This is the most comprehensive list of home products that kill fleas.
In this guide, you’ll get to know eleven household items that kill fleas and how to use them.
The best part? Most of these items must be lying around in your right now.
So, you wouldn’t have to spend a dime.
On top of it, they’re easy to use.
But you’d need to maintain some caution while using certain items from the list. We’ve covered that portion too.
Let’s dive in!
Here’s the list.
11 Home Products That Kill Fleas
- Lysol
- Dish Soap
- Baking Soda
- Salt
- Lemon
- Diatomaceous Earth
- Vinegar
- Bleach
- Flea Repelling Plants
- Pine-Sol
- Vacuum Cleaner or Steam Cleaner
Let’s look at how each of them kills fleas and how to use them.
Does Lysol Kill Fleas? Yes, It Does!
The first on our list is Lysol. It’s a household item that all homeowners have.
Lysol is a cleaner and disinfectant.
It has insecticidal properties that make it the #1 household item to kill fleas in any home.
Where can you use Lysol?
You can use it on any hard surface, including furniture.
The key to use Lysol to kill fleas instantly is to apply the spray directly on them.
You miss them, and they’ll jump off and hide somewhere else.
It can be hard to spray Lysol directly on the fleas.
But to offset it, spraying Lysol on the places where fleas hide would do the job.
Fleas in the house hide in places like thin cracks on the floor and the walls. Fleas can infest your bed too if a flea infested pet hops onto your bed often.
If you’ve got a wooden floor in your home, ensure that you spray Lysol on the junction between the wall and the floor.
That junction has a gap, and many fleas hide there too.
Use Dish Soap To Kill Fleas On Pets
Second, on our list is dish soap. Every home has it.
But using dish soap is more for pet owners rather than the ones who don’t have pets.
The way to use dish soap to kill fleas on your pet is by dipping your pet in a tub of water with dish soap in it.
The dish soap in water drowns the fleas, and it also penetrates the fleas’ exoskeleton, causing them to die.
Though it’s applicable if you’ve got a small dog or cat, you can bathe your pet with a bit of dish soap if you’ve got a bigger pet.
But a word of caution – Don’t bathe your pet with dish soap often. It’ll dry your pet’s skin and cause complications.
We recommend using Dawn dish soap. It works well in getting rid of fleas from your pets.
Use Baking Soda To Kill Fleas On Soft Furnishings
Baking soda is also a lethal flea killer which every home has.
The best part of baking soda is that it kills flea eggs and larvae.
It helps a lot because the above step can only get rid of adult fleas in your home.
Using baking soda in conjunction with the above methods will eliminate the eggs and the larvae that would have matured into adult fleas.
Baking soda is a dehydrator.
It robs the larvae and the eggs with the moisture in them that is critical for them to mature.
Sprinkle baking soda on soft furnishings like upholstery and mattresses, carpet, and rugs.
You can also spread baking soda across your home, including the yard where the shrubs and bushes are.
Shrubs and bushes are the places where fleas hide. They latch on to your pets or onto your clothing to enter your home.
Leave it for 5-6 hours, and then slowly vacuum clean the soft furnishings.
Ensure that you don’t leave the edges and gaps in your soft furnishings because they’re the hiding places for the fleas.
The result? You just got rid of a ton of fleas from your home!
But keep an essential thing in your mind. DO NOT dispose of the dust bag from your vacuum cleaner inside your home or yard.
If you do, then fleas may sneak out from the dust bag and re-infest your home.
Dispose of the dust bag away from your property.
Salt Too Kill Fleas Larvae And Eggs
Salt is also a dehydrator that kills fleas, larvae, and eggs in the same way as baking soda.
Want to add more punch into your baking soda? Then add equal amounts of salt to it.
Lemon Juice Spray
Who would have thought that lemonade can be a flea killer?
But it certainly is.
Just prepare half a gallon of lemon juice (or more if you’ve got a big home) and spray it in all the tight corners of your home where fleas can hide.
It’ll kill the fleas and even the flea eggs.
Spraying lemon juice on your pet is also safe. But don’t spray it on your pet’s head and near the eye.
Also, don’t spray it on soft furnishings. It can leave some stains and the smell of lemon on them.
Diatomaceous Earth – The Most Lethal Natural Pest Killer, But Safe For You
There can’t be any better natural pest killer than diatomaceous earth.
Every home should have it. If you don’t, then buying one will go a long way to keep your family safe from not only fleas but also numerous pests.
Buy one and thank us later.
Diatomaceous earth works by penetrating the fleas’ body, sucks out the moisture and oils from inside, causing the fleas to dehydrate instantly, and turning their body brittle.
The exoskeleton breaks, and the fleas die.
Imagine your blood is vacuumed or soaked out from your body. That’s how it works.
