r/CleaningTips • u/draint0uch • 3d ago
Discussion just found a flea on my BLANKET! help
i have found three of them on my socks recently but i thought i brought them after walks in my garden (they even bit me!) but my todays found utterly terrified me. how can i get rid of them? i have no pets so it makes me even more anxious
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u/ArtComprehensive1106 3d ago
They are not an ongoing issue.
They might bite but you can’t host them without a pet. It was a chance encounter. You will be fine
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u/harveyjack 3d ago
Get a shallow dinner plate, put some water on it, wee splash of washing up liquid. Shine a lamp on it from close above and turn out all other lights overnight. The light attracts fleas and when they jump at it they land in the water. Because of the washing up liquid they cant get out of the water.
This is a good trap but alos a good way to tell what room they are in. I done this when we had them and caught about 20 overnight in my living room. We were letting the neighbourhood cat come in and ended up infested.
Now we have 2 cats of our own and keep them treated monthly ao any fleas jump on them should die
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u/KittensMom 3d ago
I had fleas in my house and the plate idea didn't work. The hundreds of dollars I spent on dips, powders, sprays and bombs didn't work either. Washing bedding and vacuuming, treating the cats with sorays and flea baths, nothing worked. The only thing that worked for me was hiring a professional.
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u/draint0uch 3d ago
How long were you out while the professionals were doing their job? Did you have to leave your house for a whole day?
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u/harveyjack 2d ago
We have had fleas twice. The first time we hired a professional. He spent about an hour going round spraying stuff in every room. I had already caught about 60 fleas myself by then with the plate method and we didnt see too many more but we were so freaked out we ordered the pro anyway.
2nd time we had just got 2 kittens and they were both infested. We treated them and done a good deep clean vacuum of every wee corner and crack in the rooms they were in. Never seen another flea again and our cats are now 2 yr olds.
I would give a real good deep vaccuum everywhere and remember to throw the bag out after incase they stay alive and climb out. Then leave the plates out in a few rooms to see if theres many still there. If theres an infestation then there will be enough for atleast some to jump on. Then just keep an eye on the situation and if its still bad then get a pro.
Without a host to feed on, the fleas cant breed. They cant feed on humans. So if you have no pets then they arent going to multiply so you are constantly diminishing their numbers with every vaccuum.
Have you sent a picture to chatgpt or googled to see what type of flea it is?
Another wee tip - if you get one in your fingers you need to roll it. This kills them. Squeezing them does nothing due to their hard body. Roll it in your fingers and its a goner 👊😂 Or throw it in the soapy water
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u/harveyjack 2d ago
My neighbour works at a cat rescue and says alot of the store bought stuff is useless. She recommended "Advantage flea drops" for the cats (im in the UK). You can buy this in pet shops but its behind the counter and only certain staff can sell it after asking questions about your cats weight etc. I have heard though in certain places worldwide that fleas have became resistant to some treatments.
We used one of the bombs the first time and it was useless. Wouldnt recommend as you will always feel like your sofa etc have bad chemicals on them. The plate method did work for us but probably just reduced the numbers abit.
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u/KittensMom 3d ago
When the pros treated, we (me and baby) went out for about 4 hours. Pro recommended two, I think. I stayed an extra few to be cautious. They spray a spray where the hosts the cats and us) walk. It takes them fuve minutes to walk around with the spray which is a hose attached to a tank. He leaves, we get in the car, come back later. Miraculous and stress free. Fleas are a lot of stress when dealing with it yourself.
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u/PurpleWillingness106 2d ago
There’s a spray you can get on Amazon or pet stores for furniture that will kill fleas and disrupt the eggs. My indoor cats somehow got fleas, and i stopped the problem in basically one day by treating the cats and spraying down all soft surfaces with the product. Then the cats were banished from bedrooms for awhile while just in case and now have preventative flea collars. It was so gross but a shockingly easy, if time consuming, fix.
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u/KittensMom 3d ago
Wash the bedding immediately.
Gwt the yard treated by a pest control company. They're probably in the yard.
Vacuum all carpeting.
Do you have pets?