Flea beetles in the house can be a nuisance. They’ll hop from one place to another, spreading across your home, and hide in places where it’ll be hard to locate them.
In this guide, you’ll learn how to get rid of flea beetles in the house forever.
And you’ll also take a deep dive into why and how flea beetles get inside your home.
Keep reading.
3 Reasons There Are Flea Beetles In The House
There are three reasons for flea beetles in your house.
- There are flea beetles in your yard or garden
- There are hiding places for flea beetles in your yard.
- There are plants in your yard or garden that flea beetles eat.
You can’t get rid of a problem unless you know the causes of the problem. With flea beetles, too, it’s no different.
Flea beetles are inside your home because the outdoor section of your home and property harbor flea beetles.
To get rid of flea beetles, you must deny them the factors that sustain them.
And doing that is no rocket science. You’ll find out later in the post how to do it.
But for now, let’s get into how flea beetles get inside the house.
Flea Beetles In The House – How Do They Get Inside?
Flea beetles are tiny round (partly oval) shiny black bugs that feed on specific types of plants. They grow only up to 1/8th of an inch long.
The flea beetles will target vegetable plants like beans, potatoes, tomatoes, radishes, broccoli, spinach, and eggplants.
They also destroy tiny seedlings by chewing their roots.
To the grown-up plants, flea beetles inflict damage by chewing on the leaves that cause tiny holes to develop on the leaves.
When their numbers increase, which it surely will unless you get rid of them, flea beetles will defoliate the entire plants.
That’ll cause the entire plant to wither and die.
But how do flea beetles enter homes?
There are two ways that flea beetles can enter your home.
First, there are shrubs and plants along the perimeter of your home near the doors and windows.
Flea beetles will hop from the plants and sneak inside your home through open doors and windows.
They’ll also exploit the gaps and cracks on the window frames, door frames, and on the home’s walls to sneak inside.
Flea beetles got their name because of their ability to hop like fleas. They’ve got long and strong hind legs that help them to jump at least 3-5 inches.
Second, by latching on the plants that you’ve brought inside your home from your garden.
Flea beetles can hide underneath leaves and in the corner of the stems, which, at times, can be very hard to detect.
When you introduce to your home plants with flea beetles on them, then that’s a sure shot way to bring flea beetles inside your home.
Once inside your home, flea beetles will look for more sources of food.
That’s the time when they will move from one place to another inside your home.
Some will also take refuge in tiny gaps and cracks on the floor, furniture, and walls.
A few of them can hide in the gaps and creases of soft furnishings like couches and beds.
So, how to deal with it?
The following section will tell you how to get rid of flea beetles in your house.
Get Rid Of Flea Beetles Inside The House
Fortunately, getting rid of flea beetles inside the house is a task that even a 5-year-old can do.
Why?
Because you don’t need to use any insecticide spray or do anything special like you’ll have to do get rid of the fleas.
All you’ll need is a vacuum cleaner and a silicon-based sealant to do the job.
But before you get into the process of getting rid of flea beetles in your house, you must check your indoor plants for any flea beetles.
If there are any, you’d need to treat the flea beetles in your indoor plants before you get rid of them in your home.
But you can save it for the latter. For now, take the indoor plants out of your home and keep them outdoors.
You’ll deal with it later while you’re getting rid of flea beetles outdoors. It’s because without getting rid of flea beetles outdoors, it’s impossible to prevent a flea beetle infestation indoors.
Coming back to getting rid of flea beetles inside your homes, here are the three steps –
Vacuum Clean Your Home
Vacuum clean your home thoroughly. It’ll remove any or all the flea beetles hiding inside your home.
Ensure that you cover the gaps and cracks inside on the floor, furniture, walls. Look out for any thin crevices in rooms where there were indoor plants.
The chances are that in those fissures, there are these hiding tiny black bugs.
For better results, check your bedroom and kitchen. The bedroom and kitchen have enough hiding places for all types of bugs.
Vacuum clean both your bedroom and kitchen thoroughly.
Ensure that you dispose of the vacuum dust bag far from your home.
If you dispose of the dust bag inside your property, then flea beetles can hop out of the dust bag and re-enter your home.
Seal Gaps And Cracks Inside Your Home
Bugs, including flea beetles, exploit the gaps and cracks on the walls, window frames, and door frames facing the yard.
Seal them. Use a silicone-based sealant to caulk those gaps.
Silicone-based sealants are robust. They last at least for a decade. And the best part is that bugs can’t chew through them.
Keep Sticky Bug Traps Near Your Windows, Doors, And Vents
Keeping sticky traps near the doors and windows will trap the flea beetles jumping from outside into your home.
When these little black bugs that jump will hop in to sneak inside your home, they’ll get stuck on the gluey traps.
For better results, keep the sticky bug traps on the window sills, crawl spaces, and doorways.
Get Rid Of Overgrown Bushes Near Your Windows And Doors
One of the reasons that flea beetles are in the house is because they can use the shrubs and bushes near your windows as a launchpad to hop inside your home.
Trim, or get rid of those bushes if they’re unnecessary so that flea beetles can’t use them to jump inside your home.
These overgrown shrubs and bushes are bridges that many invasive bugs like ants, termites, and even cockroaches use to sneak inside your home.