Scatter a generous amount of diatomaceous earth across your home.
You can also scatter them on your soft furnishings like carpet, rugs, mattresses, sofa, and accent chairs.
Then vacuum clean your home slowly without leaving any corners and edges.
Dispose of the vacuum dust bag from your home, and voila!
You just made your home flea-free.
Ensure that you use food-grade diatomaceous earth. It’s safe for pets and children.
You can also use it to eliminate pests in your yard or garden.
Diatomaceous earth even kills pests like hard to remove pests like bed bugs, termites, and roaches.
So, if you don’t have one, make it a permanent must-have in your home.
Vinegar – The Deadly Acid For Fleas
With its acidic nature, caustic smell, and disinfectant properties, vinegar is a lethal flea killer in your home.
Not only fleas. You can use vinegar to eliminate various bugs and insects like maggots, earwigs, and moths from your home.
You can use either apple cider vinegar or white vinegar to get rid of fleas inside your home.
Mop your floor with a mixture of vinegar and water, in the ratio of 1:3, to remove fleas hidden there.
You can also use a cotton cloth damped in the mixture of vinegar and water to wipe off hard surfaces like furniture.
But please don’t use it on fabric or soft furnishing. Vinegar will damage them.
Bleach, Use It With Caution
Bleach kills adult fleas, flea larvae, and flea eggs.
But using it can be risky, even on hard surfaces.
It’s because regular usage of bleach on the floor (including the wooden floor) and furniture can damage both.
The safest way to use bleach is to use it in low quantities.
Mix 1 oz of bleach, preferably Clorox, with 10 oz of water.
Then spray it on hard surfaces, especially in the rims and gaps of the floor and furniture, where fleas hide.
After one or two hours, wipe the surface of the furniture with a Lysol disinfectant wipe.
And mop the floor with lukewarm water.
Always wear gloves while you touch the bleach. And keep it away from children and pets.
On top of it, DO NOT use bleach on soft furnishings and floor décors like carpet and rugs.
Flea Repelling Plants – The Long-Term Solution To Prevent Fleas
Some plants have elements in them, including their smell, which repels fleas.
Keeping them inside your home can prevent flea re-infestation.
Keep the following plants inside your home once you’ve gotten rid of fleas using any of the above household items.
- Lavender
- Eucalyptus
- Chamomile
- Fleawort
- Rosemary
- Chrysanthemums
- Mint
- Pennyroyal
Keep these plants in areas near your pet bed, windows, and on the porch and patio.
These plants will not only add beauty to your home but also will keep fleas away.
Pine-Sol
Another household item that works as effectively as the others on the list to kill fleas is pine sol.
And you can use it in different ways in your home to eliminate fleas from your home.
At the exterior of your home, spray undiluted pine sol near the home’s foundation, doorways, and windows.
By spraying it at the exterior of your home, you’ll ensure that no fleas from your yard or garden hops into your home.
If they try, the pine sol will kill them.
Mop the floor of all the rooms in your home, your storage units like drawers, closets, and food pantry, with ¼ cup of pine sol with a gallon of water.
It’ll kill all the fleas that are hiding in these areas.
You can also wipe off your windowsills and door frames with a rag cloth damped with pine sol.
In the summer months, fleas lurk in these places waiting to enter your home.
Vacuum Cleaner And/Or Steam Cleaner
Using a vacuum cleaner or a steam cleaner to clean your soft furnishings like carpet, rugs, and upholstery removes fleas.
Vacuuming or steam cleaning your home first before using any of the above household items will ensure the removal of a maximum number of fleas.
The steam cleaner is a godsend when it comes to removing not only fleas but also bed bugs.
It’s because the heat from the steam cleaner kills fleas and bed bugs instantly.
Fleas have strong long legs, and they’re excellent jumpers.
So, ensure that you’re using them slowly and you’re covering every inch of your home.
It’d be best if you clean your carpets and rugs outside your home if you’ve got a flea infestation in your home.
The fleas from the rugs and carpets may jump away and hide in other places of your home.
Final Words
So, here you go. You’ve got a solid list of 11 household items that eliminate fleas from your home.
To repeat, the 11 household products that kill fleas are –
- Lysol
- Dish Soap
- Baking Soda
- Salt
- Lemon
- Diatomaceous Earth
- Vinegar
- Bleach
- Flea Repelling Plants
- Pine-Sol
- Vacuum Cleaner and/or Steam Cleaner
You don’t need any special skills to use these items. They’re all easy to use.
Now, you’ve no reasons to have a flea infestation in your home.
Go ahead and use these household items to kill fleas in your home now.
One more item, which is typically not a household item that kill fleas on contact. But it’s a great disinfectant.
Read now to know more on what kills fleas on contact and how to use it eliminate fleas in 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!