How to Get Rid of Fleas by Washing Rugs

Combating a flea infestation takes more than just washing your carpets. The cat flea — a common pest which infects both dogs and cats — prefers a house on the pet it rode in on, but eggs and larvae take to carpets and carpets after falling from pets. Adult fleas usually remain with and multiply in your pet, with female fleas putting everywhere from 25 to 50 eggs every day. The eggs hatch into larvae that bury into furniture and carpeting.

Where Fleas Multiply

Eggs fall from your pet onto its own bedding and the surrounding region. Once hatched, the larvae feed on the adult’s feces in the kind of dried blood till it transforms into a pupa. During this phase, the pupa stays in a silk-like cocoon that protects it from flea powders and other insecticides. Treat pets and bedding, and wash carpets weekly through the height of the infestation to ensure you get rid of fleas.

Battling the Flea

With a life cycle of four phases over about four weeks sometimes longer depending upon the conditions at your house — your diligence in vacuuming carpets and carpets on a daily basis can help handle the infestation in your house without toxic insecticides. Wash pet bedding in hot water — or throw it away completely. Treat your pet with a flea powder or alternative merchandise to eliminate adult fleas from the pet in the exact same time you wage the war against fleas in your property. If you do not treat your pet for a flea infestation, then all your work is for naught, as your pet will continue to attract fleas into the house.

Hot-Water Washing

After thoroughly scrubbing to remove eggs, larvae and pupae from the carpets in your house, thoroughly wash and rinse the carpets in the washer on the hot-water setting. Insert a boron-based solution, a common household cleaner, to the wash cycle. If rug fabrics allow, set them inside the dryer after washing as the heat may kill fleas which remain. You also can include the dry powder into the carpets and pet bedding to kill fleas as they emerge. Products which contain boron chemicals work as a desiccant into the fleas, drying them out instead of poisoning them. Allow the merchandise sit on the carpets, furniture and carpeting for about 24 hours before washing and scrubbing.

Steam-Cleaning Rugs

Vacuum the rug to stimulate any remaining pupa into action and to get rid of dry boron-based discs from your rug. Dispose of vacuum contents in containers that are outside. Rent a steam cleaner or even hire a professional carpet cleaner to clean out the wall-to-wall carpets with water. Apply this method after a few weeks and when you have completed all of the other actions. Due to the extended life cycle of the flea, some final steam cleaning may destroy any stragglers.

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