I do not have any pets, so imagine my surprise when I started to find fleas all over my home. From my bedroom to the living room and even my bathroom – every room seemed to be infested. It turns out a street cat had snuck in through my back door when I left it open to air out my home. I needed a solution – and fast.
Having never dealt with getting rid of fleas inside the house before and wanting to avoid chemicals as much as possible, I had only one thought – will steam cleaning kill fleas?
Jumping online, I ordered the best steam cleaner and put it to a desperate test. Amazingly, it worked – and I would never use another method should it ever happen again. Here’s why.
Will steam cleaning kill fleas
As soon as I spotted the signs of a flea infestation – using a steam cleaner was really my only option. We are an allergy-prone household that likes to avoid chemicals and stick to green cleaning whenever we can, so I ordered a steam cleaner for same-day collection and got to work. I used a multi-step method to give my new steam cleaner the best chance at targeting the infestation as a whole.
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1. Moving all of my furniture
Given pretty much every room of my home was affected, the first step was to make my home accessible so that I could steam all of my floors in one go. I took the approach of lifting smaller items like footstools and putting them on top of tables and then shifting everything to one side of the room. I would then tackle the clear side before pushing the furniture over and tackling the other side.
Moving heavy furniture by yourself is no easy feat, so I highly recommend enlisting help. I pulled my partner in to give me a hand with this.
2. Wear white socks, pulled all the way up
My partner grew up with a lot of dogs, so he gave me the tip of wearing white socks, pulled all the way up with your trousers tucked into them. This wasn’t just to make this already ridiculous task even weirder (although we certainly looked like a mad pair), it actually helped to show up any fleas that jumped from the carpets onto us when trying to escape. It also stops them from landing on our skin and biting. This way, whenever a flea jumped ship, we could quickly crush them.
3. Wash anything machine safe
When moving all the furniture I also made sure to bag up anything that was machine washable, tying the garbage bags tightly to stop fleas escaping while I worked through several laundry loads. Everything from blankets to pillowcases to my machine-washable rugs went into the laundry pile. When doing laundry to kill pests, it is best to wash everything on as hot a wash as possible, following the laundry symbols on the care tag to avoid damage.
Anything not machine washable was then in line to be steam cleaned, such as steam cleaning a couch and steam cleaning a mattress.
4. Steam clean every inch of the floor in one go
Finally, I vacuumed my home (after vacuuming a pest problem, always empty your vacuum dust bin outside into a bag you can seal up and dispose of to avoid bugs reentering the home) and got onto steam cleaning carpets.
Living in a rental, my whole house is covered in the same low-pile carpet, making steam cleaning the whole house an exhausting chore. Luckily, my steam cleaner came with a carpet glide attachment to make it a little easier on the arms.
I made a point of walking back and forth along the carpet in even lines to cover every single inch. Working from baseboard to the baseboard to make sure nothing was missed. My goal was to tackle every room in one fell swoop. Although this was incredibly tiring, it meant there was little chance of the fleas in one room migrating to a room I had cleaned, tackling the infestation quickly. Again, having someone to help with all this was a lifesaver.
One caveat I would have to steam cleaning carpets is this is a lot more effective for shallower floor coverings and low pile rugs, something Vedansh Mathur, pest expert at The Diamond Exterminators pointed out, ‘Steam cleaners work well at killing adult fleas, and their larvae on contact because the high heat (around 200°F or more) can kill them instantly, however steam can't always penetrate deeply into carpets, upholstery, or cracks where fleas and their eggs often hide. This means it may not eliminate the entire infestation.
‘Steam cleaning works best as part of a broader flea control plan. After steam cleaning, you'll still need to vacuum frequently, wash bedding, and possibly use chemical treatments to target eggs and fleas hiding in tougher spots,’ he adds.
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5. Allow to dry and check for remaining fleas daily
With every room steamed and everything else washed, I opened my windows and let everything dry out. Using steam limits moisture retention in carpets, but is best to allow some ventilation to prevent musty smells.
I continued to wear my high white socks for a few days following to assess for any remaining fleas. I was thrilled to find that in the week following my deep clean, only three fleas jumped up out of our socks, and those that did were incredibly weak. After this, there were no signs of fleas at all – and all without the use of any chemical treatments.
All in all, I would strongly recommend steam cleaning to kill fleas should you ever suffer from an infestation. Remember that if you have pets, you also need to treat them and give them a flea bath to prevent re-infestation.
If steam cleaning doesn't work, or you have tried chemicals to no avail, it might be a sign to call professional pest controls in to tackle the problem swiftly.
