot soapy water with Dawn to kill adult fleas, but this is not a good long-term solution.
Capstar. Capstar is available without a prescription, and it starts killing fleas within just a few hours. It's generally a safe option for cats and dogs at the appropriate dosage.
Both thrive in warmer climates and fleas are particularly favorable to humid conditions. Fleas are most active in the early spring, summer, and fall. Adult fleas may have a hard time surviving harsh winters. But flea eggs, flea pupae, and larvae can survive all year.