Does Heat Kill Fleas in Your Home? Kill Fleas With Heat

To kill fleas, learn how to use the heat in your house, a steam cleaner, a washing machine, and a bed bug-warming tent.

We’ve been dealing with more difficult infestations in recent years as bugs have grown more resistant to conventional spraying treatments. This is a result of the chemical resistance that bugs have developed as a result of each time they avoid a standard—or incorrectly applied—treatment.

But fleas are killed by heat. In excess of 95°F (35°C), they will perish. Fleas die outside when the temperature exceeds 95°F for more than 40 hours per month. It is advised to use the highest heat setting on dryers to kill fleas.

Find out which elements, such as temperature and humidity, create the ideal environment for fleas and ticks.

Does Heat Kill Fleas?

It is critical to act quickly when dealing with fleas. Your family and pets may experience severe discomfort due to a low-level infestation. Fleas also reproduce so quickly that even a minor infestation can quickly worsen as they burrow deep into your house.

Heat treatment is the most advised method for eliminating fleas indoors. This is not to say that spraying won’t be effective; in fact, it is effective the majority of the time. However, there are many key factors to note in regard to heat treatment:

• The procedure lasts for one day.
• At any stage, bugs immediately perish.
• Warming the treatment areas with dry heat is used.
• We make use of a gas-powered thermal blaster.
• For the greatest effect, we might also spray.

What Temperature is Needed to Kill Fleas?

Fleas cannot endure prolonged exposure to temperatures higher than 95 degrees Fahrenheit. Fleas that live outdoors cannot survive in hot, dry climates with low humidity when the temperature is above 95 degrees for more than a few days at a time. The weather cannot be changed, which is a sad reality.

To effectively rid our homes of flea infestations, we can turn on the heat. Use a high enough temperature for a long enough period of time to achieve the desired results.

To get rid of these pests, you might think about raising the thermostat for a while, but that is not a sensible strategy. Fleas and their eggs must be consistently killed at high temperatures for at least 48 hours.

Fleas may not survive in temperatures higher than 95 degrees. Temperatures as high as 103 degrees are not fatal to flea eggs or larvae. Flea adults and their eggs must be killed at a temperature above 103 degrees and a relative humidity below 75%.

How to Kill Fleas With Heat?

You’ll need to use several techniques to take care of each area of your home if you want to use heat to completely eliminate all fleas and flea eggs. You can approach the problem in a number of ways. Some methods are easier to follow than others, while others might call for professional assistance.

If some fleas survive and are not treated in every area, the infestation may return. It is very challenging to achieve the high heat required to eradicate fleas at every stage of their life cycle throughout your entire home. Given that it’s challenging to eradicate all fleas with a single method, you might need to employ a few different techniques.

To deal with an infestation, a multifaceted strategy likely involving high heat, additional types of treatments, and preventative measures will be required. If your pet has fleas, you should treat them and think about using a preventative medication to keep fleas away.

You cannot use heat to eradicate fleas from your yard outside. Without precautions or treatments specifically designed for lawns, the issue will probably recur.

Here are some of the most efficient ways to use heat to get rid of fleas in your house.

Washing and Drying

The washer and dryer that are probably already in your home are one of the simplest and most convenient ways to get rid of fleas.

The simplest way to use heat to kill fleas on bedding, clothing, and soft toys is to wash and dry them at the highest temperature setting. Using diluted bleach, Dawn dish soap, or your preferred detergent, wash your fabric items for the longest time possible at the highest temperature.

In order to effectively kill fleas, hot water, and detergent should be used. The high temperature will make it difficult for fleas to survive, and the detergent’s surfactants will help drown them.

Switch your items over to the dryer as soon as the wash cycle is finished. Use the highest temperature setting once more, and make the dryer cycle last at least 30 minutes.

Even in the highest setting, fleas cannot survive a dryer. Fleas have no chance of surviving, even if they miraculously made it through the washer. In addition to the dryer’s heat killing the fleas, the dryer’s dry environment also has a rapid desiccation effect. Fleas, larvae, and eggs are torn apart by the tumbling.

The most effective method for getting rid of fleas and their eggs on any laundry-able items in your home is to use the washer and dryer.

Steam

Using steam to clean your home is an effective and chemical-free way to kill fleas while also giving it a thorough cleaning. The hard surfaces in your home, including the carpet, rugs, and upholstery, respond well to steam cleaning. Fleas can be killed at any stage of their life cycle by steaming.

