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Ways To Stay Flea Free

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With four cats if we don’t keep it under control it’s really hard to stay flea free! Here’s how we do it!

Everyone with pets is afraid of the flea! And with good reason; they carry diseases, can cause serious allergies and they bite (amongst other things – check out my Facts on Fleas to find out more about them). Once they are around they are really hard to get rid of! So prevention is everything. Combining the following methods is the best and effective way to stay flea free or remove an infestation.

Bathing

Using cat shampoo and bathing helps to remove fleas off of your cat. This combined with flea treatments should remove them quickly. Unfortunately, mine are not the bathing kind so this doesn’t work for everyone.

Brushing and Combing

Buy specific flea combs which help to remove the eggs and fleas from the fur. This has to be done regularly to avoid re-infestation.

Baking soda

This natural remedy is good for soft furnishing or delicate carpets (always check in a sneaky corner first). Rub the baking soda (liberally) into the carpet and leave for an hour or so and then hoover up.

Turn up the heat

To kill fleas on linen or clothes put them on a hot wash in the washing machine which should kill off all fleas and residue. (Check your clothes first to make sure they don’t shrink etc due to the heat). Make sure cat bedding to include cat bedding (heavily infested items should be thrown away)

Hoovering

The vibrations of the hoover activates the eggs and then allows you to remove them using other methods. Regular hoovering can stop an infestation in its tracks. Don’t forget to do the around the edges!

Ban the Tablecloths

If you have an infestation avoid using tablecloths because not only does this contaminate the food surfaces but the draping allows fleas to reach a higher surface and level (which are harder to remove).

Remember the Curtains

Wash your curtains (preferably on high) to ensure there are no fleas or eggs that remain on there (it only takes one for the process to start all over again) Plus, when was the last time you washed your curtains anyway!

Discourage Foxes

Trying to discourage foxes (and other wild animals) from coming near your home and garden reduces the risk of fleas (and other diseases/parasites) and other infestations.

Products that we have used

Flea lamps – These are plug in lamps that attract fleas to the light (and warmth) and then trap them on sticky paper. We find these particularly useful in the summer too for catching unwanted bugs/spiders/ants etc that find their way into the house. The Lamp we buy is this one from Amazon (affiliate link):

Indorex – This is a household spray that our vets recommended. You spray around your house and it protects against fleas for up to a year. It worked great for us and works on newly hatched fleas too (not on the eggs unfortunately so they recommend hoovering a lot for the first week to disturb the eggs and cause them to hatch). *You can buy this quite cheap from Amazon – see my affiliate link below*

Spot-on drops – These go directly onto yourcat. The type we use (and are recommended by our vets) are prescription only from the vets.