So, it’s always a wise idea not to have any of them around your home’s perimeter.
You don’t need to use any insecticide spray to get rid of flea beetles inside your home.
It’s unnecessary.
All you’ve to do is use a vacuum cleaner on them and in their possible hiding places to get rid of flea beetles inside the house.
But wait, it’s not over yet.
Flea beetles inside your home mean flea beetles are also outside your home.
The process of getting rid of flea beetles inside the home won’t be long-lasting if you don’t get rid of them outdoors.
The following section covers it.
How To Get Rid Of Flea Beetles In Your Yard Or Garden
Now that you know how flea beetles look and how the damage caused by them looks like, it’s time to get rid of them in your garden.
Flea beetles overwinter starting from late fall by hiding in the leaf litter and other types of organic debris.
They prop out starting from the spring.
The following steps will get rid of flea beetles in your home and property, once and for all.
Here’s how to get rid of flea beetles in the garden in eight steps –
Spray A Plant-Safe Insecticide Sprays On Plants To Eliminate Flea Beetles
Spraying plant-safe insecticide sprays on the flea beetles is the first step to getting rid of them.
Check out for flea beetles on the plants that are showing the damages caused by flea beetles.
Chances are there are flea beetles nearby or underneath the leaves of those plants.
Spray the insecticide spray on them and on the indoor plants that you took out from your home while getting rid of flea beetles in the house.
If a chemical spray isn’t your thing, you can also prepare a homemade flea beetle spray.
Add a cup of rubbing alcohol to three cups of water. To add more punch to it, add one tablespoon of liquid soap.
Stir the mixture well. Pour the mixture in a spray bottle and spray it on the plants damaged by flea beetles.
For best results, spray it on the flea beetles. The main drawback with this method is that you’ll need to spray it daily to see results.
Use Talcum Powder On Plants To Get Rid Of Flea Beetles
After spraying, double up your efforts by scattering talcum powder on the plants.
Let the talcum powder sit for a while, and then use a brush to remove the talcum powder.
Talcum powder wreaks havoc on flea beetles. Using it is one of the most effective ways to eliminate flea beetles, especially in eggplants.
Remove Weeds From The Soil Beds
Flea beetles feed on tiny seedlings too. But they can’t distinguish between a seedling of a vegetable plant or weeds.
So, to eliminate flea beetles, you must get rid of the weeds. If you don’t, then the weeds will attract flea beetles.
To protect the seedlings of your vegetable plants, use row covers. Row covers help keep the flea beetles away from tiny plants when they’re most vulnerable.
You can remove the row covers when the seedlings start to grow or when the flowers sprout.
Sprouting flowers will attract pollinators like bees which help get rid of flea beetles.
But smart gardeners keep the row covers on till their vegetables are ready for harvest.
Remove Debris To Deny Flea Beetles Hiding Places
Flea beetles overwinter during winters. They hide in organic debris like foliage underneath dry soil beds and even inside mulch beds during winters.
Flea beetles will emerge out of their hiding places when spring arrives, ready to mate and spread.
So, keep your yard and garden clean. Do not let organic debris accumulate in your yard.
If there’s a compost pile, spray insecticide spray or a mixture of white vinegar and water on the compost pile to keep away any types of bugs, including flea beetles.
Grow Plants That Repel Flea Beetles
Plants like catnip, basil, and lavender repel flea beetles and many other types of bugs.
Grow them in your yard or garden to keep flea beetles away.
Keep Sticky Traps In Your Garden To Capture The Flea Beetles
Sticky traps are a great hack to capture bugs both inside and outside your home.
Place them near plants. When the flea beetles jump on the traps, they’ll get stuck.
Dispose of the traps with flea beetles stuck on them away from your property.
For better results, keep sticky traps at least a foot apart from each other.
Till The Soil Of Your Garden In Late Fall Or Early Winters To Unearth Any Hiding Flea Beetle
Tilling the soil is an effective hack to drive out flea beetles who might have escaped the measures that you took.
Tilt the soil, especially the soil underneath the organic debris.
If flea beetles are hiding in the soil, then they’ll pop out. Immediately spray an insecticide spray to eliminate them.
You might need a soil treatment insecticide if your garden has a history of bugs showing up every year. It’ll be best if you hire a professional to do the job.
Attract Natural Predators Of Flea Beetles
Many bugs feast on flea beetles. Ladybugs, praying mantises, and centipedes will eliminate a lot of flea beetles from your vegetable garden.
And all these bugs don’t pose any threat to your plants.
Frogs are also helpful predators of flea beetles and many plant-damaging pests.
Conclusion
Flea beetles in the house are due to the presence of flea beetles in your garden or yard.
In this guide, you’ve learned how to eliminate flea beetles in your house. You’ve also found out the eight steps to get rid of flea beetles in your garden.
Remember, the source of flea beetles in the house is yours outdoors. Unless you get rid of them in your garden, flea beetles will be showing up again inside your home.
Dr. Thomas Orbert, the Microbial Maestro, dances with the tiniest of creatures as an entomologist extraordinaire! With a PhD in entomology, his passion lies in unraveling the secret symphonies of insect-microbe interactions. From minuscule marvels to captivating complexities, Dr. Orbert unveils the hidden world of bugs, igniting curiosity one buzz at a time!