Do it yourself pest control can range from using toxic sprays to manually picking fleas off your pets. There are so many products out there that claim to control and eliminate fleas both in your home and on your pets that the choice can be overwhelming. Much depends on how much toxicity you're comfortable with.
House flea sprays and bug bombs are one do it yourself pest control method. The bombs require tons of cleaning, as anything sitting out will be coated in the poisonous substance, and things like dishes and glasses and anything used for food preparation will need to be washed, for safety's sake. You do have to leave the home for about 4 hours while the bug bomb works its magic. The upside is that when you return, the fleas should all be dead.
At a certain stage during the flea life cycle, the pupal or cocoon stage, the fleas will be unaffected by most bombs and sprays. Certain do it yourself pest control foggers do claim that once those fleas mature, however, any eggs they lay will be killed by the residual effect of the treatment. This means that once the hatched fleas die, so there will be no more. This also means that the toxins that killed the fleas are present in your home for however many months the product is supposed to prevent the return of the fleas. Only you can decide if that's worth it.
Flea sprays contain those same substances and are more temporary. And if you don't also treat your pets carefully with good flea control practices as well as vacuum regularly, the fleas can come back in no time. In the last few years, vets and pet owners have been lamenting the way fleas are adapting to most pest control products. Some of the chemicals used on pets and in most popular flea medication aren't as effective as they once were.
For do it yourself pest control for fleas that won't leave poisonous residue in your home, there are two very natural and effective methods you can use. For your yard, you can purchase beneficial nematodes from a garden center or natural store online. They feed on things like weevils, fleas, termites, grubs, ants and cutworms, among other pests.
For the house, purchase Diatomaceous Earth from a natural or garden store. Also known as fossil shell flour, DE is mineral dust from certain quarries. It's completely non-toxic, and 100% effective in killing every flea or hard-shelled insect it touches. DE is microscopically jagged, so that it punctures their carapace and they dry out and die. To us it feels like a soft, fine powder. DE is often sold for the purpose of do it yourself pest control, so follow the application instructions carefully. This can take a week or so before the indoor flea population is gone, because it's touch-based rather than poison, but it does work.
(Be sure you purchase food-grade DE and not the DE designed for use in pool filters. That type of DE has been heated and is highly toxic. )
Use DE and beneficial nematodes together with good pet flea control practices, and your do it yourself pest control will have you flea-free in no time.
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Photo Credits: brewbooks
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3 comments ↓
This post was very informative. I have been looking for a way to de-flea my house and yard sort of as an additional preventative method to keep them away from my dog. Good thing you mentioned to make sure to buy the food grage DE because with my luck I probably would have bought the kind for pools without even realizing it.
I love anything DIY….mostly because it usually saves me a lot of time and money. I think fixing your “pest” issues is another great thing to learn to fix on your own and then….WOW! You can do it the same way in the future. I love the idea of using natural products too to do all your “dirty work!”. I heard orange oil is something most pests don’t like too much. I think I may try that next time. And as you said, when it comes to taking care of fleas, don’t forget to treat your entire yard too, because thats usually where they live, and come from.
Once you or your pets travel outside, they will instantly attach themselves to your clothing and come back into the home again….so even if your home is FLEA FREE….don’t forget the yard too!! Nothing worse than repeating the same process over and over again. Thanks for the great post!
-Sheila
Good post. Most people forget to mention to vacuum regularly, which is critical.
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