What Homemade Flea Remedies Work?
If you’re looking to find home flea remedies, you’ll find answers here. Along with home flea remedy recipes I have included some inexpensive choices for your flea extermination as well.
I have researched through numerous on-line forums and websites to find the best recipes with the most positive outcome for others who also needed home flea remedies for flea control.
Some people just don’t want to use the chemical based products and others just can’t afford the expensive choices at the pet stores. Below you’ll find explanations for what these homemade flea remedies are suppose to do, along with how you can make them for yourself.
Some of the remedies you may need to purchase ingredients but they are all very inexpensive. I’ve also included a couple of inexpensive products that are all natural for you to consider using for your flea control.
Following Are 6 Homemade Flea Remedies
1. The Homemade Flea Trap:
What you’ll need
- A shallow pan (a 9×13 pan is perfect)
- Water
- Dawn dish soap
- Night light or clamp light
Directions:
Put the water in the pan, filling about 1/2 way. Add a couple squirts of the dawn dish soap into the water, don’t mix together, let it just settle to the bottom of the pan.
Put the pan on the floor of a known flea infested area of your home. Make sure that it is either next to the night light or that the clamp light is shining down on the pan. The fleas are attracted to the heat of the light and will jump toward it. When they do this they will end up falling into the water. The dish soap causes them to sink into the bottom and drown.
Watch The Following Video to See How it Works
#2 All Natural Flea Spray:
What you’ll need
- 1 gallon of vinegar (white or cider)
- 16 oz of lemon juice (store brands are just fine)
- 8 oz of witch hazel
- 1/2 gallon of water
- Empty spray bottle
Directions:
Mix all the ingredients together and pour into the empty spray bottle, you’ll be able to fill the spray bottle a few times with this recipe.
Use this to spray furniture, carpet, anything, anywhere that you’ve seen fleas in your house. Spray everything 2x’s a week for 4 weeks.
Be sure to vacuum every day as well! This mixture will kill fleas and their life stages but if you don’t vacuum as well some are sure to be left behind to start the cycle all over again.
This home flea remedy is a mixture for the inside of your home and is safe for furniture and carpets. It would be beneficial for you to also treat your cats, dogs and the outside of your home as well.
Homemade Flea Remedy To Kill Fleas On Pets:
What You’ll Need
- 1/2 Cup of vinegar (white or cider)
- 1/2 Cup of Palmolive free & clear dish soap
- 1 Cup of warm water
- Empty dish soap bottle with squirt top (you’re going to use this to apply to your pets coat)
Directions
Mix all the ingredients in the squirt bottle. Use this in place of a flea shampoo while bathing your pet.
Just put the mixture on your pets coat and work into a thick lather. Let it sit on your pets skin for about 10 minutes, massaging it down to the skin.
Rinse your pet, you should see all the fleas just falling into the water dead!
This is a great way to get the fleas off of your pet but if your just putting them right back into a flea infested environment without treating it for fleas as well, then your pet is going to be re-infested with fleas.
Be sure to treat the inside and outside of your home as well for the fleas. Just killing the fleas on your pets won’t be enough to keep them flea free. The fleas have 4 life stages and will reinfest your pets if they aren’t all killed.
Blue Dawn Dish Soap For Bathing Your Pet
You will need to bathe your pet with the dawn soap, just as you would with any shampoo. Leaving it on your pets skin for 10 minutes or so, before rinsing.
There have been many people saying that they’ve used this alone and it appears to work initially for their pets. It seems to only last a couple of days then needs to be repeated.
Some people also complained that it dried out their pets skin after repeated use. I guess this is one you can try for yourself and see if it’s useful for your pet.
You will need to kill all the fleas in all of it’s stages inside and outside your home to keep the flea problem controlled
Brewers Yeast & Garlic Tablets
There are really great reviews about this product being used as a home flea remedy. You give your pet 1 tablet a day and it’s said to keep fleas and
ticks away because they don’t like the taste of the garlic in the blood. You would need to check with your veterinarian, it shouldn’t need to be a visit, just a phone call. Find out what they would recommend for the size of your pet.
This is a very inexpensive treatment for your pet. Amazon sells brewers yeast & garlic tab in 100ct bottles for $5.68. You should also be able to find them at any pet store.
Fresh Orange or Lemon Rind
This home flea remedy works when you take the actual rind of both or individual rinds of
fresh oranges or lemons. Peel them off as if you were going to eat them. Rub the peels as close to your pets skin as you can get. Making sure to cover their entire body. You’re not going to use the juice from the fruits but the actual rinds! It’s the oils in the rinds that repels the fleas.
This flea treatment mimics the citrus oils that you can buy at health and drug stores. It’s the oils that are needed to make this work.
This has many mixed reviews with people. Some people are saying that this works fantastic while others are saying that it does nothing but make your pet sticky and smelling good.
The people that were saying that their pet ended up sticky appeared to not follow the
directions and used the actual lemon halves and orange halves, squeezing them directly on their pets fur. Remember you’re only using the rinds not the juice from them!
You can also buy the orange essential oils for $4-$5 at Amazon, lemon essential oil for the same price. I’d also look at health stores or your local pharmacy, I’m sure you’ll find them there.
Borax Detergent
Borax detergent is used to kill fleas in your home. You’ll need to sprinkle it into your carpet everywhere you have seen fleas. If your pets are allowed on the furniture, you’ll need to sprinkle these areas as well.
After sprinkling on, you’ll need to rub into the carpet with a stiff brush or broom. Leave on your carpet and furniture for 24 hours.
