How to treat an apartment to kill fleas: we clean our house ourselves

Before treating an apartment for fleas, most owners are faced with a serious choice problem - there are dozens of different preparations for treating an apartment from parasites in hardware stores and markets, and the prices for all kinds of cans or bottles of dilution concentrates can vary significantly. And from all this variety, you need to choose the remedy that will surely work, will not affect the health of people and pets in the room, and at the same time will not hit your pocket hard. There are such remedies for fleas, but not everyone knows about them.

It is important to remember that even before you treat the room for fleas, you must first get rid of the parasites of all pets living in the apartment. At the same time, flea treatment for cats, dogs, rodents and birds is often an even more tedious process than removing parasites in the room itself.

But this important initial step is a guarantee that fleas will be completely exterminated.

So, when the animals are freed from fleas, and those of them who regularly walk on the street will be wearing special anti-flea collars, you can safely choose a remedy and proceed to the flea treatment of the apartment itself. We will discuss this stage further and in more detail.

 

Flea Remedy Basics: Understanding Insecticides

When choosing a remedy for fleas, first of all you need to look at its composition. The most effective and safe preparations use natural and synthetic insecticides of the latest generations, which do not have a strong unpleasant odor and are almost completely harmless to warm-blooded animals.

Treating your home against fleas with preparations containing such substances will be as effective as possible and at the same time safe for residents. As part of flea remedies, you should look for:

1. Pyrethrin 1 or Pyrethrin 2, sometimes Feverfew. These are natural components of Dalmatian chamomile flowers, quite effective against fleas and other insects. Of the well-known modern means, it is found only in the so-called Feverfew powder.
2. Permethrin and its derivatives: Cypermethrin, Deltamethrin, Tetramethrin, Talstar. These are synthetic analogues of pyrethrins, even more effective and very widely used today in various insect repellents.
3. Fipronil, commonly used in pet flea treatments.
4. Benzyl benzoate is also a very well-known insecticide, due to its relative safety, it is often used to remove lice.
5. Piperonyl Butoxide - This insecticide is often combined with others, such as Permethrin, for a synergistic effect.
6. Sometimes organophosphorus compounds are also used to treat an apartment from fleas - Dichlorvos, Karbofos, Diazinon, etc.These substances have significant drawbacks, in particular, a certain, although not high, toxicity and a relatively strong unpleasant odor. Today, preparations containing them are rarely used to remove fleas, and it is worth buying such products only for treating industrial or non-residential premises - they turn out to be cheaper than those that contain, for example, pyrethroids.

It is interesting

All modern drugs with the word "Dichlorvos" in their name have nothing to do with the actual chemical substance Dichlorvos, but contain pyrethroids, sometimes Piperonyl butoxide. The Dichlorvos substance itself is inferior to these components in its action on insects, but the manufacturers did not want to lose customers who know a remedy with such a name as an effective exterminator of fleas and other parasites. So the drug "Dichlorvos" today turned out not to contain Dichlorvos itself.

When choosing a drug, it is worth paying attention to the fact that its composition contains not one insecticide, but at least two, preferably more. This will be a guarantee that fleas will really be destroyed - today, due to the frequent use of products with the same toxic substances, parasites sometimes develop resistance to them.

In large cities, flea sanitizers are already detecting insect populations that are resistant to Cypermethrin and Feverfew. Accordingly, the richer the composition of the drug, the drug itself is usually more reliable.

 

What drug to choose?

On the shelves of stores today you can find preparations for treating an apartment from fleas in various forms of release:

• these can be concentrated solutions of insecticides that require dilution in water (often also called emulsion concentrates);
• ready-to-spray aerosols in cylinders;
• as well as dusts and pencils (all kinds of insecticidal powders are called dusts).

Of these, concentrates are the most versatile and effective - for the most part, these products really kill insects on the spot and at the same time are quite inexpensive - one bottle of such a concentrate is usually enough to treat a large area. However, it should be noted that some of these drugs are quite toxic and not always devoid of an unpleasant odor. If you want to have practically no smell in the room after treating the apartment for fleas, you can pay attention to the concentrates of microencapsulated insecticides.

Aerosols in cans are convenient for quick flea treatment in a residential or office space. They do not require preparation or dilution, sometimes have a pleasant smell (due to fragrances) and often give a good result. But in general, they are also the most expensive.

Insecticidal dusts and pencils can be used to control flea larvae - adult parasites do not feed on anything but blood, and therefore dusts do not enter their body. The exception is contact agents, but their effectiveness is still lower than that of aerosol preparations and spray solutions obtained from concentrates.

 

Flea sprays

Of the aerosols used to treat an apartment from fleas, the most popular today are Raptor, Kombat and Raid.All of these preparations are very convenient, scented with mint, lavender, or eucalyptus, and are relatively safe to use.

Aerosol treatment should be done as carefully as possible, while paying special attention to hard-to-reach places: various slots, small holes, shelves and cabinets with old things. In such places, as a rule, flea larvae hide, and without their destruction, treatment will only give a temporary result.

Aerosol should be used as fully as possible to process all surfaces in the house, carpets and wallpaper joints. Particular attention is paid to bedding and beds of pets - they are the main refuges for parasites.

On a note

Many ill-trained salesmen today mistakenly refer to all aerosols as dichlorvos. Of course, this is wrong.

During the treatment of the apartment from fleas, all people and animals should be removed from it. All windows and doors are closed for the duration of the treatment, and at the end of it, the room must be infused for several hours so that the aerosol with air current penetrates into all the cracks and poisons the parasites even where a person will definitely not get. Cages and aquariums that contain hamsters, mice or rats should be cleaned of bedding and food supplies, washed and also thoroughly processed.

