Am I Doing Enough to Eliminate the Fleas

QuestionsAm I Doing Enough to Eliminate the Fleas
FleaAnxiety asked 6 years ago

Discovered my dog has fleas and a tapeworm, both have been treated and he’s on Front-line Plus. I treated some carpet areas with Verbac Knockout ES Area Treatment. Have washed the bedding on the sanitary cycle and vacuumed the carpets and furniture. Also steam cleaned our hardwood floors. Since this is only day 1 of the flea treatment am wondering what more I should do and what I have to “look forward” to. 
Would hiring a professional carpet cleaning company help?  We have a central vacuum, is that enough power to suck them up?
We live in the midwest so it’s -1 today and won’t reach double digits for 5 days. Wondering if I put the decorative pillows and kids stuffed animals outside if that will kill all life cycles of the fleas and if so, how many days would they need to be outside and if it gets into the 30’s will that still be effective?
I have a feeling this will be a long 2-3 months. Thanks for talking me through it!

1 Answers
Adam Retzer Staff answered 6 years ago

Hello,

First of all, sorry for the late reply.

It sounds like you’ve taken all the correct steps. One thing to keep in mind is that wet cleaning (like steam cleaning) can reduce the efficacy of environmental treatments. So you may want to respray the Virbac after steam cleaning.

I am not sure about the central vacuum, but I don’t think it should be too much of a concern.

No flea stage should be able to survive outdoors in -1 degree weather (or any freezing temperature) for 5 days. So you should be able to denominate those items you mentioned. You can read more about that here: At what temperature do fleas die?

Warm regards,
Adam

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