Next vacuum your carpets and furniture completely. You’ll be picking up dead fleas and the other stages of the fleas life cycle as well. The borax actually sucks the moisture out of the fleas and all of their life stages, causing them to die.
Repeat these steps once a week for about 4 weeks. That is the typical flea life cycle so you’ll be getting any that may have hidden from the initial treatment before they can start a whole new life cycle. To keep the fleas at bay make this part of your monthly home flea remedy as a flea repellent.
You can find Borax detergent at most home improvement stores such as Home Depot or Lowe’s. You can also purchase it at Amazon in a 6 pack for $20. If you have a larger area to treat this would probably be the best deal. You’ll have enough to treat multiple times.
Lime Powder For Outside Flea Control
You’ll need lime powder. You can purchase this at your local hardware stores or have it delivered by Amazon for about $10.
This home flea remedy powder needs to be sprinkled outside of your home for flea control. Fleas come in from the outside to begin with so killing them where they start is a great start in combating the fleas. You’ll sprinkle this around shady areas in your yard, including under any porches or decks.
Be sure to concentrate on areas your pets like to spend their time outside. You don’t want
to cover your entire lawn that gets a lot of sun during the day, the lime powder may cause the grass to die. It is safe for your lawn in shady areas. Don’t put directly on your flowers but you can sprinkle it around them.
Cover any areas of your yard that are dirt patches or sandy patches. Fleas like to breed in these areas, especially if they’re in shady spots in your yard.
You can find more solutions and home flea remedies that are less expensive, or products that you have in your home by visiting, kill fleas naturally. If you have any ideas that you would like to share with everyone, about home flea remedies, we would love to hear from you! Please leave it in the comment section below, maybe you can help someone find home flea remedies that I didn’t know about! 🙂
Following are some home flea remedies articles that you may like to read:
10 thoughts on “Homemade Flea Remedies”
Food grade diatomaceous earth, also sold as shell flour, can be used safely on pets, in bedding, on carpets (vacuum next day) and dusted on the lawn, under porches, etc.
You don’t want to breathe the dust much, but it is non-toxic (even safe to mix with food, thus food-grade).
this works by scratching off the flea’s waxy coating by abrasion, and the fleas dry out and die.
Thank you Michael! I’ve used Food Grade DE successfully as well. However since starting this website to help others I came across Wondercide which is an all natural chemical free alternative for flea and pest control. I use the outside spray and the indoor spray, even spraying directly on my pets and combing through their coats to the skin. Not only does it kill the fleas it repels ticks and mosquitoes on them as well. It smells really nice both the lemongrass and cedar wood sprays and I don’t have to worry about any harsh chemicals causing any problems to my cat and dog or my family. My pets coats and skin is very healthy from the Wondercide as well!
Thank You so much for sharing with everyone!
Have a Great Day 🙂
Kimbelry
Tried the food-grade diatomaceous earth indoors. Applied it very thinly. Let it sit for 12 hours, and wet-vacuumed. It probably helped some, but the dust caused respiratory and mucus membrane irritation, was easily kicked up, with the fine particulates permeating the air, and I won’t use it again. It was not applied thickly, nor thrown about haphazardly, as, apparently one person did, spreading pounds of the stuff around. (Indoor) dog bathed for the second time in two days, and I just killed another flea on her. Anyway – you shouldn’t ignore the respiratory and mucous membrane irritation problem.
Hello Jane, thank you for sharing this with us. I wasn’t aware that this would cause respiratory irritation but if someone is sensitive with allergies or respiratory problems I could see how the fine powder of the DE could cause some problems. I would recommend using Wondercide. This is all natural and can be sprayed directly on your pets, furniture, flooring including carpets, bedding absolutely everywhere in your home.
Thank you again for letting everyone know about the respiratory irritation the Diatomaceous Earth caused you 🙂
Kimberly
Does it have to be dawn dish soap
Hello Niyah, yes, you should use the dawn dish soap it breaks down oils and dirt better than other brands and will kill the fleas.
Good luck and please let me know if I can help with anything else 🙂
Kimberly
I’ve used apple cider vinegar baking soda and lemon fairy mixed with Luke warm water for pets coat and own hair works a treat
I use diatomaceous earth outdoors on front and back yard and have two cats and one dog there is never any respiratory issues and even have daughter with asthma i would remind anyone to follow the directions on the bag it runs about 10 bucks for a huge bag and i used it outdoors because inside my home i vacuum regularly as well as running my steam mop i also drag the steam mop over pet bedding and anywhere my dog or cats have made their napping space. This is what helps us and i dont get food grade although i need to because it can safely be fed to cats and dogs and humans to deworm deparasite your entire body and the other diatomaceous earth you can buy at orchards hardware is not food grade but rid the yards of fleas and earwigs snails and japanese beetles that burrow into the ground to lay eggs that become gigantic grubs yes under your dirt even the hardest dirt so gross..but that rid us of our beetle and even wasp problems too and slugs and snails gone gone gone. Is safe for pets and peeps and i wouldnt recommend putting any powdery stuff inside home because you will burn out your vacuum cleaner motor in a quick hurry..instead invest in a steam mop around 50 bucks worth its weight in no more dirty mopheads no more ringing or chemicals or rinsing the floors.
If you dont have witch hazel can you just use vinger and lemon juice to spray your furniture with to kill the fleas?
Hello Emily, I would certainly give it a try! The vinegar and lemon juice alone could be effective at killing fleas even if you don’t have the witch hazel. Just be sure to vacuum thoroughly before spraying and a day or so after so you can get all the dead fleas and flea debri gone from your furniture.
Let me know if I can help you with anything else 🙂
Kimberly