When fleas have infested a house or apartment, it is extremely unpleasant to be in the room. Parasites jump on your feet, live in beds and upholstered furniture, and bite painfully. If there are a large number of insects, it is difficult to remove them on your own and takes about two months. If you start fighting bloodsuckers right away, in the first week, you can speed up the process.
It is important to notice signs of infection in time and prevent parasites from multiplying. Using simple methods, insect numbers can be monitored even after treatment. Learn how to tell if there are fleas in your home or animals, and how to use a trap to monitor for fleas.
What does a flea look like?
There are more than 2,000 species of fleas in the world. Dog, cat and rat parasites are widespread in European territory. Due to its modest dimensions, the flea looks like a tiny dot. The dimensions of the above-mentioned individuals are about 1 mm.
For reference! The largest representatives of the order are moose fleas. An ordinary parasite is 1 cm long, and a fertilized female reaches a size of 1.5 cm.
The insect's body consists of two parts - the head and abdomen. The flea is protected from physical impact by a durable chitinous shell. The body of the parasite is flattened laterally and resembles a shrimp in appearance. This shape makes it easier for the flea to move through thick fur.
Flea
The parasite lacks wings for the sake of protection: a winged insect is much easier to crush than a walking insect with a shell. The flea has three pairs of limbs, with the hind ones being more developed. With their help, the pest can jump to a height of up to 20 cm. Successful movement on the host is facilitated by the abundance of bristles and spines throughout the body. They also help to hold on when the animal grooms itself.
The flea has a yellow or brown tint, depending on the subspecies. The parasite changes its color after drinking blood - to a dark brown or black color. In this case, the size of the insect can increase several times due to the swollen stomach.
Powder compact
It looks more like a pipe from a Soviet vacuum cleaner and a soldering iron with a textured handle, but in fact these are powder compacts of different designs: an accordion and a carrot. The leather accordion was filled with powder and sealed with a lid at one end. Contents were spilling out from the other edge with small perforations. The carrot worked like an air cannon. Its effectiveness depended on how hard the “makeup artist” blew into the valve; a portion of powder shot out from the sharp tip.
The fashion for wigs had authoritative legislators, the elderly Elizabeth I with sparse gray hair and the balding Louis XIII, who suffered from venereal diseases for life. There are several theories as to why powdered hair extensions have become such a widespread wardrobe item. One of them is associated with the ban on non-royal members wearing blond wigs. As a result, aristocrats came up with the idea of bleaching dark hair extensions: dyeing them or powdering them.
Signs of fleas in your home
Let's figure out how to determine that there are parasites in the house. First of all, these are bites. Flea activity manifests itself on the legs - from the feet to the lower legs. Further than 20-30 cm, that is, the height of the insect's jump, inflammation does not spread.
Recognizing flea bites is not difficult. These are hard bumps with a tiny hole in the center and redness around the perimeter. During feeding, one individual makes peculiar paths, leaving 3-5 bites at a distance of 0.5-1 cm. Subsequently, the problem area swells, itches, and in severe cases, ulcers form.
You should also examine your pets by parting the fur and exposing the skin. If numerous black dots (insect feces) are visible on the hair and body, then you can be sure that flea eggs and larvae are already developing in secluded places in the apartment.
For reference ! An easy way to find out if there are pests in your home is with a blank sheet of paper. We place several pieces in places where the pest is expected to be concentrated and wait about half an hour. Small dark dots are clearly visible on contrasting paper.
Trap options
The manufacturing process of such a device is not at all complicated; it can be done by anyone who wants to test their abilities.
- Using a utility knife or scissors, cut off the top of the bottle (about 1/3).
- Unscrew the lid and place the smaller part, neck down, inside the larger one.
- Secure with tape, wire or a stapler, be sure to take into account that the structure will have to be disassembled to remove dead insects and replace the bait.
- Make holes at the top of the trap through which to thread the string.
- Hang it where the largest concentration of wasps is found.
The bottle should be at least two liters in volume, since a huge number of individuals can come across a day (sometimes several hundred) that simply will not fit in a small container. In large areas or apiaries, you need to place several devices at the same time. A wasp trap is an effective method of control, since insects are not able to think analytically, so when trying to get out, they hit the wall of the trap, fall into the solution, where they die.
Most often used for bait:
- sugar syrup with lemon juice,
- leftover meat products diluted with water,
- beer or other alcoholic drinks,
- fruit and berry juices,
- crushed fruits or berries,
- dishwashing liquid with a pleasant smell,
- fragrant liquid soap.
The second way to make a device with your own hands: take an ordinary glass jar of any size, preferably with leftover jam, sweet compote, and other products that attract insects. Dilute with water and stir thoroughly. Close tightly with a plastic or metal lid or polyethylene with holes made on the surface. Install in appropriate locations.
You can make a more complex design: place a funnel made of metal mesh into a cylinder of arbitrary volume, the upper part of which should be placed no higher than 10 centimeters from the top edge of the trap. Place it on bricks or planks and cover the top with a fine mesh, such as an old sieve. Place bait inside - a piece of fish or meat. Attracted by the smell, the wasps flock to the bait, but after eating, they try to fly away, rising up, hitting the net, but cannot get out. There they can be successfully poisoned with any proven insecticide.
