Ulyana Vosonina/ article author
Medical education. Author of articles on the pest.bigbadmole.com/en/ project

Self-control of fleas in an apartment and a house

Fighting fleas in an apartment on its own can be carried out subject to a minimum knowledge of the insecticidal properties of plants and chemicals widely used in everyday life. It must be remembered that folk remedies against fleas they do not kill insects, but have a repellent (scaring) effect. In order to completely rid the house of blood-sucking and synanthropic insects, it is necessary to carry out complex processing of premises, combining indoor chemical insecticides and folk remedies.

Preliminary processing of the apartment

Fight with fleas the house should begin with a general cleaning. Before choosing the appropriate method for the destruction of bloodsuckers, it is necessary to thoroughly clean all accessible places from eggs and larvae of parasites. A regular vacuum cleaner will help with this, which should clean the upholstery of upholstered furniture, flooring, cracks and skirting boards. Most of the eggs and slowly moving larvae will fall into the drive, which should be immediately released, and if the bag is made of cloth, then soak in an insecticide solution.

Fleas and their eggs
Fleas and their eggs

All textile interior decorations should be removed and soaked in a solution of disinfectant, and then thoroughly washed and rinsed. Also come with faux fur products, soft toys, slippers.

If it is impossible to remove carpets or draperies, then after processing with a vacuum cleaner, to increase the effect, you can use the thermal method - walk with a steam generator. Compact household models (Clatronic DR 2930, Ariete Multi Vapori Junior, etc.) are equipped with a set of nozzles that allows you to clean textiles, carpets, bedding, floors, walls, and ceramic tiles from parasites. Steam temperature and outlet pressure makes it possible to destroy fleas at all stages of development without damaging things.

If possible, wipe the walls, be sure to remove dust from wooden and plastic furniture. Treat the floor and skirting boards with a weak disinfectant solution, paying special attention to the cracks between the floorboards, the space around the skirting boards, and the joints of furniture.

Ventilate the apartment, close windows and doors - only after this you can start processing the apartment from fleas.

Interesting!

Often, suggestions to “freeze” insects by opening windows in winter in frost are often heard in tips for combating indoor fleas. The advice is correct, but it is worth considering that at temperatures below -15 ° C the parasite ceases to eat, multiply and move. In order for the fleas to die, the temperature that is extremely low for them must last 4-5 hours.

Flea control measures should combine mechanical, chemical, thermal and biological effects. Only then can get rid of fleas in the apartment.

Folk flea control

Fleas
Fleas

The main damaging factor from domestic fleas is the smell. Fleas, like many synanthropic insects, do not tolerate pungent odors. They see and hear poorly, therefore their main orientation mechanisms are the sense of smell and touch, or rather, the sensation of air movement.

Interesting!

Insects are guided by the smell when choosing an object for food, they feel the pheromones exuded by the female at great distances. There is a very rare pathology - Perriman-Jurgens disease, in which the skin of a person’s body exudes an aroma similar to the smell of pheromones. Moreover, it attracts only sexually mature female fleas. The disease was discovered in the XIX century, it affects only 1 of the 1.8 million inhabitants of the Earth. Fleas, smelling, flock from everywhere and attack the person.

Therefore, a strong smelling substance - essential oil, kerosene, vinegar, gasoline, paint, will help fleas in the apartment, forcing them to look for a more comfortable room.

People have long noticed that some plants rid the room of blood-sucking insects, moth, cockroaches, mosquitoes and flies. These include - Ledum, flea, black elderberry, Melilotus officinalis, oregano, gooseberry, cockroach mullein, parsley, sagebrush, pine, thermopsis, yarrow, bird cherry and about 50 different plants. Of these, and prepare a home remedy for fleas.

Dalmatian daisy

Dalmatian daisy
Dalmatian daisy

Going on long campaigns of conquest, the troops of Alexander the Great stocked up “Persian powder” from fleas, lice, ticks and bedbugs.

This indispensable product, prepared from dried baskets of Dalmatian chamomile, was popular in Persia, China, and the Caucasus, from where it came to Europe along the Silk Road and was used as an effective natural insecticide until the middle of the 20th century.

Peretrum is now difficult to find, but it can be replaced with powder from crushed flowers of tansy, wormwood, lavender. Powder can be scattered in places inaccessible to pets. The disadvantage of such an insect control agent is that the powder ceases to act after 1-2 days and it needs to be replaced with a new portion.

Common wormwood (Chernobyl)

In areas with a temperate climate, an unpretentious plant grows - common wormwood. The infusion of grass and plant roots has an insecticidal property. You can prepare the product by pouring 6 tablespoons of dry herb with 3 cups of boiling water and insisting it under the lid for 4-5 hours. With this broth, wash the floors in the room, spray from the spray gun onto the baseboards, the back of the furniture, carpets. Bundles of dry wormwood are laid out in the enclosure or booth where the pet lives, hang in hen houses and sheds to get rid of fleas and other pests.

Sagebrush
Sagebrush

Those living on the ground floor are overwhelmed by basement fleas. To permanently close the road to the apartment for bloodsuckers, you can plant black elderberry bushes, bird cherry trees, euonymus under the window or plant a flower garden with large nevyanyok, pink daisy, lavender.

