How to Get Rid of Fleas from Your Carpet

No matter how you try to clean your carpet, there are some messes and problems that can’t be solved with a few passes of the vacuum, even if you have the most powerful vacuum on the market. Fleas are one such problem because unlike dead dirt and bacteria that can be swept away and discarded, fleas are alive and fighting to stay that way. They breed, give birth and spread to cover more and more areas. Even worse, fleas can carry diseases that can make you, your kids and your pets really ill. So, how do you get rid of fleas when you have a flea infestation?

Steps For Natural Flea Control

While it may be extremely difficult to successfully vacuum away the flea infestation in your house, it is not impossible. In order to do so, there are just a few precautionary steps that you will need to take.

1. Before you go straight for the vacuum, consider where the fleas in your home are likely to find themselves. Fleas, after all, are a pest that can jump from surface to surface rather easily. That’s why you need to take care of all the surfaces that the fleas may have spread in order to eliminate them properly. Otherwise, you’ll spend a lot of time trying to vacuum them out of your carpet, only to have them come back and infest your carpet again.
2. This means, remove and clean your pet’s bedding, couch cushions & blankets, or any other fabrics around the carpet, near the area of infestation or that your pet may have come into contact with. Things like bedding, cushions, and blankets can be tossed in a washer on a hot cycle. Other furniture and upholstery will require the use of your vacuum and upholstery tool. Even better, if you can access a steam cleaner for upholstery, that may be a sure-fire way to eliminate any living population of fleas from your non-carpet floor areas. Be sure to do a thorough job, as fleas like damp and dark spaces, and will likely have their breeding grounds in corners, nooks, and crannies of your furniture, fabrics, and upholstery. Also, be sure to vacuum the underside of your furniture, as well.
3. Vacuum everything, multiple times. If you choose to go an all-natural, chemical-free way of getting rid of the flea infestation in your home, you’re going to want to do deep and thorough vacuuming sessions every day for about 10 to 14 days. However, that can all be avoided if you have a good steam cleaning home appliance that can be used to steam your carpets, as well as your furniture and upholstery. Fleas will die from being exposed to temperatures over 95 degrees Fahrenheit. Either way, be sure to get and corner and dark cranny when vacuuming, to ensure you get rid of the entire population. Being sure to vacuum heavily where your pet frequents most and wherever they go to lie down.
4. Get rid of the fleas from inside of your vacuum. Ideally, you’ll use a vacuum with a bag that can be removed once you’re done cleaning. A bagged vacuum will provide you with the advantage of removing the fleas from the vacuum without giving them a chance to jump away and escape during the emptying process. Bags are usually sealed for your removal, so you never come into contact with what’s contained inside. If you must use a bagless vacuum cleaner, empty the vacuum outside and away from your pet and even contact with your skin. But since fleas do jump from surface to surface, it is highly recommended that you use a bagged vacuum cleaner to prevent the fleas from hitching a ride back to your house on your back.

Why You Should Vacuum Your Carpet For Flea Control

Believe it or not, the carpet of your home is where the majority of the flea population will live. Your carpet is often home to all the flea eggs,, larvae and pupae. Statistically, flea eggs account for 50% of a flea infestation, and 45% of the infestation is represented by the flea larvae and pupae. This means that 95% of the total flea infestation in your home lives in your carpet, and it’s a strong reason to consider vacuuming as a major way to get rid of fleas.

By vacuuming your carpet to get rid fleas, you’ll be striking the flea population where it is the weakest, with the young pest offspring. On average, a single female flea can produce 50 eggs per day, and she does so only 36 to 48 hours after mating. That’s just one female flea, and because of this, they multiply extremely quickly.

Vacuuming fleas out of your carpet not only gets rid of all the adult and mobile fleas, it gets rid of the next generation of fleas and all the debris and garbage that comes with them. For example, fleas have a blood feces that looks like ground black pepper, and if they’re in your carpet, you can bet that your carpet is full of that stuff. This is due to the fact that the flea larvae thrive off of that stuff, Vacuuming sucks up this dirty food supply, which will help starve out whatever flea larvae didn’t get picked up by the vacuum.

When It comes to flea pupae, they are the hardest to kill and remove. That is because they form a cocoon tightly spun on the base of the carpet fibers, and the hide in them. This cocoon is resistant to insecticides and so well woven to your carpet fibers that its extremely difficult to remove. Luckily, the vacuum makes vibrations in the carpet that usually cause the larvae to leave their cocoon, making them vulnerable to be sucked up.

We don’t recommend using chemicals and pesticides or other flea mediations to remove fleas for your carpeted floors. This is because applying these chemicals will definitely kill of all of the adult fleas and may decimate a large portion of your flea population, in terms of flea eggs and larvae. However, pupae are likely to survive such an attempt, thanks to its resistant cocoon. Because of this, using pesticides or other chemicals would solve the problem in the short run, but it would only be a matter of time before the pupae grew up to become the next generation of your flea infestation.

If you must do more than simply vacuum, the safest and most guaranteed way to get rid of an infestation is to steam them out. Again, it only takes temperatures of 95 degrees Fahrenheit and higher to kill all fleas, and it doesn’t leave any toxic chemical residue in your home afterward.

Final Thoughts

The truth is, vacuuming is the best way to get rid of fleas, even though it might be a bit of work to pull it off. Vacuuming gets rid of every generation of those pests, and it does it without the use of dangerous or questionable chemicals or complicated philosophies.