Basement fleas - effective methods of controlling parasites

Basement fleas are a general name used for all varieties of fleas that can appear in a country house or apartment. The insects got this name because they usually live in basements, lower floors of buildings or cellars. From the article you will learn effective methods of getting rid of fleas and rules for preventing their reappearance.

Causes and types

How do fleas appear in the basement? Once they get there in the fur of a rat, cat or any other animal, they begin to actively reproduce. This is due to the fact that the warm and humid air of basements is ideal for them. Most often, fleas breed in accumulations of rags and heaps of garbage. They feed on the blood of animals (usually rats, cats and dogs) and strays who hide or spend the night in the basement.

Stages of insect development.

Having made their way into a living room, fleas look for the most contaminated areas: cluttered cabinets, old things, animal beds, as well as the space under the carpet or behind the baseboard. These are the places that need to be treated first.

Keep in mind that in order to get rid of fleas at home, it is not enough just to treat your apartment. There is a high probability that the insects will get to it again. It is possible to solve the problem forever only by thoroughly cleaning and disinfecting the basement or cellar.

Among the parasites that appear at home, you can find human, rat, dog, and sometimes even rabbit or goat fleas. An ordinary person will not be able to independently distinguish between these species. But this does not pose a serious problem: the mechanism for getting rid of all types of fleas is the same.

Where do they come from?

Fleas enter a living space in several ways.

They climb out of the basement through ventilation or cracks. This is especially true for multi-storey buildings, in which there is usually no owner’s view of all the utility rooms.
They are brought by pets after a walk where contact with an infected animal is possible.
On items of clothing or shoes when visiting places infested with insects, especially for people associated with work in basements and other damp and dirty places.

Attention! Cellar fleas are carriers of many dangerous diseases. They cause human infection with plague, hepatitis, brucellosis, salmonellosis, encephalitis and some others.

The dangers posed by basement fleas

Fleas move quickly in search of food.

Since the flea's only food is blood, it actively attacks all living creatures larger than the size of a mouse. Using sharp bristles, she precisely pierces the skin and gets to the vessel. A flea bite is quite painful. In its place there is redness and swelling. Another symptom of a bite can be severe and prolonged itching.

A flea does not remain on the body of an animal or a person permanently. Having had enough, she immediately leaves him. The impression that parasites always live on a dog or cat is deceptive. It’s just that insects quickly replace each other and multiply rapidly.

It is necessary to understand that basement fleas pose a real threat to human well-being. In addition to causing discomfort, a flea bite can trigger a dangerous infectious process. Scratching the inflamed area of skin is also dangerous - it can lead to a painful and festering wound. For this reason, it is important for anyone who finds these insects in their home to get rid of them immediately.

Fleas are known to carry:

brucellosis;
hepatitis of various types;
encephalitis;
salmonellosis;
tularemia;
tuberculosis and other serious diseases;

Thus, checking and baiting fleas in the basement should become a regular sanitary event in every home.

Prevention

There is no doubt that it is better to prevent any attack than to fight it later. Therefore, to prevent fleas from appearing in your home, follow these simple prevention guidelines.

The first point we will indicate is the cleanliness and dryness of the room. Most often, fleas settle in the darkest and dustiest corners of the apartment: under furniture and baseboards, in carpets and rugs.
Carefully inspect your clothes and shoes after visiting problem areas, or better yet, wash and wash them immediately.
The same applies to animals after a walk, especially if your pet communicated with its friends.
Buy a flea collar for your dog or cat. It has both preventive and therapeutic effects.

Flea Control Plan

How to get rid of basement fleas at home forever?

