Fleas are like micro roaches. Not in terms of biology, not in terms of appearance. Fleas, like roaches, are downright difficult to kill. If you’ve got an infestation, this can be something especially hard to contend with. They bite you, and the bites begin to itch, swelling up. If you catch one, somehow they’re almost impossible to crunch. How do you get rid of them?
Following we’ll explore a few natural ways to get rid of these bouncing biting blighters. There are certainly unnatural methods, but sometimes you’re just trading irritants. Chemicals can give you additional health problems that may even be worse than certain bug bites. It’s much wiser to use natural remedies such as these:
1. Lemon Spray And Rosemary
What you do is slice a lemon as thinly as you can, add the slices to about a pint of water, and boil it. Leave it overnight, then put it into a spray bottle and spritz all the furniture with fleas in it. Dampening is the aim, not soaking. Also, spray pets down if they’re flea-ridden. To give your lemon deferral solution more punch, you might consider adding rosemary.
Fleas hate rosemary. There are rosemary recipes for repelling flea infestations. Get fennel, rue, peppermint, and wormwood. Grind it into a powder. Mix it with rosemary. Sprinkle it all over your home. Carpets, the furniture your pets like varying window sills and bedding—if you suspect flea activity, use this solution. You can even mix it with the lemon juice if you like.
2. Dish Soap Flea Traps
Here’s what you do: mix warm water and dish soap together. Put that in a room where you tend to have a lot of fleas. Repeat nightly—this is when fleas are most active. The dish soap and water combination is something fleas can’t quite escape. There’s a viscosity element that sucks them in. You’ll have to do this a couple nights, but it’s an effective method.
3. Salt Or Baking Soda
Imagine being surrounded by chunks of salt as large as you. You’d get dehydrated pretty quick! Fleas do, too. Just sprinkle salt around where you expect they are, leave it a couple days, then vacuum those rooms. Empty the bag somewhere far from your home. The baking soda solution is essentially the same, but you really scrub that baking soda in.
Generally, vacuuming can do much to reduce flea populations. Get in the habit of regularly vacuuming your home, and if you’ve got a bad issue, sprinkle the premises and leave the anti-flea substances until the time is right—usually after a couple of days. When you reach this moment, vacuum.
4. Diatomaceous Earth
As with salt and baking soda, diatomaceous earth (fossilized algae, basically) dehydrates fleas. They don’t stand a chance. Just sprinkle it around in a couple layers where the fleas are, then vacuum extensively after you’ve sucked all the moisture out of the pests.
5. Plants Fleas Hate
Chrysanthemums, lavender, pennyroyal, and spearmint don’t smell bad to humans, but they are aromatic anathema to fleas. And these aren’t the only plants you can use to repel fleas. Plant such flora all over your home and you’ll keep fleas from coming in, and likely drive any unwelcome insects residing in your house out.
Finding Additional Remedies
There are a lot of different ways you can handle flea infestations, be they of the mild or extreme variety. One thing you don’t want to do is leave a flea infestation be. This will only compound the problem. For some additional natural remedies to help you keep yourself healthy and pest free, look at this article by Organic Lesson on how to get rid of fleas.
Fleas bite painfully, spread disease, annoy your pets, and are more unwelcome than mosquitoes. So don’t let them dictate your activity. If you’ve got fleas, use the means you have available to get rid of the little pests.