Fumigation of needles

In the old days, the smell from a samovar melted by fir cones frightened off crawling, flying and jumping insects. In a modern metropolis, such a remedy for fleas in an apartment can hardly be used. But fumigation with dried needles of juniper and pine will help to destroy bloodsuckers. The smell of coniferous resin, pleasant for the person, is intolerable to fleas. If you put an aroma lamp with cedar oil in the room or drop a few drops of pine oil on an ordinary light bulb, you can get rid of insects for a long time.

Essential oils

A good remedy for fleas at home is the essential oil of cloves, basil, anise, eucalyptus, orange. They should be added to the water for washing floors, sprinkle upholstered furniture, carpets with a solution, drip into the aroma lamp or light incense sticks with this smell.

One hundred grams of camphor or a piece of incense, evaporated over an open fire, will relieve insects of even a large apartment or house.

Interesting!

At the court of King Louis XIV, courtiers wore extravagant hairstyles and dresses infested with insects. Water was considered a carrier of diseases, so the king wiped his body with a dry cloth or cloth soaked in vinegar. Vinegar scared off fleas, lice and deodorized the body.Ladies and gentlemen literally drenched in perfume with the scent of musk and patchouli to hide the stench of unwashed bodies and scare away blood-sucking insects.

Folk remedies for fleas
Folk remedies for fleas

A decoction of the roots of wheatgrass or parsley

The weed most widespread in our latitudes - creeping wheatgrass, is able to rid fleas of housing. You need 15 grams of wheatgrass roots and rhizomes to fill with 1 liter of water and boil under the lid for 10 minutes, infuse the broth for 4 hours, and then apply to bathing animals, mopping, rinsing things from fleas or treating the bedding of a pet.

Ordinary garden parsley also has repellent properties. The tool is prepared from 3 teaspoons of parsley roots, per 200 milliliters of water. Boil for 5 minutes, insist 30 minutes. Use the same way as the previous broth.

Acetic acid

Fleas are very sensitive to the smell of acetic acid. It is enough to dilute 3% table vinegar in water in a 1: 1 ratio and spray the apartment daily to get rid of fleas in a week.

Interesting!

Vinegar is known since the VI century BC. It was used not only as a flavoring and preservative, but also as a medicine. During the plague epidemic, people covered their faces with rags soaked in a solution of vinegar. Galen healed purulent wounds by washing with vinegar. The antiseptic, antibacterial properties of acetic acid are used now.

To the question: “Are fleas afraid of vinegar?” - we can confidently answer that with these insects the strong smell of acetic acid is unpleasant. By treating apartment, furniture and clothes with a vinegar solution, we not only get rid of fleas, but also guarantee the destruction of pathogens that carry fleas on their bodies and legs.

Folk ways to deal with fleas include such a recipe - you need to mix vinegar with camphor oil and floral cologne. This mixture should be sprayed on skirting boards and furniture mounts.

After analyzing popular recipes on how to deal with fleas in an apartment with folk remedies, it should be recalled that the fight will be effective only when using a set of methods. Do not completely refuse to treat the room with chemical preparations.

What insecticides are used for fleas?

Flea Sprays in the House
Flea Sprays in the House

The chemical industry produces insecticides in various forms to facilitate self-processing of the premises from insects:

  1. Flea Aerosols - Gett, Raptor, Raid, Clean house, Dichlorvos, Butox 50, Beaphar.
  2. Solutions - Tsifoks, Executioner, Get, Cucaracha, Tetrix, Medilis.
  3. Flea Sprays - Flee, Control Home Flea & Tick Killer, Combat, Clean House.

After applying all the listed chemicals, it is not recommended to clean the room for 3-4 days, except for wet surface treatment, which will touch the hands of the inhabitants of the apartment. Handles, panels, floors can be washed with the above decoctions and solutions - this will increase the processing efficiency.

Fleas in an apartment are not a sentence if you know how to deal with them correctly. Even if an allergic person or a small child lives in the apartment and treatment with chemicals is undesirable, you can always find a worthy replacement from the arsenal of folk remedies.

Reviews

I remember how my grandmother shifted bedding with leaves of wormwood and tobacco so that insects would not start. In the village, cats and dogs ran into the house from the street, so fleas sometimes jumped. But bunches of fragrant dry herbs scared them away. They also washed the floors with a decoction of wormwood in order to “expel evil spirits”, and at the same time get rid of fleas. Therefore, I also use old methods at home and only occasionally use chemicals.

Tatyana, Zhytomyr

Folk remedies are good, environmentally friendly and safe. But the effectiveness is low. Therefore, I am for aerosols and flea sprays. They are now also available with pleasant smells.

Valentina, Novopolie

Antique methods were good a hundred years ago. Now you can apply fast and effective means of fleas. There is no time to wait until a flea dies from wormwood in a month, and you can fold your legs together from kerosene.

Vladimir, Kostroma

I am only for eco-friendly old recipes. I have bronchial asthma and psoriasis. If it weren’t for “grandmother’s notebooks,” then fleas. cockroaches, bedbugs walked around the apartment on foot. We have a ground floor and from the basement that just doesn’t leak into the apartment. Although I do not keep animals, I sometimes find fleas.

Zinaida, Kerch

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