Carpet Cleaning Virginia Beach

I was carpet cleaning a customer’s home in Virginia Beach Virginia when they asked me if carpet cleaning kills fleas. The simple answer is yes, but the real problem getting fleas out of the house altogether is a lot more complicated. There are many types of fleas the most common found in our houses is the cat flea and dog fleas to a lesser extent. We will talk about the cat flea since it is the most common flea found in homes in most of the US. Fully grown cat fleas are about .125 inch long. They’re blackish-brown, very narrow, and have no wings. They have six legs and the back set is long made for jumping. Cat fleas need feline blood to reproduce. If you move into a place that has fleas and you do not have pets, the flea situation wills probably take care of itself in about 1 to 2 months.

What should you do?

The first thing you need to do to get rid of a flea infestation is to treat the pet. Use the prescription strength stuff. Many of the companies that make the prescription flea killers also sell a much cheaper version of flea killer with their name on. Don’t waste your money on it. This is another case of you get what you pay for. The flea killer prescriptions use IGRs. IGRs stop fleas from being able to reproduce they kill eggs and larvae, but do not kill the fleas. Since the fleas cant reproduce they won’t be around for long. The next thing to do is to clean the pets bedding and vacuum your carpets. Fleas avoid light and like to hide under furniture and in the pets bedding. Fleas do not like low humidity and like temperatures between 70 and 85 degrease. Vacuuming removes a lot of the eggs, flea dirt (flea fecal matter) and larvae, be sure to move and vacuum under you furniture. Hiring a professional to clean your carpets will increase the amount of eggs, flea dirt and larvae that can be removed.

Should I spray?

We run into situations where on a lease tenants need to have their house treated for fleas when they move out. Carpet cleaners usually can spray for fleas. We use a spray with a synthesized version of Pyrethrum. Pyrethrum only kills adult fleas and larva. For the eggs a good “carpet cleaning” gets most of them, but not 100%. If a customer wants us to treat a house that they will be living in they should not be in the house while being treated and should not return until the carpets are dry. You should also avoid vacuuming for at least a week. If you have an insane flea infestation I would recommend calling a exterminator, they can treat your house and yard. Just to sum it up treating you pet for fleas at the vet and having your carpets cleaned will get rid of most of your problem. You might run into a few fleas over the next couple of months but they’re on their way out.