Fleas are wingless parasites that live off sucking blood from birds, chickens, squirrels, rabbits, mice and pets. They generally have four main stages in their life cycle: egg, larva, pupa and adult. Maybe you don’t even have pets in your house or squirrels in your yard, but you still have these fleas jumping around your house biting your legs or your kids. From what I’ve read about fleas they have such long powerful legs they can jump 200 times their own body height, so don’t wonder how they do it anymore. These guys can travel very far with just a few jumps. What steps do you take if their unwelcome presence becomes your problem? Let me walk you through how to remove fleas in your home.
1.Wash all your bedding and dirty clothes. Launder all your bedding with hot water to remove fleas from either eggs, larva or adult fleas. Do not put them back in the bed until you’ve done the rest of the steps. Put all your clean linens in a clean garbage bag and seal. Do the same with all your dirty clothes for fleas might be in there.
2.Put your clean clothes in the dryer. You do not need to wash all your clean clothes from the dressers and closets. Take them out and put them in the dryer with the highest heat setting one batch at a time. This step will remove fleas in all your clothes. Each batch that you take out of the dryer should be put in the clean garbage bag right away and sealed to make sure that those fleas jumping around meet their final resting place.
3.Get a vacuum cleaner to remove fleas in your carpets and upholstery. You have to do it atleast twice a day or more if you want them gone. One adult flea can lay more than 500 eggs, so even if the mother flea is already gone, be aware there are many baby fleas still coming. Make sure to clean your vacuum cleaner every time and dispose of it right away in a sealed garbage bag. During cold winter months put the sealed bag outside and these creatures will die. They cannot survive in a freezing temperature, flea or their eggs.
4.Give your pets a thorough bath to remove the fleas on their body and confine them in the bathroom while you proceed with the next step. Wash all your pets bedding and seal them in clean trash bags.
5.Use a steam cleaner to totally remove fleas in your home. This is a safer way than the chemical fogger available in most grocery stores. Get the steam cleaner ready, put some water in it, plug it in and start cleaning. Every carpeted surface, room by room, linoleum as well in the kitchen, furniture, and even bathrooms that never usually get steam cleaned.
Steam cleaners vapor is so hot it can literally “cook” all these fleas; from eggs to adult. In my experience this is the cheapest and safest way to completely remove fleas in your home
How to Treat Itchy Flea bites
These tiny creatures can pierce through skin which results to formation of a bumpy and itchy red spot with a puncture point in the middle. The bites can be very itchy and can last up to several weeks. Try these home remedies to treat the flea bites before taking a trip to your doctor.
1. Do not scratch the bite area. Scratching can cut your skin and can lead to secondary infection. The more you scratch the spot the longer it takes to heal.
2. Wash the bite area with soap and cold water (warm water tends to stimulate the itchiness).
Dry with clean towel and apply calamine lotion, 1% hydrocortisone cream or diphenhydramine hydrochloride (benadyl) which is readily available over the counter at the local drugstore with no prescription needed.
3.Very often the bites are so many and the itch can be very intense that an oral dose of antihistamine like Benadryl might be needed. Once the antihistamine takes effect and the itch is gone, you will stop scratching the bite area and it will heal much faster.
The inflammation should improve within several days. If you notice that the condition is getting worse and remain red, swollen or with discharges, you should contact your family doctor.
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