Question 1

What Are Flea Traps and Should I Use Them?

Accepted Answer

Flea traps are anything that can catch a flea and stop it from roaming freely. There are many commercial flea products that promise to do this but you can make an ultimate flea trap from household ingredients.

The two most common ways to lure fleas is by using a sticky substance that is effective in trapping fleas such as a sticky pador glue. There is also the soapy water method which is a great and easy solution for your pest problem.

How many fleas you catch with these traps depends on a few factors but there is usually no need to call a pest control specialist. If you want your home pest free, then read on as we’ll give you more info about fleas and how you should set these traps.

Question 2

Do Fleas Bite Humans?

Accepted Answer

Fleas are tiny parasitic insects as they are 1/16th to 1/8th of an inch in length. They like to infest furry hides of animals, preferably mammals, and reproduce. A flea is a parasite that drinks blood to survive and reproduce.

Commonly, we relate flea infestations to dogs, cats, or other household pets.

However, that is not always the case.

While a flea may not stay on your body all the time, it will bite you to suck your blood and then jump away. A flea is a flightless parasite, but it can jump 13 inches in height despite its small size. Hence, being close to a flea-infested animal can put you at risk for fleabites.

Fleas prefer dark, humid, and warm places to nest and reproduce. Coincidently, your household pet’s fur fits the bill perfectly for that.

There are over 2500species of fleas in the world and over 300 of them are native to the US. While fleas that affect animals do not usually seek out humans, they can infest your house and cause you a headache. Fleabites are harmful to humans and animals alike.

In animals, the bites cause itchiness and discomfort.

Sometimes, the flea might also infect your pet with some disease-causing bacteria or virus. Fleas are excellent carriers of such pathogens for animals and humans alike.

Yet, fleabites in humans can be insignificant or fatal depending on allergies and the pathogen in its stomach. If a fleabite triggers a severe allergic response, you should seek medical assistance.

Question 3

What Happens When a Flea Bites?

Accepted Answer

In animals, the fleas feed on the abdomen, ears, neck, and back skin.

A flea is similar to a mosquito when it comes to bites. The mouth of a flea has a long extension (proboscis) akin to a needle.

A flea pierces the skin with its mouth to suck blood and pours the saliva into the skin. The saliva contains proteins that act as anticoagulants that prevent the blood from clotting.

Moreover, the saliva triggers an allergic reaction in the body that leads to swelling and the appearance of a fleabite mark.

Question 4

What Diseases Do Fleas Spread?

Accepted Answer

A flea can spread many different possible diseases among humans and animals.

The Black Death pandemic, which threatened to wipe out Europe, infected humans from fleabites. These fleas nested on rats and in the 14th century, they were the best carriers. The most common modern-day diseases resulting from a fleabite are

Plague
    Cat Scratch Disease (CSD)
    Endemic murine typhus

These diseases are most common in the continents of Africa and the Americas. These diseases mainly affect mammals such as rodents and cats. Taking care of such animals can transmit the disease to humans as well. Most of these diseases are not life-threatening under normal circumstances.

Nonetheless, you should seek medical assistance if you show symptoms of such diseases after taking care of an animal with fleabites or getting bit yourself.

Question 5

How Do You Trap a House for Fleas?

Accepted Answer

A flea will always prefer an animal a human to a trap, if given the opportunity. When there are no animals around, the flea will seek to bite anything that has:

Body heat
    Breathing (Carbon dioxide emission)
    Movement

Fleas are attracted to warmth, especially places with above-average carbon dioxide levels in the air. An ideal environment for a flea to reproduce is one with shelter, warmth, and food. Being bloodsuckers, the fur on your pet has everything that a flea would desire.

Nevertheless, we can lure the fleas residing in your house and not in your pet’s fur. Most traps are designed to kill the flea when it is caught. Common DIY house flea traps use soapy water to drown the fleas after attracting them.

Other commercially available traps use sticky surfaces, soapy water tanks, or glue to catch the fleas. A flea trap attracts the flea towards itself using light and warmth to emulate an ideal place for the flea to nest.

Question 6

Where do you put flea traps?

Accepted Answer

Fleas are shelter-loving insects that like to nest away from open areas in the nooks and crannies of your house. As such, setting up the trap near such places in your home can allow you to bait them into a flea trap.

Fleas also love rugs, carpets, bedsheets, and any other fabric. Therefore, you should also place the traps near such things. However, it is often better to wash your fabric items and dry them at high temperatures if you fear a flea infestation in your house.

Additionally, you can put flea traps outdoors near your house entrances. Fleas can approach your house because they are attracted to light, having traps outside will prevent unwanted intruders in your house. You should keep an eye on your furniture and kitchen as well since fleas can build nests in them.