Your first priority is to take care of your pets and cure them of parasites.
Call the sanitation service to bait the rats and mice that are spreading fleas in the basement. After this, you should think about how to limit access to the basement for animals in the future.
At the same time, begin treating the apartment with powerful insecticides. Any high-quality product for eliminating bedbugs, cockroaches, etc. will do. We recommend paying attention to the products, “Executioner,” “Get,” and “Raptor.”
Particular attention should be paid to places where larvae accumulate. To do this, use the tools described in the previous paragraph. You can also use so-called dusts or chalks (for example, Mashenka chalk, which is usually used against cockroaches). This will prevent the larvae from hatching and will speed up the solution to the problem.
The last step is to thoroughly eliminate fleas in the basement. This will prevent them from multiplying and preventing them from re-entering your home.
In conclusion, you need to carry out flea prevention for pets, basements and living quarters. Get ready for a long and persistent struggle. Usually, these steps have to be repeated several times to finally get rid of all the parasites.

How to protect your home from the reappearance of basement fleas?

Residents of private cottages and the lower floors of apartment buildings are most at risk of fleas coming from the basement. Preventive measures will help reduce the likelihood of this event - creating a protective barrier against blood-sucking parasites:

Treat the baseboard, window and door openings of the apartment with insecticidal protein.
Install a fine-mesh grille over the ventilation hole and apply a chemical that repels insects.
Treat the surfaces of the apartment with boric acid.
The main source of nutrition for young animals is organic waste. Dust will help destroy larvae that have recently emerged from eggs. But it can only be used in non-residential premises to avoid poisoning pets.

To prevent the appearance of blood-sucking fleas in your home, it is necessary to pay attention not only to living quarters, but also to periodically organize inspection and treatment of the basement. If rodents or pipe leaks are found in it, the problem should be corrected as quickly as possible. It is enough to treat the technical premises of an apartment building with insecticides for preventive purposes no more than once every three months. Ventilating the property at night in spring, summer or warm autumn will help reduce the risk of fleas. This will lead to a decrease in temperature, and insects will rush to leave the basement in uncomfortable conditions.

But if you want to be guaranteed to protect your home from basement fleas or destroy blood-sucking insects, it is better to seek help from a professional pest control service. Specialists will draw up a program with the optimal frequency of processing the object, and select an effective and suitable means to combat blood-sucking insects. You can contact the manager for help and advice by phone or email.

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Animal treatment

To remove basement fleas from your pets' fur, use the following products.

First, wash the animal with a special shampoo. This is one of the most reliable means. Repeat the procedure 2-3 times with a break of several days until the insects completely disappear. Then use it 1-2 more times as a preventative measure.
A very effective drug for eliminating fleas are drops, which you can purchase at a veterinary pharmacy or clinic. For several weeks, drip them onto your pet's withers. They will not only destroy all the parasites present on the animal, but will also scare away new ones.
If the animal suffers from numerous parasites and you want to get quick results, use the drug. Nitenpyram is designed for internal use and works within 1 hour (but be sure to talk to your veterinarian first).
Purchase and replace flea collars regularly. Read the instructions carefully: a regular collar can protect your pet from 2 weeks to 1 month.

If you have a small or sick animal, choose medications for its treatment very carefully. You need to find the least toxic option.

If your pet has parasites, choose the most gentle and safe remedy.

How to recognize parasites

Insect characteristics:

the insect is difficult to detect because its length is only 0.6 mm;
body shape – flattened on the sides, and thickened in the abdominal area;
body color – brownish, sometimes light brownish or yellowish-brownish;
they can be found on pet fur, in cracks between baseboards or trim, and also in cracks in the floor. Being in such a shelter, they wait for their prey, and then jump on it to bite it, drinking a drop of blood;
bite sites are characterized by redness, severe pain and a feeling of discomfort.

How to get rid of fleas in an apartment or house

Once you have treated your pets and removed the rats from the basement, you need to start treating your home. Of course, it is best to use the services of insect extermination teams. They will do everything quickly and professionally using individually selected and absolutely safe drugs. In addition, most companies provide a guarantee that the problem of fleas in the basement will not bother you over the coming months.

You can have your basement resurfaced by a professional. Be sure to check the premises first and remove the animals from there.

