If you keep indoor pets, fleas are always found on your hardwood floor. Fleas live in the fur of felines, when your pets lay down and play on the floor fleas try to hide in the warm and moist gaps of the hardwood floor. Because fleas breed and lay eggs in moist and warm places. Moreover, people often ask if is it true Does Salt Kill Fleas on Hardwood Floors? Yes! When we sprinkle a pinch of salt on fleas, salt sock all moisture from the flea’s body and leaves no more chance of survival. So simply sprinkle household or sea salt under the carpet and hardwood floor gaps and leave it for 1 day or overnight. Then take a sponge with soapy water and squeeze it in the gaps of the floor all the fleas and their ages will die.
So you want to ensure that is there any fleas living on your hardwood floor? If you have one, how to get rid of it, and which products and home remedies are best to use for hardwood floors? Don’t worry you’ll find the solution in this blog post.
How Can Fleas Live On The Hardwood Floor?
Fleas cannot survive more than 2 weeks on a hardwood floor without any blood meal. They need to feed from pets and birds that live indoors. So if you think about getting rid of all pets in the house, after that they will bite you to get some blood to survive.
Therefore, they like to live in dark and hidden places, because female fleas need to lay eggs after getting blood from the host. So keep in mind fleas do not survive without any host, they love to live in pets’ fur.
Unfortunately, your warm and moist hardwood floor allows to them live in gaps and cracks places. If your pets also love lying down on the hardwood floor, fleas can make them host and breed on your floor easily.
Fleas especially try to hide in hardwood floors during the winter season. Wooden flooring is a great source of heat and does not get easily cold like cement and tiles floors. During the cold weather, the gaps of hardwood floors have 60°F-80°F temperatures and moisture is also present. That’s why cold air interacts with wooden heat making the floor moist, and fleas can easily breed at that temperature.
How to Identify the Fleas on the Hardwood Floor?
If you have never seen any fleas on your floor and want to ensure that they live on the floor? Basically, you can find fleas under the floor tiles, but you don’t see fleas eggs with a normal eye lens, you need a magnifying lens to find their eggs. Though, you can identify them from their reddish dirt on the floor or under the rafters of wooden floors. However, some other facts can help to identify fleas live at your house:
- Found Fleas Body Piece
- Found Flea Dirt
- Red Spots on Your Pet Body
- Pets Scratching Their Bodies
How Salt Helps to Kill the Fleas?
The usage of salt can cause dehydration in the body, it squeezes the mixture and dries the surroundings. As I stated above fleas need moisture to live and salt affects them quickly. Fleas lay their eggs in hidden and moist places, salt helps to dry those places and also removes moisture from the flea’s body. That’s the reason both adults and larvae are killed with salt.
Steps To Get Rid of Fleas with Salt
There are a lot of home remedies that you can apply to get rid of fleas from your house. However, the salt remedy works effectively. The following steps will help you to prevent form fleas by using salt:
1) Take Powder Salt
Make sure to use finely ground salt which is also known as refined salt. Because big particles of salt cannot work properly on fleas’ bodies.
2) Sprinkle the Salt on the Hardwood Floor
Once you find a well-ground salt, sprinkle it in the floor gaps, rugs, and under the furniture. if you have pets, it’s good to add some salt to your dog food.
3) Leave it For One and Two Days
Once you sprinkle the salt on the targeted area, brush the floor to ensure that salt is properly absorbed into the gaps of the floor. Moreover, wait for one or two days to remove the salt, and be sure to keep your pets away from the floor. you can also sprinkle the salt under your bed mattress if you have a doubt.
4) Vacuum the Hardwood Floor
Take a small vacuum after two days and vacuum the floor gaps with it. Make sure to vacuum the cracks, beds, and even the couch. Sometimes when salt starts infecting fleas they move from one place to another place rapidly and then die.
5) Repeat the Steps If Needed
Take one and two-week surveys and notice the presence of fleas on your hardwood floor. Even you can check it after 2 or three days. If you are not satisfied with one application you can repeat it every week.
What You Should Never Use on Hardwood Floor to Remove Fleas?
Vinegar:
No Doubt Vinegar is an agent that works to kill fleas, but it will not work to kill their eggs. it will just kill the growing fleas and also can damage the surface of your floor.
Slat:
Yes! Salt also can harm your hardwood floor if you leave it for more than one or two days.
Bleach:
Bleach is a big no for the hardwood floor. it is more than harmful to fleas. It has some harsh ingredients which can damage the appearance of hardwood floors. Moreover, if you have pets, it is also harmful to them because bleaching can cause sneezing infections for pets.
Flea Bombs:
If you decide to use flea bombs to get rid of fleas, sorry you are going to make a big mistake. Because it can cause to spread the fleas everywhere. It is not beneficial to kill fleas, but it can be harmful to humans and pets.
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Conclusion:
Does Salt Kill Fleas on Hardwood Floors? There are numerous ways to kill the fleas and clean your hardwood floor, but chemicals can harm your health as well and your pets can infected with them.
However, there are a lot of home remedies that can help you to get rid of fleas without any side effects. Using salt to kill fleas is one of the best and most cost-friendly remedies. Make sure to clean your hardwood floor within two days after sprinkling the salt if you want to save your floor from any harsh results.
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