If you want to get rid of fleas, you might need a professional or commercial steamer because home-use units might not be strong enough to do it. Even with a commercial steamer, it’s unlikely that all the fleas and their eggs will be removed the first time.

To see what you missed or those who made it through the first round, you will likely have to repeat the process.

Compared to vacuum cleaners, steaming is a much better method of collecting eggs and larvae. However, if your steamer can reach temperatures higher than 180 degrees, you must be careful. Be sure to test the steamer on a small, hidden area first because too high of temperatures can harm surfaces.

Additional risks of injury come with using a steamer. To prevent burning yourself, make sure you know how to use the steamer.

Steamers of the highest caliber can reach temperatures of 200 degrees or higher. Fleas and their eggs can be completely destroyed at this temperature. Take your time and move slowly when using this technique.

Fleas can be killed at high enough temperatures in just a few minutes. However, if you move too quickly, you’ll need to repeat it to catch any stray animals. Any non-smooth surfaces, such as carpets and rugs, require extra attention. In order to give the steam a chance to reach the fibers deeply, move very slowly across these areas.

Steam can be used almost anywhere in your house. As long as you are meticulous in your coverage, it’s a great weapon against fleas.

Direct Light

The best way to combat fleas outside with heat is to make an effort to give your lawn as much direct light as you can. Fleas prefer warmer environments, and the moisture around them decreases in direct sunlight. The environment is effectively made uninhabitable for fleas by low humidity and high temperatures.

By limiting the number of bushes or completely removing them, you can make sure that your soil dries out enough and receives enough direct light to reduce flea populations. Grass should also be cut frequently. Fleas can’t use it as a cover and source of shade if it isn’t allowed to grow too long.

Keep garbage, woodpiles, and other waste materials away from your home. For egg-laying, fleas prefer warm, moist places like these. The soil is kept as dry as possible if your yard is exposed to direct sunlight. You have a better chance of lowering or getting rid of the flea population if there are no hiding places for them.

Bed Bug Heaters

In order to be killed, bed bugs need a temperature of at least 120 degrees. Additionally, fleas and their eggs can be killed at this level. Different sizes of bed bug heaters are available to fit almost any item in your house.

The bed bug heater must run for several hours after you place an item inside of it to completely eradicate the bugs. The heater’s hot and dry environment is why it functions so well.

The bed bug heater will effectively treat every item placed inside of it, but it won’t treat the carpet or any other nearby surfaces. Therefore, you’ll need to use a different technique to clean the rest of your house while you’re using the bug heater. The drawback of bed bug heaters is their sometimes high cost, especially for larger size chambers.

Professional Heat Treatments

A good choice is to hire a specialist to carry out your heat treatments if you don’t want to deal with all the work that these methods require. The work will be handled by professionals who have access to the newest and most efficient tools and equipment.

Professional heat treatments typically target bed bugs, but the temperatures needed to kill bed bugs also kill fleas and their eggs. Professionals can properly raise the internal temperature of your home to the required temperature to get rid of these pests from every surface because they have the necessary tools, such as industrial heaters and fans.

The process can take anywhere from a few hours to a few days, depending on the equipment and method used. Professionals have received training in how to do this efficiently without harming your house.

How Much Does a Full Flea Heat Treatment Cost?

In a nutshell, it is about three times as expensive as a chemical treatment. The advantages of the full flea heat treatment must be weighed against the clients’ individual circumstances, despite the fact that it is by far the most effective method.

Usually, we would advise our clients to heat treat the entire house, but the truth is that you absolutely need to do so in every area that your pets can access. Alternatively, if you don’t own any pets, you’d need to treat every area of your body that has fleas.

We would only heat treat the ground floor level as part of the service (for example, if the cat is never allowed into the bedrooms on the upper floor)., the communal areas, and the staircase).

However, you must take all of these choices into account and talk them over with your heat treatment specialist. The extra effort and time we put into heat treatment reflect the fact that it is a premium service.

As an indication of price, doing a chemical treatment in a three-bedroom flat would be £358 + VAT, and doing a full heat treatment in the same property would be £1,140 + VAT.

Conclusion: Does Heat Kill Fleas?

At temperatures above 56°C, fleas cannot survive. Any fabrics in the room will be penetrated by the hot airflow produced by the heat treatment. We treat bed bugs similarly to how we treat fleas with heat to kill them.

Fleas will start to die if the temperature falls below 46 degrees or rises above 95 degrees Fahrenheit. They prefer temperatures between 70 and 85 degrees.

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