The presence of fleas in your home can often turn into a longwinded nightmare – especially when they are continually bothering your cat. Even worse, if all the living fleas are removed, any eggs that have been left behind can hatch and you will find yourself back in the same predicament.
Luckily, there are many ways to deal with these unwelcome parasites – and in this blog, we’re going to discuss the top 10 tips to remove fleas from your cat and home.
1. Do some investigation
You can drive yourself insane scouring bedding and carpets for evidence of fleas – instead, focus on your cat. If fleas have settled on their fur, you can safely conclude that they have probably infested most of the habitable areas of your home.
A cat suffering from fleas will often have tiny bugs jumping around on their fur, which can be visible to the human eye under closer inspection. Another way to confirm their presence is to use flea traps, which entice the parasites onto a sticky adhesive paper from which they cannot escape.
2. Attack the issue on two fronts
Due to the speed with which fleas reproduce, the best way to ensure their removal from your lives is to treat both your home and your cat simultaneously – ensuring the fleas have nowhere to hide.
3. Physical removal
The easiest method to remove fleas from your cat’s fur is to use a flea comb. By combing their fur from nose to tail multiple times daily, you can easily remove both the eggs and fleas with little hassle.
4. Use medication
Even if you remove them with a comb, any other fleas in your household can easily find their way back to your cat. However, there are several medications that can make your pet a less attractive proposition for them. The use of either oral medications or spot-on treatments are both excellent methods of making your cat’s fur a toxic environment for the parasite – although in households where there are children, it is advisable to stay away from spot-on treatments.
5. Pick up some medicated shampoo
Flea shampoo is not overly expensive and can be used as a deterrent from fleas whilst you continue to rid your entire house of an infestation.
6. Start cleaning
The greatest issue with a flea infestation is realising just how many places can harbour their presence. From curtains, bed sheets, carpets and clothing – fleas are happy to set up shop wherever they feel hidden and safe. In a single day, you will have to vacuum and wash all areas that your cats like to spend time. Using a combination of detergents, carpet shampoos and disinfectants, you can render these areas uninhabitable for most parasites.
7. Treat all surfaces
Once all areas are clean, you will want to do everything within your power to keep them that way – and a great tip to help remove fleas from your cat and home is via the use of non-toxic flea sprays or powders, which allow you to treat all your furniture and linen with chemicals that can kill any fleas that push their luck.
8. Treat your garden
In nearly all cases, fleas find their way into the home from outside. While it is hard to control where your cat goes when they’re out alone investigating the neighbourhood, you can deploy nematode worms in your garden to hunt down and kill any nearby fleas that are looking for an opportunity to enter your home.
9. If all else fails…
If you are planning on getting away for a few days, you can always bring out the big guns and use a chemical bomb. Capable of filling your entire home with a fog that finds its way into every nook and cranny of the property, these bombs can suffocate and kill all unwelcome pests upon deployment – but even after several days, these devices have been known to cause nausea and headaches in human inhabitants, so ventilate the house appropriately before returning to your normal life. And if this doesn’t work, just remember that you can always…
10. Go nuclear
No matter what how many tips you follow to remove fleas from your cat and home, sometimes the flea army will never surrender. However, there are many professionals who are privy to methods of flea removal, and have access to resources that most of us don’t. It may be a costly option, but for both you and your cat’s peace of mind, it’s a price worth paying.
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