Flea habitats
If you understand that there are insects in the house, the next question arises - how to find fleas? First of all, you need to examine your pets. In almost 100% of cases, it is the animals who are to blame for the appearance of blood-sucking parasites in the home. Fleas successfully develop on warm-blooded hosts - cats, dogs and birds. As the population increases, insects begin to migrate around the house: they settle in floor cracks, under baseboards, in technical openings, and also hide in carpets and interior items.
Clothing is hardly an exception; fleas can live there too, since fleecy items of clothing are the optimal habitat for the parasite. The clothes have a lot of folds and an ideal microclimate. The only thing that is not there is food, so the flea is forced to go hunting.
Hair coloring hat
Since ancient times, golden female locks have been desired by both women and men. It is worth remembering that obliging prostitutes to dye their hair red or blond, which gave birth to a fashion for blond hair, oddly enough, among married women. This fashion existed a thousand years after the fall of Rome. In Venice of the 16th century, a special name even appeared for the color in which most local fashionistas wore their makeup, biondo veneziano. Dozens of paint recipes based on herbs, chemicals and even walnuts have also been developed. To dye hair in Venice, wide-brimmed straw hats without a top were used (there are references to the same in Rome), on the brim of which hair coated with a dye had to be laid out so that it would fade in the sun. This hat was called solana.
How to find a flea nest in an apartment?
After the pets have been examined, you need to try to detect fleas in the apartment, for which you should carefully examine all the secluded places in the house where parasites can concentrate. It is better to act radically and for sure: dismantle the baseboards, shake up all the linen, clothes and carpets, and also carefully examine every corner of the upholstered furniture.
Many people find fleas in completely unexpected places, for example, in the bedside table, folds of curtains or in the PC system unit. The parasite does not have foragers like ants and the path to the colony cannot be traced. In addition, the flea is very small and after the next jump it is lost from sight. Therefore, the only right decision is a complete inspection of everything and everyone in the apartment.
Witch bottle
Household wisdom was largely based on prejudices and superstitions. Thus, mysterious witch bottles, which existed until the end of the 19th century in Europe and the USA, promised the owner strong teeth, hair, bones, shiny nails, elastic skin, healthy complexion, love success and longevity. It was not difficult to make such a device: a small vessel was filled with biological samples collected after the next cosmetic procedure. If desired, the contents were flavored with saliva or urine. Afterwards, the vessel was spoken and left for storage in a safe place or even buried. The caches of such witch bottles sometimes contain the “amulets” of an entire family. It was believed that witches who want to cause damage would never get to the owner of the witch bottle while it was intact.
How to get rid of fleas at home?
First of all, it is necessary to treat pets - a source of parasites. Otherwise, fleas will appear in the house again in just a day or two. You can find drugs on sale in different form factors, but drops on the withers are considered the most effective.
Drops on the withers
Popular flea remedies for cats and dogs:
- Bayer;
- Inspector;
- Animal Play;
- Merial;
- Celandine.
Next, you should treat all areas in the house where parasites can concentrate. There are also plenty of options to choose from: aerosols, suspensions, powders and concentrates. The former have an immediate effect, but do not cause any significant harm to the larvae and eggs. Therefore, it is more advisable to give preference to powders, concentrates and suspensions.
Important! It is necessary to treat every corner: cracks, technical holes, baseboards, wallpaper - everything that is within 30-40 cm from the floor. If the furniture is in the way, then it needs to be moved away. Half measures in such an enterprise are unacceptable.
Effective remedies for fleas in the apartment:
- Get;
- Cypermethrin;
- Clean house;
- Sinuzan;
- Tetramethrin.
Concentrates are quite toxic, so after treatment you will have to leave the house for several hours to consolidate the effect and then ventilate.
Preventive measures
Of course, the use of special flea control agents, as well as special thermal and other means, does not exclude constant wet and dry cleaning of premises. You should also keep your pets in good order, periodically carefully examining them for the presence of parasites. You should avoid walking them in places where they may be exposed to fleas. Following these and other recommendations will definitely help rid your home of these unwanted visitors forever.
What to do if there are fleas in the bed?
Fleas, unlike bed bugs, prefer to concentrate on the floor rather than on the beds. But if a cat or dog living in the house is not averse to taking a nap in a comfortable master’s bed, then the parasite can gain a foothold at a height unattainable for it.
To get rid of fleas in the bed, the first thing you need to do is wash all the bedding, choosing a mode with the highest possible temperature. The parasite is afraid of high temperatures, so blankets, pillows and mattresses should be heat treated with a steam generator. It would also be a good idea to apply insecticides to the latter to kill the larvae and eggs.
Steam generator treatment
Rugs near the bed must be thoroughly vacuumed, or better yet, knocked out. From now on, pets should not be allowed to sleep in bed. In addition to fleas, pets can bring other equally dangerous blood-sucking insects into their bed, such as bedbugs.
Detection methods
How to tell if there are fleas on an animal's fur. Careful and regular inspection will help. As a rule, insects live in the muzzle, neck of a cat or dog, as well as in the tail.
You can determine the presence of such a threat by observing the behavior of your pet: he can behave restlessly and even aggressively. And vice versa: a pet weakened by a large number of insects can behave very sluggishly, and in this case the problem becomes quite serious.
It doesn't hurt to check the carpeting in your home, but the insects are so small that you simply can't find them on the carpet. In any case, flea bites are a sign of a problem.
People suffer from them just like animals. Therefore, if you notice small bumps and red spots on your body (and these are characteristic signs of fleas), it’s time to do something.
