Home Flea Treatment

Fleas often begin their invasion during the warmer summer months, coming into homes and infecting cats and dogs as well as other pets in your home. Left without proper home flea treatment, a flea infestation can quickly become a health concern for you and your pets. The ideal home flea treatment is a multi-step process that involves treating your pets, treating your home and treating your yard as well for the greatest level of control.

  1. Flea Bath

    • Bathe your pets with a mild flea shampoo and warm water. If you do not have flea shampoo, mild hand soap will also work. The shampoo or soap will kill the fleas; the warm water will be soothing to your pet. You should take care to be thorough when flea bathing your pets, as this is the first step to cutting down on the number of fleas invading your home.

    Topical Treatment

    • Apply a topical flea treatment product to the back of each pet's neck once they have dried off following the flea bath. Two top-brand name products are Advantage and Frontline. Frontline is waterproof and tends to be the preferred option for dogs as a result. Advantage is not water proof and therefore is typically better suited for cats. Both of these products work well on cats and dogs aged eight weeks and older. These topical products last for approximately 30 days.

    Carpet Treating

    • Treat your carpets for a flea infestation with regular white salt. When you sprinkle salt in the carpets, it has a tendency to dry up flea eggs that have been laid, preventing them from hatching. You may also want to lay salt in upholstered furniture and other places where fleas can hide. Vacuum the salt up after 24 hours. Make sure the vacuum bag is immediately emptied and taken out in case you vacuumed up fleas and newly hatched flea eggs.

    Outdoor Treatment

    • Treat your yard. There are a number of different products that can be purchased for this purpose. If your pets go outside, treating your yard is important because your pet can bring new fleas into the home. Fleas only spend time on the animal when they are feeding. The rest of their time is spent in the carpet, drapes, furniture and even in your laundry.

    Flea Bomb

    • Flea-Bomb the home if the flea infestation is not getting better after a week of applying the topical flea preventative and salting the carpets. This is a more drastic step because it involves leaving the home after spraying poison in the rooms where the fleas are the worst. Consult a veterinarian about flea bombing the home and other possible options for home flea treatment.