How to Naturally Get Rid of Fleas

Fleas are a nuisance regardless of whether they’re in your home or on your pet. Getting rid of fleas and keeping fleas out of your home can be a tiresome and annoying process. There are many different methods or products out there designed to get fleas out of your home or away from your pet. However, sometimes store brand products are overly expensive or use chemicals that you would rather not have in your house or around your pets or children. If you’re looking for more natural, homemade solutions, here are a number of different ways that you can try to naturally get rid of fleas:

Salt

You may be surprised to learn that salt is one of the most effective natural remedies for getting rid of fleas. Most people have salt in their kitchen cupboards already, so this is an easy way to fix a flea infestation. All you have to do is salt and vacuum or clean your furniture or floors. The salt helps dehydrate the flea’s eggs, which ends up killing them. It may take a couple of days to kill the infestation, but it work out in the long run.

Homemade Flea Collar

If you’re worried about your pets catching fleas, an easy remedy for a homemade flea collar is to soak their normal collar in a mixture of lavender, mint, and apple cider vinegar. The oils from these products are great flea deterrents. This is also a much better method of using a flea collar than buying a store bought one. It’s inexpensive and easy and uses items you may already own.

Homemade Herbal Shampoos

A great homemade herbal flea shampoo combines fresh rosemary leaves and water. You need to take two cups of rosemary leaves, add them to two pints of water, and then boil for a half hour. After the half hour is up, pour the mixture through a strainer, discard the leaves and mix it with a gallon of warm water. Pour this combination over your pet until they are thoroughly wet. Don’t rinse the liquid off your pet, but instead let them air dry.

Homemade Sprays

Homemade sprays can be great for any cleaning challenge, and there are definitely homemade sprays to ward off flea infestations that you can take advantage of. Fill a spray bottle with three parts water, one part white vinegar. This can be sprayed lightly on any pet with fleas or any type of fabric or furniture. It’s a great, easy spray to make with items already in your home.

Citrus Spray

Making your own citrus spray is another great, cheap, and easy natural remedy for getting rid of fleas. To start, slice a lemon as thin as possible and add to a pint of water and heat until it starts to boil. Let it sit overnight before putting it into a spray bottle. Spray it directly onto the flea infestation and/or rub it over your pet’s fur (but dampen the fur only). Another great way to make citrus spray is to by natural essential oils, such as lemon oil, and add about 10 to 20 drops per ounce of water.

Diatomaceous Earth

Food grade Diatomaceous Earth is cheap, organic powder that is sure to kill any fleas when applied to furniture or carpets (there is also pool grade which you don’t want as this would be toxic) which safe for both humans and pets. Diatomaceous earth punctures the exoskeleton of the flea and dries them out, effectively killing them.

Dehumidifiers

If you own a dehumidifier, keep the humidity in your room under 50% for 2 days. Because fleas require 50% or higher humidity to live, this will kill both the adult fleas and any larva.

Soapy Water

If you have a flea infestation in a certain area of your home, set out an aluminum pan filled with soapy water. This causes the fleas to become trapped on the top of the water due to the surface tension of the water. Continue doing this until no more fleas show up in the water or you no longer have a flea infestation.

Yeast

While no one has officially proved that fleas don’t react well to yeast, many people believe that yeast is a surefire way to kill fleas, especially when it comes to pets with fleas. Make sure you have some nutritional or brewer’s yeast and rub it into your pet’s skin. If you’re so inclined, you can also sprinkle some yeast lightly onto their food.

Banana Peels

Another method that many people swear by is using banana peels on infested flea areas. If you have a bunch of bananas lying around or run out to the store to get some, you may try this. Wherever the flea infestation in your house is occurring, just place the hardside of the banana peel over it. The fleas will be dead in a few days and you won’t have to worry about cleaning up banana residue from your carpets or floors. Just make sure to watch out if you have a pet – they may accidentally eat the peel!

(Photo courtesy of Kat Masback)