How to Get Rid of Fleas in the House

Photo info: SONY ZV-E10, 47mm, f/5.6, 1/160 sec, ISO4000
“Flea Trap” Cedar Park, 2024

I’ve been battling fleas in the house for several days now. To combat them, we bought a couple of flea traps. The night light lures the fleas, and they get stuck on the sticky cardboard. It’s working pretty well! I’ve also sprinkled Diatomaceous Earth on the carpets to dry out any fleas living there. I’m cautiously optimistic that my efforts will win the war within a week. It’s good timing, as I’m alone in the house while the rest of the family is on vacation.

June 29 update I haven’t seen a flea for several days now, and the traps aren’t catching any more fleas! The combination of Diatomaceous Earth application, vacuuming almost daily, flea drops for the cats, and the flea traps seems to have been very effective!

Here’s exactly what I did to get rid of the fleas in our house that we share with two indoor cats.

First, we applied Advantage II flea drops to each cat.

Secondly, we vacuumed the house. After emptying out our vacuum cleaner into the trash (it is a Shark brand vacuum cleaner with no bag), I’d spray the trash bin contents a couple times with some flea & tick spray to kill any fleas that were vacuumed up.

Next, I spread the Diatomaceous Earth powder on our carpets using a food strainer, and then gently worked it into the carpet fibers using a broom. I left the powder in the carpets for about 5 days, which was not a problem since the rest of the family was on vacation. After that, I vacuumed all carpets about every other day. The vacuum cleaner got very dusty at first because of all the Diatomaceous Earth, so after a couple times I’d have to clean the filters.

I would check the flea traps daily, and it seemed the amount of fleas getting caught was less and less. After two weeks I replaced the old sticky cardboard with a fresh one and it didn’t catch any more fleas. So I’m confident that we’ve won the war!