Question 7

How to make a flea trap at home?

Accepted Answer

Commercial flea traps are effective but if you do not feel like spending money on them, you can build a DIY flea trap. The most effective homemade flea trap is a bowl filled with dish soap.

Place a bottle on the bowl filled with dish soap and place a light source on top of it. You can even use a flashlight for this. Ensure that the bottle acts as a lightbulb and that the water level is deep enough.

Leave the light source on throughout the night. The light will attract the fleas towards itself and drown them the dish soap trap.

Soapy water works on nearly eveary house pest including cockroaches and wasps. It is important to add soap to the water because it breaks the surface tension of the water. This prevents the flea from floating, and consequently, it drowns.

These are a good flea trap as they will leave you with plenty of dead fleas. They are one of the best flea traps at attracting fleas, especially as you can make them without spending a cent.

Question 8

How to Get Rid of Fleas Without Traps?

Accepted Answer

If you want to get rid of fleas without setting up traps around your house, you can try these methods:
Salt and Baking Soda

Salt is deadly to many insects and can be an effective method of pest control. The best use of salt is to mix it with baking soda and sprinkle it over your rugs, carpets, furniture, or anything that could be housing fleas.

Sodium in salt and baking soda mixture has moisture-absorbing capabilities that penetrate through the flea’s exoskeleton, causing fatality. Keep in mind that salt can damage your house accessories if not removed. Therefore, you should clean the mixture up by vacuuming the sprinkled area.
Diatomaceous Earth

Similar to salt, diatomaceous earth (or diatomite) breaks the exoskeleton of most fleas apart and cause instant fatality. Diatomite is better for outdoor applications as it has a finer structure compared to salt.

Keep in mind that fleas can infest your yards as well. Flowerbeds, tree shades, and lawns are favorite spots for fleas to infest. Moreover, inhaling diatomite can be dangerous for you. Therefore, it is better used outside for destroying flea and other exoskeletal insect nests.
Lemon water

Fleas hate the scent of lemon and try to avoid it when possible. Spraying your dog beds, house, or yourself with lemon water will instantly rid you of fleas. Lemon water works better as a flea repellant than it does as a flea killer. Nevertheless, preventing future infestations is a necessary part of the flea-control process
Cleaning and Vacuuming

Fleas are dangerously quick to reproduce and lay eggs rapidly. A female flea can lay up to 40 eggs on a signal day. A flea larva takes 2-3 weeks to mature into an adult flea. Therefore, even if you remove all the fleas on the property, there might be a risk for future flea infestations due to the larva.

Adult fleas make up less than 10% of the actual flea infestation. Thus, it is necessary to vacuum regularly and clean the area where the infestation has taken place to control fleas. Your carpets, furniture, yards, and even pets can have flea eggs left on them.

Vacuuming the rugs and carpets, applying polish to the furniture, and cleaning the pets can prevent future heavy infestation.

Question 9

How do you catch fleas?

Accepted Answer

Flea traps work to kill fleas because they are considered harmful parasitic pests to humans and animals. Flea traps attract fleas with light and heating and kill them by drowning or poisoning.

If you want to catch a flea alive, the best method would be to use a flea comb on a flea-infested pet and store it in an enclosed jar. Alternatively, you can use commercially available sticky pad flea traps. These flea traps use glue or sticky paper to trap the fleas alive.

Question 10

Do flea traps help?

Accepted Answer

Yes, flea traps do help exterminate hidden fleas around your house.

However, they will not rid you or your pet of them completely. A flea is attracted to a flea trap only if there is no other animal around. A flea has excellent senses and can identify you from your breathing, vibrations, and body heat. Therefore, flea traps only help clean up stragglers and hidden fleas.

Question 11

Do fleas target humans?

Accepted Answer

Among the 2500 species of fleas, the most commonly encountered fleas are the cat fleas. Cat fleas target cats, dogs, and other mammals with a fur coat and are usually not interested in humans. However, there do exist species of fleas that target humans.

These are rare and often not found in urban areas. Nonetheless, between cat fleas, dog fleas, and human fleas, the human flea is more common than dog fleas in the US. The opposite is true for Europe.

Question 12

How do I know if the fleas are gone?

Accepted Answer

All adult fleas defecate and therefore leave behind flea dirt.

If you find any flea dirt while combing your pet or cleaning some part of your house, you should restart the extermination process. I

f you do not find any signs of flea dirt after three weeks of an infestation then there is a good chance your house is flea-free.

What Are Fleas Traps?

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WHAT YOU WILL LEARN

What Are Flea Traps and Should I Use Them?

Where do you put flea traps?

How to make a flea trap at home?

Do flea traps help?