Fleas and other pests in your carpet can be a nightmare. They make a home for themselves in the fibers of your carpet and become extremely difficult to remove.
The question is, does carpet cleaner kill fleas and other pests? Here’s everything you need to know about using a carpet cleaner to kill fleas and other pests:
- Carpet cleaner will kill fleas and other pests, especially if you steam clean. However, it will not fix a flea or pest infestation.
- Carpet cleaner will not kill eggs or larvae and will need to be done more than one time to kill all of the fleas and pests
- To effectively deal with a flea or other pest infestation, you will likely need some sort of pest treatment in addition to carpet cleaner
- Treating pest infestations requires cleaning more than just carpet. Bedding, clothes, and pets will also need to be cleaned and treated.
This article will cover a range of topics surrounding the use of carpet cleaner to kill fleas and other pests, including:
- How to identify a flea or pest infestation in your carpet
- How to kill fleas and other pests using carpet cleaner
- Can I use professional carpet cleaning services to remove fleas and other pests?
- Things to remember when using carpet cleaner to kill fleas and other pests
How to Identify a Flea or Pest Infestation in Your Carpet
Fleas and small pests can be trampled into your home by pets or human traffic. Given their small size, they hide easily in fabrics and upholstery, meaning they may not be identified until you have a severe pest problem.
If you think you may have a flea or pest infestation, look out for these signs:
Visible fleas or insects
Fleas are little reddish-brown insects that can live in carpet, furniture, or even the cracks between floorboards. If you can see insects or fleas scurrying or hopping around inside your home, you can know without a doubt that you have them living in your home.
Your pets are scratching themselves
If your pets are itching or licking themselves excessively, they may be infested with fleas. Have a look through their coat and see if you can find any little insects.
If your pet has fleas and lives indoors, you can almost guarantee that these little pests will have set up home in your carpet and furniture. Even if your pets live outdoors, fleas may still be living in your carpet if they have been transported in through humans, clothing, or bedding.
Insect bites on humans or pets
If a flea or pest infestation becomes too bad, you may start experiencing bites. These will show up as small red marks and may even appear on your pets this way also. Check all people and pets for red bite marks that may confirm the existence of fleas or other pests.
How to Kill Fleas and Other Pests Using Carpet Cleaner
Fleas and other pests can be tough to eradicate. To effectively clean your carpet and free your house from pests, follow these simple steps.
Vacuum the carpet
Begin by giving your infested carpet a good clean with the vacuum. This will suck up loose fleas before you begin a more thorough wet clean.
Remember to empty your vacuum cleaner properly to ensure fleas aren’t spread further through your carpet. It’s usually best to empty the vacuum cleaner outside to ensure you don’t accidentally release the collected fleas inside.
Vacuuming is an excellent place to start, however will not get rid of fleas or other pests entirely as it does not collect the eggs.
Clean and treat your pet
There’s no point cleaning and treating your carpet if you aren’t cleaning and treating your pet. It is highly likely that it is your pet trampling in the little critters and will continue to do so if they aren’t treated.
Give your pet a good wash using a good flea shampoo. Depending on how badly they are infested, you may need to use a flea comb and additional flea treatment to ensure you remove all of the fleas. If you need advice, consult your vet for the most effective flea treatment for your pet.
Prevention is best so you should regularly treat your pet for fleas to stop them from bringing the pests into your house in the future.
Treat the carpet, furniture and room
Once you have vacuumed the carpet thoroughly and washed and flea treated your pet, it’s time to hit the carpet with a high-quality flea treatment. There are a range of treatments on the market with many available in a standard supermarket.
Make sure you read the labels to ensure you select one that is suitable for you. Flea bombs can be especially effective and treat carpet and furniture in one go, rather than sprays that needs to be used on every single surface and piece of furniture.
If you do select a spray, don’t forget to treat all upholstery. Many treatments do not kill eggs or larvae. They will need to be re-administered a few times throughout the flea life cycle to ensure the pest is eradicated.
Steam clean the carpet
Allow the treatment to work for a few days (or longer depending on the particular product), then finish your carpet clean with a thorough steam cleaning.
Copyright protected content owner: ReadyToDIY.com and was initially posted on February 27, 2020.
The heat is likely to kill any fleas that remain after the previous steps. Again, steam clean will not kill the eggs; however, the temperature will kill adult fleas and remove the residue remaining from the treatment.
Repeat the process until fleas or pests are gone
Female fleas lay anywhere between 20 and 50 eggs per day. Carpet cleaners and most pest treatments will not get rid of these eggs, as they only target the adult fleas.
These eggs take 1-2 weeks to hatch, making it difficult to get rid of fleas in your carpet. Due to this, the cleaning process will need to be repeated after 1-2 weeks to target the new round of fleas. You might have to repeat this process a few times to ensure the fleas or other pests have been truly removed from your carpet.
Can I Use Professional Carpet Cleaning Services to Remove Fleas and Other Pests?
The short answer to this question is yes.
Professional carpet cleaning services can be engaged to assist with the removal of fleas and other pests.
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However, as mentioned above, standard carpet cleaning only removes adult fleas and doesn’t target the eggs that may be sitting on the carpet.
Professional carpet cleaning will remove adult fleas and make your carpet smell better but is unlikely to eradicate the insects completely. If you want to remove pests from your carpet entirely, some flea treatment will be required. It is also possible to hire flea and pest removal services to treat the carpet if you don’t want to do it yourself.
Things to Remember When Using Carpet Cleaner to Kill Fleas and Other Pests
You must treat your pet at the same time you clean your carpet
There’s no point cleaning and treating your carpet if you don’t treat your pet. They will continue to drop fleas in the carpet, and you will be unable to eradicate these pests from your house.
You need to clean and treat all furniture and upholstery
Fleas live in more than just the carpet. They will get into furniture, upholstery, and even the spaces between floorboards. To remove fleas from your house, you must address all of these rather than simply focusing on the carpet.
You need to treat and clean all pet bedding
Don’t forget to clean and treat your pet’s bed! Fleas are likely to be living in their bedding and even their toys if they are soft ones. If these hold no value to you, it may be easier to throw them out and replace them rather than cleaning and treating each item.
ReadyToDIY is the owner of this article. This post was published on February 27, 2020.
Final Thoughts
Carpet cleaner will kill and remove adult fleas; however, it does not address eggs that may live in the carpet. To truly remove a flea infestation from your carpet, you will need to use a flea treatment in addition to cleaning it.