Did you use flea treatment in your home? How can you tell if the fleas are finally gone?
In this article, you’ll learn everything you should know.
The best way to find out if fleas are gone is to place a dish containing water and detergent solution on a table in a dark room. Put a fluorescent over it. If there are fleas in the room, the fluorescent will attract them, and you’ll find dead fleas in the detergent solution.
How Long Until Fleas Are Completely Gone?
The extermination method used determines how long it’ll take for fleas to go completely. Chemicals like permethrin will kill fleas instantly. They can eliminate all the fleas in an environment within a few days.
It might take weeks or even months to get rid of fleas. However, they can be eliminated within a few days if you adopt a more effective method. Therefore, the extermination method used determines how fast the elimination will be.
For instance, if you opt for the physical method that involves picking the Parasite using tweezers or hand, it might take weeks to eliminate all the fleas. However, you can hasten the whole elimination process by opting for a faster and more efficient method — the chemical method.
If you spray chemicals like permethrin or Pyrethrin, within a few days, all the fleas in the environment will die. They are powerful chemicals that can eliminate fleas in an area within a short period. But, how about the hundreds of eggs the Parasite laid? That is another advantage of using the chemicals.
They halt the development of the egg; thus, the egg can’t develop into a flea. All you need to do is ensure that the egg isn’t vacuumed out as they may hatch to form new fleas in another environment. Thus, let the eggs remain in the treated area so they could die as well.
Recommended : If you are looking for a way to get rid of fleas using natural treatments take a look at this article I wrote.
How to Know When Fleas Are Finally Gone
It can take anywhere from eight weeks to three months for the full life cycle of a flea infestation to come to an end. The eggs, larvae or mature fleas that are living in your home need to die out. Unfortunately, some of them are still alive and living deep within your carpeted areas or hiding in crevices.
During this time, you should leave out a bowl of dish detergent and water. Shine a light on the bowl to attract fleas to it. If there are no fleas present in the bowl the following day when you check it, you can start to feel assured that fleas are no longer alive in your home.
Also take notice of any flea bites or a lack thereof. Once your pet stops scratching, it’s a great sign that fleas have now died out.
How do you know if flea treatment is working?
Your flea treatment is working if you can’t find any sign of fleas around. Such signs include finding fleas on your pet, on the ground, and the pet’s skin are itchy, red, and inflamed.
Getting rid of fleas doesn’t stop after using fleas treatment; you have more work to do. You must be observant to know if the treatment administered is working or not. Thus, you should do the following:
- Check around
- Check your pet’s skin
- Observe how your pet feels
Check around
The first thing you should do is to check around. Check your carpet and the environment. If you find fleas moving around, that is a sign that the treatment isn’t working. However, if the fleas you found are all dead, then the treatment works.
Check your pet’s skin
Fleas depend on animals to take their blood meal and survive. Thus, you should find them actively living on your pet skin if the treatment isn’t working. If it works, you should only find dead fleas in the skin waiting to detach.
Observe how your pet feels
There are few questions you must answer while observing your pet
- Has the itchiness stopped?
- Is it still losing hair?
- Is the skin red and inflamed?
If you notice any of these after using flea treatment, there may still be fleas around. However, sometimes, some of these observations might be a reaction to the treatment and don’t mean the treatment isn’t working.
To know if they’re reactions caused by the treatment or because the treatment isn’t working, you may repeat the first and second point raised above to confirm if there are no fleas around and on your pet. If there isn’t, then the treatment works, you may have to speak to your vet to know if a negative drug reaction causes them.
[youtube v=”Y1-tCT9n4I0″]
How long after flea treatment before fleas die?
The kind of flea treatment you use determines how long it’ll take before the fleas begin to die. Chemicals like permethrin will kill fleas instantly, while other methods might take hours or days to do the same.
There are different fleas treatment methods, each with a different speed of action. While some are slow killers, others are fast killers. For instance, if you smear Vaseline on your pet, it might take a few hours before the fleas on the pet dies.
However, this is not the case with permethrin and other chemicals like Pyrethrin, Carbaryl synthetic, and maldison solution. Chemicals like these are fast killers and will exterminate fleas on contact. Using soap and water solution with fluorescent over it also kills fleas in a few minutes. Once the fleas get to the fluorescent area and land in the soap solution, it drowns and dies within a few minutes.
Can fleas just disappear without treatment?
Fleas can disappear without treatment if they can’t find a host on which they can feed. On the other hand, if they continue to find a host to take their blood meal, they’ll continue to survive and won’t disappear without treatment.
Without food, adult fleas will die within two weeks, but if they find a host to feed on, they can survive for long without dying. Thus, fleas won’t die on their own as long as they find a host. It becomes worse when they lay eggs. With that, even when the adult flea dies, the egg hatches, and younger fleas take over.
Like many parasites, if fleas remain unfed for a week or two weeks, they become weak and die. On the other hand, even when all the adult fleas die, if you introduce a host into the environment, newly hatched fleas will feed on it and begin a new cycle.
Thus, the only circumstance where fleas can disappear without treatment is when there’s no host around for about two months. The adult fleas will die within two weeks, and it takes about twelve days for their eggs to hatch. Thus, even if new eggs hatch after all the adult fleas die, the young fleas will die in less than a week, eliminating all the fleas in the environment without any treatment.
Thanks for visiting ThePestManagement.com for the best information to help you to make the pest control process easy, safe & affordable.
