How to Treat Your Home for a Flea Infestation

For many people there is nothing more horrific than to find out they have a blood sucking parasite living in their home. Some people think that fleas only happen to people who have pets, or that they are a sign of poor house keeping. Neither of these are true. You can pick up fleas on your clothing as you walk through well cut grass, and just one pregnant female can lead to an infestation of the little vampires throughout your house.

Fleas are a truly persistant pest and there are several steps that must be taken in order to rid yourself of this tiny menace.

1. All carpeted areas must be vacuumed with a vacuum that has a bag, this bag should immediately be sealed in a plastic bag and thrown away. Double bagging is recommended if your garbage is not being picked up that day.

2. You must arrange a time where all living things in your house, including pets can be absent for at least two hours.

3. Purchase a chemical agent that has as ingredients both Fipronil (sometimes spelled Phipronil) and Methroprene. As well as a mouth cover, such as is used when painting. The chemical you are looking for comes in an aerosol container and usually covers about 1600 square feet, if your home is larger than this more than one can may be needed. In some cases you must find a local pest control supplier to find these chemicals, the most common of which are called PreCor 2000 and Ultracide.

Before applying any chemical read the label and make sure nothing living is in the house. Fish tanks should have their pumps unplugged and then covered with a towel. Cats, Dogs, and Birds should be removed from the house. Cats and Dogs should be treated with a flea treatment such as Frontline or Advantage. These two products also contain Fipronil and Methroprene. Start at the back of the house spraying with the can a fine mist over the entire area both carpets and hardwoods, paying special attention to any place pets may spend time.

The dual chemicals in the spray work in the following ways. Fipronil is a long lasting residual that requires only contact to kill, it kills slowly over about forty eight hours. Methroprene is an insect growth regulator. It works to sterilize any adult fleas so that they cannot reproduce. Unfortunately neither chemical has any effect on the pupa stage of Fleas, the stage between the larva and the full adult. In order to be fully effective one more trick must be used to put the final nail in the coffin of this persistant parasite.

After treatement upon reentering the houe vacuum the entire house again. This has two effects, first it vacuums up any adults, larva or eggs, that have been stirred up by the chemical treatment, and secondly and more importantly the vibration triggers the pupa to turn into adults by mimicking the noise of a possible host. Once they become adults the new fleas come into contact with the chemical spray and are killed or sterilized.

Fleas have a lifecycle of up to nine weeks, it is therefore possible that you will have some fleas for up to that long, do not worry if you do these are the last remnants of the invaders and will soon die. To hasten their exit from your abode, it is recommended that for the first week you vacuum everyday (and throw away the bags) to catch the remnants as they hatch before they have a chance to feed. Following through after the treatment is at least as important as the treatment itself.

Professional pest control companies can charge up to two hundred dollars just to apply the chemical in the steps above, but for just the time it takes to read the label you can do that and save yourself around one hundred fifty dollars, not to mention be able to claim to have won the war against the invading flea armada single handedly.