How to Remove Fleas in Your Mattress

Fleas are pesky insects that are often found on dog or cat body. They reside among pet furry coat and suck the host blood. Their tiny size should not be taken for granted as their rate of breeding and growing is incredible. You may notice a few fleas on your pet, but there could be thousands of them more out there in shady places. Fleas travel with their host and drop off where they find suitable for inhabitation. Such places as under carpet, rugs, upholstery and bed or mattress could be perfect residence to fleas. We will introduce ways to remove fleas in your mattress within the scope of this article.

Remove Fleas In Your Mattress

Before we go in details on measures of treating fleas in the mattress, let’s have a brief of flea life cycle. There are basically four stages in flea life cycle namely egg, larvae, pupae and adult fleas. Adult fleas lay about 40 eggs after a blood meal every day. Those eggs, then drop off the host body and spread along the way pets hang out. The next stage of larvae comes after two days or two weeks depending on the favorability of the living environment. The larvae then make up a cocoon for their pupae stage of life. The pupae will enter the adult stage when a potential host emerges.

They can sense the host by vibration, body heat or carbon dioxide rising up. Should your pets walk by the areas where cocoon is located, the protective cover of pupae will be triggered and the flea will emerge to enjoy the life of an adult one. After a blood meal, adult fleas will continue the life cycle of laying eggs. Understanding the life cycle of the insect can help you treat them completely.

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Identifying Fleas

Bed, beddings, or mattresses are places that flea eggs or larvae could be hiding. And now your job is to remove them as soon as possible. However, fleas are very likely to be confused with bed bugs. You have got to make sure that’s exactly fleas on your bed to treat them properly. Fleas jump while bed bugs crawl; that’s one trick to help you differentiate the two. Flea size is about 2.5 mm, dark brown with 6 long legs that enable them to attach to host and jump pretty far.

Treating Fleas on Your Pet

Pet is the source of fleas on beds and mattresses so you need to treat the source first before trying to remove fleas elsewhere. There are several products for pets infested with fleas. You may try flea shampoo and the flea comb. The former could be used to bath pets and the latter should be used to extract left-over fleas or eggs on the pet body after a thorough bath. These methods are safe for pets, but you have to apply it regularly because a single shampooing or combing can hardly remove all fleas and their offspring on pet body.

Washing Up and Vacuuming

The next thing you can do when detecting fleas in your mattress is to wash up pillows, sheets, and blankets in hot water or dry them up at the temperature higher than 95◦F. Fleas and their offspring will get killed by heat so washing up is a good way to get rid of them. Once beddings items have been washed, you now can deal with the mattress. Move the vacuum along the mattress for it to suck up all adult fleas or other forms of the life cycle. This is effective to remove fleas, but you’ve got to do it on a regular basis. Remember to seal the vacuum bags after vacuuming; or else flea eggs may hatch later on and infest your house. It is best to dispose of the bag right way.

Using Flea Fogger

In case washing up and vacuuming cannot get rid of fleas all, flea fogger or flea spray could be applied. Those are pesticides or chemical products that are designed to kill fleas or pests. For sure, you must be careful in applying the chemicals as it may have adverse effects. You may have to do some research and checkup reviews to find the best flea fogger because there are various brands available on the market.

If you are still not sure about the best choice, consult a vet or professional on this. Read the instructions carefully before applying it yourself. Keep pets and family members away from the treated areas. Protect yourself with a mask, gloves, and clothes. You may have to leave the room for some hours before washing up beddings, mattress again to erase the chemicals and clear up flea dead body.

All things considered, removing fleas in your mattress does require time and effort, but it seems to be late when you let fleas even get into your bed. Try to prevent the invasion earlier by caring for any sign of the pesky insects on your pets. The harmful pests all emerge from the untidy living environment so you had better make a habit of regularly cleaning up home and organizing things properly to have a sound sleep and healthy living environment.