After processing, the room is wet cleaned and ventilated.

It is necessary to distinguish aerosols from fleas for treating an apartment from those for treating animal hair. In terms of effectiveness, they are approximately comparable, but it will be very expensive to treat furniture from fleas with an aerosol for animals, and the use of aerosols for placing against fleas on a pet can lead to poisoning of the animal and serious side effects.

The price of all aerosols is approximately the same.A 250-ml bottle of Raid and Raptor costs about 150 rubles, and Kombat - about 200. In terms of efficiency, they are also similar to each other, and therefore you can buy the one that first caught on the counter. Only during operation can it become clear that a particular drug in a particular apartment is less or more effective than others.

Review

“After Chingiz had been poisoned with fleas, the question arose of how to get them out of the apartment. Although there were few insects, they constantly bit during the day during sleep, and in different rooms (the dog calmly walks around the house). Bought Raid, but it did not help. The seller explained to us that sometimes fleas develop resistance to certain products. They re-treated, this time with the Raptor from crawling insects. A very convenient drug, it smells like mint, two bottles were enough for the whole house. The fleas really disappeared, but just in case, we also changed Chingiz's bedding and roasted the carpets in the sun for several days.

Alexey, Taman

 

Dilution concentrates

Among the concentrates there are many professional products used by sanitation workers to disinfect premises. It is the concentrates that are considered the most effective preparations for domestic insects, including fleas. However, they can also be quite toxic and require precautions for use.

The most famous concentrated insecticides are Get (Get), Tetrix, Tsifox, Cucaracha, Hangman, Agran, Medilis Tsiper, the Zona line of products, etc.

Tetrix, Medilis Cyper, Cyfox and Cucaracha have a strong unpleasant odor.Get and Zone are microencapsulated insect repellents and have virtually no odor. In general, Geth, although it is a rather expensive drug, due to its effectiveness and lack of smell, it can be considered optimal for self-treatment of an apartment from fleas.

On a note

Microencapsulated preparations are produced in the form of a suspension in which the insecticide itself is concentrated in microscopic granules. After spraying indoors, these granules settle on the surfaces and bodies of the insects themselves, and later, when moving, the parasites involuntarily cling to such capsules on their limbs. The insecticides in these products penetrate through the integument of the flea's body and lead to the same poisoning as if they enter the body through the mouth.

Before use, all concentrates must be diluted with water in the ratios specified by the manufacturer, and then pour the solution into a conventional household spray bottle and use it in the same way as aerosols. When applying, you should spray the entire apartment, carefully treat the floors from fleas, especially if they have parquet. After the use of microencapsulated preparations, those surfaces on which food is not cooked and children do not play should not be washed for several days.

 

Get Microencapsulated Insect Repellent

Get today is considered one of the most effective remedies for domestic insects in general, but it is most widely used against blood-sucking parasites (bed bugs, fleas). The cost of a 100-ml bottle is 720 rubles, this amount of the product is dissolved in 1 liter of water and is enough to completely treat a large room with furniture.

Get can effectively treat fleas and carpets - it is in carpets that adult insects and their larvae are often found. In a day or two after treatment, all of them will be exterminated, and there will be no stains and an unpleasant odor.

It is important to distinguish a real Get, produced using microencapsulation technology, from fakes: the product must have only one letter “t” in its name, the bottle must be white, and when it is opened, a foil membrane with the “Get” logo must be visible.

 

Delta Zone and Lambda Zone

These products are also based on microencapsulated insecticides. Delta Zona contains microencapsulated Deltamethrin, and Lambda Zona contains Lambda-Cyhalothrin.

Both of these tools are specialized preparations for fighting fleas in an apartment. They are sold in bottles of 50 ml, each of which, if properly diluted, is enough to process 100 square meters. m. apartment. The cost of one bottle is about 500 rubles.

 

Tsifox

The drug contains Cypermethrin and is one of the most budget options for treating an apartment from fleas. A 50 ml bottle costs about 200 rubles and allows you to process an area of ​​​​up to 100 square meters. m.

On a note

The treatment area indicated on the preparations implies the area of ​​​​all surfaces on which the agent will be applied, but not the area of ​​\u200b\u200bthe room in general. So, in an apartment of 36 sq. m. the total area of ​​​​all surfaces, together with carpets, furniture and shelves on the loggias, which must be processed, may exceed 100 square meters. m.

 

Dusts and their uses

Dusts (insecticide powders) against fleas are mainly used to combat flea larvae where there are a lot of them and it is irrational to poison them with aerosols.For example, it is quite effective to use dusts in basements and cellars, in attics - in general, in rooms in which no one lives, but from which adult fleas can migrate to rooms and apartments.

Dusts Chisty Dom, Phenaksin and Tornado have proven themselves well here. They are inexpensive and quite effective. They should be used with great care in residential areas.

In general, the methods of self-treatment of an apartment from fleas are good for their economy: even in the case of a large area of ​​\u200b\u200bthe premises, the budget for such an event can fit in 1500-2000 rubles. However, the disadvantages of this approach are their laboriousness and the possibility of errors and oversights, which may give some parasites a chance to survive.

It is much more reliable and easy to call a team of exterminators who will treat the apartment with effective means, remove fleas where an inexperienced pest fighter will not even look for them, and give a guarantee for the absence of insects for several months. In cases where an additional 1000-2000 rubles is not critical, it is better to entrust the treatment of an apartment from fleas to specialists.

 

An example of a flea infestation in an apartment building

 

How to quickly and effectively get rid of fleas in the apartment