But if you wish, you can handle the processing yourself. To do this, it is necessary to temporarily remove all pets and people from the apartment. Spray all horizontal surfaces, furniture coverings and crevices with insecticidal sprays. Close the windows and doors and leave the room for 2-3 hours. After this period, thoroughly ventilate the apartment, create a draft, and carry out wet cleaning.

Although modern basement flea control products are safe for humans, it is advisable to take additional precautions. Before starting the procedure, put on a thick mask and rubber gloves. If you have long hair, wear it in a tight ponytail or braid. After treatment, take a shower and wash your hair.

Why are basement fleas dangerous and why should they be destroyed?

Flea bite marks

The first and obvious reason that lies above is that bites are unpleasant for both us and our pets. But the basement flea is also dangerous because it carries many diseases.

Firstly, even if you are bitten by a sterile flea (and such animals do not occur in nature), the saliva released by it causes irritation, and quite strong. Special vaccines have even been developed against it.
If a person is allergic to substances contained in flea saliva, the consequences can be very serious.

Interesting fact. Sterile (not in the sense of not being able to reproduce, but not being a carrier of diseases) fleas are raised in special farms for scientific experiments.

The list of human diseases transmitted by fleas is very wide: from less dangerous fungi that affect the skin to deadly anthrax and hepatitis. They are also intermediate hosts for other parasites such as tapeworms.
The situation is the same with our pets; fleas from the basement are no less susceptible to their diseases.

On a city street during the Black Death

In the fourteenth century, fleas, along with mice and rats, were the main spreaders of the plague that caused the pandemic called the Black Death. It mowed down entire countries. Today, however, the plague as a disease has almost been eradicated, but individual outbreaks still occur.

Eliminating larvae

The larvae that fleas lay in large numbers can become a serious problem. Often, a few days after treating an apartment, residents are surprised to discover new insects. To prevent this from happening, it is necessary to promptly destroy all larvae deposited by fleas.

Thoroughly spray and coat with chalk all the cracks and corners of the house. In the basement, dust it off, get rid of rat nests and holes, and then treat everything with powerful products. In addition to them, use dusts (for example, Fenaxin and Clean House), as well as boric acid, Pyrethrum powder and industrial insecticides in hard-to-reach places. Experts consider the use of dusts to be the most effective. The fact is that flea larvae feed on substances of organic origin, which include this type of insecticide. Having eaten the dust, the larvae begin to rapidly die.

Of course, such careful processing will take a lot of time. But the measures taken guarantee the complete destruction of the new generation of parasites.

Preventive recommendations

Fleas are tenacious parasites, the fight takes a lot of time. Protecting your home is easier than disinsection.

Ten rules of prevention:

regularly clean your home, wash and shake out items that accumulate dust outside;
teach household members to take off their street shoes in the hallway;
do not walk around the rooms in boots or shoes, always change your shoes upon returning home;
prevent the formation of cracks in the baseboards and floors, especially if the apartment is on the ground floor;
when buying an apartment that has not been renovated for a long time, remove old coverings from the floor and walls, disinfect surfaces, spray insecticides, and only after careful treatment glue new wallpaper, lay linoleum or laminate;
care for pets, use special compounds to protect against biting insects. An effective remedy is a flea collar;
a simple but effective measure reduces the risk of biting parasites spreading throughout the apartment: upon returning a dog or cat from the street, be sure to wash their paws, comb out the fur, and collect fleas, if any;
Place bouquets of dried plants with a pungent odor throughout the apartment. Eucalyptus, mint, wormwood, tansy, lavender repel not only fleas, but also mosquitoes, fruit flies, clothes and food moths, and harmful bugs;
Check with the employees of the management company for the timing of disinsection and deratization in the basement of the house. Keep the entrance clean, regularly wash or clean the rug at the front door;
When biting parasites appear, immediately begin fighting dangerous insects. The pests actively reproduce; tiny off-white eggs quickly turn into adults.

