Fleas are one of the most common types of pests that can occupy your household. While they don’t have to be dangerous, unless you are allergic, these pesky critters might give you a hard time trying to come up with a way to get rid of them.
Fighting off fleas is not necessarily difficult, but you have to be persistent. Will a hairdryer kill fleas or should you resort to more drastic measures? Read on to find out.
Can I Use a Hairdryer to Kill Fleas?
The short answer is yes, you can kill fleas with a hairdryer. Hairdryers can reach temperatures as high as 140°F (60°C). Technically speaking, this is more than enough to kill fleas. Even lower temperatures will do it — anything above 95°F (35°C). Now, you might think you’ve found the best solution right away, but there’s more to it.
You should have in mind this would be a big humdrum. You would have to stand and point your hairdryer at the infested spot for a long period of time. Often, just like with lice, which can spread everywhere quickly, fleas too can infest a larger area. Just imagine how many times you would have to repeat the process. It goes without saying that you could only apply heat to furniture.
You shouldn’t blow dry your pets because their skin is much more sensitive than ours and you could end up burning them.
A Dryer as an Alternative
As you have seen, heat can be pretty effective when fighting fleas. That’s why you should consider washing everything you think might be infested and putting it into the dryer. The fleas, or at least some of them, will probably die during the washing, but the heat of the dryer will finish them off.
If the temperature in the dryer is high enough, the dryer can even destroy the eggs before hatching.
Products to Fight Fleas
While using a dryer is effective for clothes, bedding, or even stuffed animals, not everything can fit in the dryer, so you will have to get creative.
If you need to treat carpets or furniture, the best solution is to use baby powder. Yes, you’ve read it right! Baby powder is extremely absorbent, making fleas dehydrate and eventually die once they are exposed to it. However, you shouldn’t use it on pets. It can be dangerous for them if they inhale or swallow it. In some cases, it can even cause severe poisoning.
If you want to treat fleas on your pets, there are a lot of products online to choose from. You can choose a shampoo or spray, depending on your preferences. These products don’t contain any chemicals that might be harmful to you or your pet but are strong enough to help you eradicate the pests.
Final Suggestion
While possible, using a hairdryer might not be the best option to fight fleas. It can be a very tedious and time-consuming endeavor. That’s why you should try some of the other, much more effective and easier methods we’ve mentioned.
Alternatively, if nothing mentioned works, you might want to check out this video. Here, you will find 10 additional ways to fight fleas in your household. And remember, it’s not necessarily difficult to kill fleas — you just have to be patient.
