No matter how many flea bombs you use, you’ll still have fleas after bombing your house.
We’ve found in seven out of ten cases where homeowners observed no reduction in flea infestation after using flea bombs.
And in specific scenarios, fleas became worse after the bombing.
In this guide, you’ll find out –
- How do flea bombs work
- Why flea bombs fail to eliminate fleas in your home
- The risks that flea bombs bring
- How to prepare your home before flea bombing to have some effect
- What to do after flea bombing
- And much more
Keep reading.
How Do Flea Bombs work?
Flea bombs, or bug bombs, are the default product that many people use to get rid of fleas in their homes.
It’s easy to use and cheap, making flea bombs appealing.
You’ll find out in a minute why flea bombs don’t work. First, let’s find out how flea bombs function.
Flea bombs work by releasing pesticides in the form of aerosols.
You push a button or lever, leave the canister containing the pesticide in the middle of the room, and the flea bomb takes 1.5-2 hours to release the pesticide.
The pesticide deposits in a limited area in the room and, as their manufacturers say, it kills the fleas. That’s true to a certain extent.
But there are three significant drawbacks of using flea bombs that fail to eliminate fleas. What are they?
Let’s find them out.
Why You Have Fleas After Bombing?
The reason lies in how flea bombs work. As you know, flea bombs release pesticides in the form of gas to kill fleas.
But that has three drawbacks, which make flea bombs highly ineffective.
Flea bombs are ineffective because –
- The pesticide from the flea bomb covers a limited area.
- It alarms the fleas and makes them hide elsewhere.
- The pesticide from the flea bomb has low residual toxicity.
Typical flea foggers can cover an entire standard-sized bedroom. But in places like big living rooms, flea bombs have limited reach.
Flea bombs won’t cover the entire floor surface and the furniture where you suspect fleas are hiding.
When the flea bombs release the aerosol spray or fog, it alarms the fleas.
The pesticide may kill fleas it connects with, but it also alarms the fleas hiding nearby.
The result? Those fleas go deeper into your house and hide. In other words, the fleas flea elsewhere in your home.
Plus, the low residual toxicity in the pesticides of the flea bombs doesn’t kill the fleas that come in contact with the pesticide deposits on the floor.
So, these fleas escape the treatment as well.
That makes the flea infestation in your home worse because the fleas go and hide in different rooms and places in your home.
They can also hide inside soft furnishings like carpets, rugs, and couches to escape the flea bomb.
Do Flea Bombs Kill Flea Eggs And Pupae?
No, flea bombs don’t kill flea eggs and pupae. And that’s one more reason why flea bombs fail.
Fleas lay their eggs in the thin gaps and cracks on the furniture and soft furnishings.
The pupae, the cocoons that fleas get into before emerging as mature adult flea, are also in these cracks.
And the aerosol spray from the flea bomb can’t penetrate these fissures.
The flea bombs can kill only the adult fleas that the pesticide from the flea bomb makes contact with.
And the flea bombs don’t kill the fleas hiding in the thin fissures because the aerosol from the flea bomb can’t reach those fleas either.
It’s essential to get rid of the flea eggs, hiding fleas and pupae to eliminate fleas from your home.
As the flea bombs fail to do that, many homeowners complain that they still have fleas after bombing their homes.
How To Prepare Your Home To Use A Flea Bomb?
There are many ways to get rid of fleas in your apartment or house without bombing.
However, if you choose to use one, which you shouldn’t, and you’ll find out why in a moment, you need to prepare the rooms of your home for maximum effect.
Here’s how to do it in seven steps.
#1 – Take your pets outside of your home. Pets exposed to the fog from the flea bomb can die.
#2 – Turn off your refrigerator and all electronic appliances before using a flea bomb. It’d be better if you switch the fuse off.
#3 – The spray from the flea bomb is highly inflammable. Turn the knobs of any natural gas supply in your home.
#4 – Take all the utensils, dry foods like fruits, and toasters out of your home. You don’t want the fog from the canister depositing on them.
#5 – Vacuum clean your room, floors, upholstery, bed, pet beds, carpets, and rugs.
#6 – Vacuuming will remove all the flea eggs, larvae, and pupae hiding in them. And it’ll remove some adult fleas too.
#7 – Shut down the windows and any other kind of ventilation.
These steps will ensure that you’ve done the work in preparing your room to make it more susceptible to the flea bomb.
Plus, you vacuumed your home, which took care of the larvae, pupae, and the eggs that flea bombs couldn’t kill.
Now it’s time to use the flea bomb.
Read the instructions on the flea bomb can carefully. Place a newspaper in the middle of the room and keep the flea bomb can on the newspaper.
We recommend one flea bomb per room. It ensures that the fog from the flea bomb scatters well inside the room, covering the entire room area.
Press the release valve and get out of the room as fast as you can.
It’d be best for you to enter after 4-6 hours of using the flea bomb. That’s the average amount of time fleas take to die after a flea bomb.
A Word of Caution: Never use flea bombs in wardrobe, closets, or drawers.
Should You Vacuum Clean After Flea Bomb?
Yes, you should vacuum clean your home after flea bombing your room. But wait for at least 8 hours to enter the room for vacuum cleaning.
But better than vacuum cleaning is steam cleaning. Steam cleaning produces heat that fleas can’t withstand.
So take a steam cleaner, and use it to steam clean the floor, furniture, and even soft furnishings of your room.
The best part about using a steam cleaner is that it deep cleans, and the heat from it kills the pupae and destroys the flea eggs.
Conclusion
Flea bombs don’t get rid of fleas inside your home.
They might be successful in killing a few fleas, but given the way they work, flea bombs can make infestation worse inside your home.
There are ways to eliminate fleas safely inside your home or apartment to without using flea bombs.
To know more on how to do it read our post on how to get rid of fleas without bombing.
Dr. Thomas Orbert is a PhD in Entomology with extensive research experience in ectoparasites and microbials. He has also worked in the spaces of ecology conservation and has multiple years of experience in field research and scientific publishing.