5 Natural Ways to Get Rid of Fleas in your Home

5 Natural Ways to Get Rid of Fleas in your Home

We ran into a little problem last week. Our poor Scout got fleas for the first time in his 12 years and we had no clue where to start with treatment! Since we moved next to a home with 3 other dogs we knew it was a possibility but we were hoping we’d get lucky and not have to deal with it.

Luckily we were able to find some great ways to eradicate the situation and, hopefully, reduce the chance of fleas returning again in our home. But if they do, we’ll be ready!

Here’s what we did to tackle our flea problem in our home and on our beloved dog.

5 Natural Ways to Get Rid of Fleas in your Home

1. Borax –

If you don’t already have borax in the laundry room (which I highly recommend), go pick up a few boxes from the local hardware store or from Target.

Using a mesh strainer, sprinkle the borax all over the carpeted areas in your home. This is best to do if you’re heading out for the day – or overnight.

Let the borax sit for up to 24 hours to really work it’s magic and then vacuum all of the carpeted areas to suck up the borax.

2. Salt

While it may sound kinda weird, salt can also be a great way to get rid of fleas in the home. Just like the borax, sprinkle very fine salt all over.

Unlike the borax, the salt will need about 7-10 days to kill the fleas and slowly suck up the moisture they need to survive.

After 7-10 days vacuum up the salt and dead fleas.

3. Tea Tree Oil

Let me just say that I LOVE tea tree oil. With it’s antifungal properties it’s fabulous in my all purpose spray cleaner mixed with vinegar and water, in my shampoo, in everything. So when I learned that tea tree oil could also help with fleas I fell in love with it all over again.

And just like I add tea tree oil to my shampoo, I add it to my dog’s as well. After a good tea tree oil shampoo bath, the fleas on him should be deterred from staying very long. Fleas also hate cedar and eucalyptus oil so if you have those in your cupboard use them!

We’ve been washing our pooch every 1-2 weeks to help ward off fleas. But we’ve started to follow up with an oatmeal based conditioner to help combat dryness from the washing.

4. Lemon

Another thing I always have on hand are lemons. They’re great for cleaning the house but they’re also a great flea deterrent as well.

Grab a lemon and cut it into thin slices. Place in a pint of water in a large pot and boil. Once it reaches a boil, let sit for a few hours up to overnight to reach maximum potency.

Then add to a spray bottle and spray affected areas – carpet, pet beds, couches, etc. Make sure to test in a small spot before using on any furniture.

5. Apple Cider Vinegar –

Now that we’ve tackled the house and the outside of the dog we also wanted to make sure that those left over fleas were also taken care of.

By adding a tablespoon of apple cider vinegar to his water we change what his blood tastes like. And fleas do not like apple cider vinegar!

You can also bathe your pooch with it as well or use it as a rinse after washing with a flea shampoo.

How do you naturally tackle fleas?

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Comments

  1. Great . Thanks for sharing. really helpful and informative article

  2. With useing a lemon does it have to be a store bought fresh lemon or can it be the concentrated lemon and if so what I just squirt the lemon juice into the pot of water and let that boil and then cool and put in a spray bottle

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