Fleas - Typical First Strikes by Housekeeping and Maintenance

  1.  Steam clean or vacuum thoroughly every day for two weeks and/or mop with 1 cup of borax per gallon or wash or rinse-and-vac floors or spray with diluted Kleen Kill® enzyme cleaners.  Use the Vapor Dragon® weekly to clean carpets, floors and furniture.  If you spray carpet with 1 gallon of a 2% solution of borax, boric acid or sodium borate per 2,000 sq. feet - and then respray with another gallon of hot water you take the toxic material (crystals) down to the nap.  Note:  Borax laundry powder may cause stains and rust problems.)  Keep infants off floors.

  2.  Mop the floors with 2 oz. per gallon or spray 4 oz. per quart Kleen Kill® Enzyme Cleaners and/or 1 cup borax per gallon of water.  Spray yards and crawls with 4 oz. per quart Kleen Kill® enzymes or salt water (salt water will also kill plants).  Sprinkle gardener’s lime.  Repeat as needed.

  3.  The oldest form of flea control was to catch the flea, place it between your thumbnail and forefinger nail and press until you heard a nice pop.  As each flea female can lay one egg an hour, this may not be a very practical or “easy” job.  Sprinkle baking soda, borax and/or talcum; leave on overnight and then    vacuum.

  4.  Steam clean and/or rinse-and-vac with diluted Kleen Kill® Enzyme Cleaners and/or borax.  This will remove dried blood, carpet fibers and other debris, diluted excrement, flea larva and their silk, eggs, pupal   cocoons, adults, feces and other food sources.  Carpet is the perfect flea environment!

  5.  Spray pets with (4 oz. per quart) Kleen Kill® enzymes or bath them in Not Nice to Fleas® (is Nice to Pets),   and wash bedding weekly in Kleen Kill® enzyme cleaners and borax.

  6.  Use a hose-end sprayer and spray the yard with nematodes or with (2 - 4 oz. per gallon) Kleen Kill® enzymes to control outside flea sources.  Note: 90% of opossums in urban Midwest areas are infected    with fleas.  Hot summer temperatures (especially when dry) normally prevent fleas from developing.  Only   shady and moist areas need to be sprayed.

  7.  Put a goose-neck lamp 8” - 10” over a pan of “fizzy” seltzer water with a few drops of dish soap at night.    The fleas are attracted to the heat and carbon dioxide and drown.

  8. Heat the area to 103^o F.

  9. Spray 4 oz. of Kleen Kill® Peppermint Soap per quart of water.

10. A handful of leaves from the black walnut tree, southernwood, rue, camphor, lavender, sage, rosemary,   catnip, pennyroyal, eucalyptus, peppermint, feverfew and tansy can be brewed in a tea pot with boiling    water.  Steep overnight, strain and spray to repel fleas.  Check for allergies and stains before spraying.

11. If you are still seeing fleas, read the entire chapter - there are many other alternative controls available, e.g., the Vapor Dragon®.
 

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