Have you ever found one flea in the house, but you have no pets? This article looks at the causes of flea presence in homes without pets.
If you’re currently experiencing such a problem, you’ll need to read on for answers.
Fleas In House No Pets In Apartment
Fleas are generally associated with pets. These parasitic insects hop onto pet bodies to feed. During an infestation, it’s common to find them on pet bedding and around your yard.
It’s also important to state that fleas won’t hesitate to feed on human blood.
Although fleas are common with pets, you might be shocked to see them around even when you don’t have pets. Is that even possible? It is!
3 Reasons For Fleas Without Pets
This is likely the first question to pop up when you notice fleas around your home.
To give the correct answers, we’ll need to discuss how they get on pets (dogs and cats) first.
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Can fleas live in a house without pets?
Fleas are primarily found in the yard from where they spread indoors via pets.
A well-manicured lawn will usually attract pets to rest on. Now, fleas can access your yard through wild critters such as rabbits, squirrels, and deer.
These parasitic insects settle on the grass in your yard and wait for pets to pass by. As excellent hoppers, fleas get to jump onto the nearest pet to feed.
Not having pets doesn’t guarantee you won’t have a flea problem. Remember that these pests can still find their way to your yard when wild critters come around.
Let’s further discuss this and other points as follows;
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Wild Critters as well as Stray Animals Coming around your Yard
Fleas will easily be found in homes when rodents, other wild critters, and stray animals come around.
Irrespective of the host, fleas need blood to survive and reproduce. They don’t live permanently on their host but only stay as long as they can feed.
After such feeding, they jump off and remain on grasses.
This gives an insight into how these pests come around your property. As stated earlier, you don’t need pets to experience a flea problem. It’s not uncommon to see rodents around a home.
Also, rabbits and other wild animals, such as deer, come around.
These could easily transport fleas to your backyard. What more? Stray dogs and cats, as well as those belonging to your neighbors, might come around your property.
When they do, it’s almost sure that some fleas might be left behind
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Inheriting the Problem from a Previous Occupant
Will fleas go away without pets? No. Here is why.
Another way you can have a flea problem even without owning a pet is when you move into an infested home.
The previous occupants may have had pets with flea problems. Now, you may wonder how long fleas can live without blood. These pests can stay for several months without a host.
So, it’s easy to see why a home you’ve moved into has flea problems. This is why it’s crucial to fumigate the property before entry to help prevent pest problems such as this.
Once fleas sense the presence of a possible host, they come around to get their fill of blood, even in the absence of pets.
Fleas Won’t Hesitate to Feed on your Blood
As these pests lay in wait along grassy pathways, they hop on to anyone passing by.
These are mostly found on the legs. If you have short pants on, your legs will be exposed, giving them easy access to dig in for a blood meal.
As you move indoors, you unknowingly carry them along. Their bites are pretty uncomfortable and can be identified by marks left behind. Such bite marks appear as red dots.
How Long Can Fleas Live Without a Host?
As mentioned earlier, fleas remain in an empty house for as long as five months or more. These include both adult fleas and eggs. Typically, an adult flea lays around 500 eggs during her lifetime.
This is an enormous amount of eggs that could hatch. Fleas will wait as long as possible for a potential host.
Not having pets isn’t a problem, as they’d still feed on your blood. Due to the significant discomfort caused by their bites, it becomes necessary to carry out comprehensive treatments.
Dealing With Flea Infestation But No Pets
With flea presence confirmed, you must take drastic actions to rid your surroundings of these pests. Now, it’s common to find homeowners adopting all sorts of DIY treatments to combat their flea problems.
While some DIY treatments might provide temporary relief (because they aren’t as effective), other home remedy flea treatments won’t work.
In a nutshell, you’ll need to call for professional pest control. Of course, you should contact only reputable pest management services for such jobs as a warranty backs their services.
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Home Remedies that Work
If you must perform DIY flea treatments, you’ll need to use only those known to be effective exterminators.
There are several such that include using food-grade diatomaceous earth, making a dish soap spray, using baking soda, and making some lemon spray.
Flea repellent plants can be grown around your yard in addition to being potted and placed indoors.
Such plants include lavender, catnip, rosemary, peppermint, basil, sage, lemongrass, and mint.
Other plants are marigold, chrysanthemums, Erigeron annuus, and wormwood.
You can also plant Menthe spicata plants, pennyroyal, citronella grass, eucalyptus, tansy, and rue. Any of these would easily repel fleas from your yard.
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Adopt Preventive Measures
We mentioned the likelihood of flea problems being introduced by stray animals and wild critters. You can prevent such spread by applying rodent treatments.
Also, you can have perimeter fencing around your home to keep out stray animals.
By cutting down your grasses, you also eliminate cover for rodents and a wide range of wild critters.
You can implement both of these approaches (active flea treatment and preventive treatments) to solve the problem and forestall future occurrences.
Conclusion
Having fleas without pets is a possibility you’d want to guard against.
The different methods mentioned above could drastically reduce your infestation problems if you’re currently dealing with such a problem.