Basement fleas painfully bite humans and pets, transmit diseases, and interfere with the quiet life of household members. To destroy biting insects, toxic drugs and folk remedies based on plant materials are suitable. The fewer conditions for the penetration and reproduction of parasites, the lower the risk of an unpleasant encounter with basement fleas in the apartment.

Often, only time-tested folk remedies can help get rid of fleas in an apartment or house, recipes for which can be seen in the following video:

Processing a basement or cellar

Now it's time to move on to pest control of the basement or cellar. To do this, choose a more powerful product than what you used at home. Pay attention to the drugs, Sinuzan, Tetrix and Diazinon. Manufacturers do not recommend using them for residential premises, but they are ideal for exterminating insects in the basement.

First you need to clear the basement of all unnecessary things. Fleas love to live in piles of old clothes and trash. Without removing them, you will not be able to carry out full processing.

Spray all surfaces, corners and crevices of the basement. When leaving there, do not forget to limit the access of air as much as possible - close the door and windows tightly.

How to avoid a re-invasion

It often happens that, after getting rid of fleas, residents are faced with a problem after a while. The reason for this is the awakened flea larvae. You can neutralize them if you circle all the holes and cracks in the apartment with chalk. The basement needs to be cleared of dust and all rat and mouse holes in it must be sealed. You can treat them with boric acid, Pyrethrum, or dust (Clean House or Phenaxin). Having feasted on the ingredients of organic origin in the composition, the larvae will immediately die.

Stronger products are suitable for basements. Since it is much more difficult to eliminate parasites from a basement than from an apartment, experts recommend purchasing one of these products:

"Cucarachu";
"Diazinon";
"Tetrix";
"Sinuzan."

Before using the products, you need to make sure that there are no animals or debris left in the basement. It is necessary to treat all surfaces and block the access to fresh air. All openings should be tightly closed.

Pet handling

To rid your pets of fleas, it is necessary to treat them with insecticides that are as safe as possible. The easiest way to get rid of parasites that drink the blood of animals is to purchase a special collar and put it on your pet. There are special drops that are applied to the withers of the animal. They are quite safe, since the animal does not reach this place and cannot lick the poison. The drops are easy to use and effective in removing insects.

Basement fleas can also be removed from an animal using a special powder. The pet's fur should be treated with this insecticide several times, because the first time the effect will be minimal.

In addition to these remedies, there is another one that is effective and can eliminate harmful parasites and flea eggs from the animal’s body. This is a special spray for spraying onto your pet's fur. Before starting treatment, it is recommended to put a collar on the animal to avoid licking the poisonous agent.

Folk remedies

How to get rid of basement fleas using folk remedies? There are many methods, but they all do not so much destroy as they repel, so after a while the small animals return. Therefore, traditional methods are recommended to be used when there are not many insects.

One of the effective methods is the use of wormwood. This grass can be placed in the corners. Its smell is unpleasant to pests, so they will rush to leave the room. The same effect will come from using coniferous tree branches.

As for living quarters, how to get fleas out of the basement using folk remedies, there are many ways. You can add a few drops of ammonia or eucalyptus tincture to the water for washing floors. After this, you should thoroughly wash all baseboards and corners.

What do you use to poison fleas in basements other than this? You can quickly and effectively get rid of them using a mixture of salt and soda, which must be poured in different places, including furniture. After a few hours, you need to vacuum the treated area and completely clean the product. If traditional methods do not help, then you need to turn to professionals or carry out disinfestation with chemicals.

Chemicals

Fleas do not live long, but leave behind numerous offspring. You can kill insects yourself using more powerful (than traditional) chemicals. How to treat the basement so that the effect lasts for a long time? The following insecticidal aerosols and powders are excellent for these purposes: Delta Zone, Pyrethrum, Tsifoks, Taran. These are very effective means that can exterminate the entire population the first time. However, it is recommended in any case to re-treat after 2 weeks.