We just moved inito a house where the previous owner had dogs. We have a beautiful 5 month old kitten. We have been to the vets twice already because she has fleas. We purchased a spray for the house that will kill the fleas. My question is there anything I can use in the laundry to make sure I kill every flea on washable items? Thanks so much.
In the laundry, I would go for as hot of water as the clothing will allow–then throw the laundry in the dryer (no clothesline) . But you have fleas in other parts of your house, and interestingly a laundry additive can help you get rid of them. I had the same problem this year.
My son’s outside Rottweiler was brought in my house and he brought his fleas with him. I have had dogs for years and never experienced fleas in my home before. This was incredible…and not in a good way.
I tried the bombs. No improvement. More bombs..still fleas. So then I went to searching the web.
I read about Borax (in the laundry aisle of the supermarket). Sprinke it on your carpet and let it stand for as long as possible. I also read about table salt and also sprinkling that on the carpet and letting it stand. So I did both at the same time. I put it down at night, tiptoed around the next morning to get ready for work and let it set that day too. I then came home and vacuumed.
By now I was too nuts to just wait and see if that worked by itself. So I bought some bug spray called TAT–real cheap stuff, available at the dollar store. It stated it killed fleas. So now that the carpet was nice and clean, I sprayed all the carpeting with TAT. I then took my little dog and stayed out of the house until the spray dried on the carpet (about 2 hours).
This process worked. I am not sure if it was the Borax, the salt, or the TAT insecticide, but those nasty little creatures are now in flea heaven. By the way, the 3 punch round of Borax, salt, and TAT costs less than just ONE of the bomb treatements (that didn’t work anyway).
You have to remember to vaccum everyday though, even after it seems the last flea has disappeared. The eggs are tough to kill, so they must be vaccumed, and vacuumed, and vaccumed. The Borax/salt/TAT didn’t affect my little 4 pound dog, who cleans herself like a cat. But it certainly affected the fleas. Flea free now for 40 days!
I too am having flea problems for the first time in decades…a real infestation. So I feel for you. In fact, I’m going nuts!
Anyway, bleach in the laundry will kill them for sure. For color clothes, I put just a cap full of bleach in the water and wait until the washer is full (so the bleach a VERY diluted) to put in the clothes. (Bleach kills other critters too.)
Good luck!
Just a regular wash should be fine. Fleas take a long time to drown, but an hour’s washing machine cycle should do it.
Chalice
EDIT: Salt doesn’t kill fleas, that’s a myth based on the slug-killing salt technique.
make a spot to designate to flea killing, then put salt all over the clothes. leave it sit for a few hours, then go outside and shake them. Repeat for about a week. then wash them in really hot water.
SALT.
Also, you can rake rock salt under and around your house and that will kill them off too.
Hot water. That’s all that’s needed.
just using hot water will kill any and all fleas just wash like you would regularly