How would you feel knowing your car is infested with fleas? Terrified, isn’t? Having fleas in your house is irritating, but having them in your car is more frustrating because they will go with you wherever you go.
What is even more frustrating is that they will it and such your blood. There are many reasons why fleas get into your car. Letting pets into your car is just one of them. A flea on your clothing could also jump into your car and settle there.
Whatever the case, you should find a way of getting rid of them as soon as you identify them. Even if it is only one, you don’t want to ignore it because they reproduce quickly.
Best Ways to Kill Fleas in a Car
Once you have confirmed that you have fleas in your car, you should plan on how to treat the issue. Since they prefer to say in hidden places, you may not notice them immediately, until they jump into a host to feed on.
In this section, we will take you through the most effective methods for fighting fleas in your car.
1. Vacuuming & Steaming
For small infestations, vacuum cleaning may the ideal option. In any case, you should be vacuuming your car regularly. But now that you have impending enemies within, the urge to clean the car should be even higher.
While vacuuming and steaming your car, pay close attention to tiny crevices and other potential hiding areas within the car.
Steaming and vacuuming is a fast and effective method for getting rid of fleas. However, this method may not be effective for fighting large infestations, especially when it comes to destroying flea eggs.
As you may already know, flea hatch in moist, warm environments, so if you didn’t destroy the eggs, fleas are likely to reappear in a few days. If you have no other option, it would mean that you have to vacuum and steam your car regularly.
2. Use Boric Acid
Besides vacuuming and steaming, you can use a suitable anti-flea product like boric acid. It is a great way of killing fleas plus their eggs when you don’t want to use other pesticides. Most of the pesticides for treating fleas and other insects often contain unwanted chemicals.
For the best results with boric acid, clean your vehicle and follow these instructions:
- Mix boric acid and salt in a small container and sprinkle the mixture in seats, foot mats, seat belts, and other interior sections of the car.
- Leave it in your car for a few hours. During this time, keep everything else, including your pets from getting into the car.
- After that, vacuum the treated sections of the car to remove the mixture completely.
- Repeat the treatment every other day until you are convinced that the fleas have been killed.
3. Use Flea Bomb
Another method to kill fleas is to flea bomb your car. But you should get rid of clutter first and remove anything that can be washed. Here is the process:
- Insert a flea bomb in the middle of the car and roll up all the windows.
- After that, detonate the flea bomb and close the door immediately.
- Note that you may not use your car for the next 48 hours after the exercise to avoid inhaling toxic substances. Even after this period has elapsed, you will still need to leave the windows open for several hours.
4. Use Flea Spray
If vacuum and steam cleaning hasn’t done much to destroy fleas in your car, consider using flea sprays. These sprays use strong chemicals to kill adult fleas, eggs, and larvae fleas.
Because of the chemicals in them, you may only want to use them as your last resort, if other treatments fail to kill fleas. And make sure to steam and vacuum your car afterward to remove smell and dead fleas.
How Do Fleas Get in Your Car?
Well, if you are still wondering why fleas are in your car, know that there could be obvious reasons. You could have welcomed your dog into your car not knowing that it will come with his fleas.
In most cases, a flea-infested animal spread fleas to almost everywhere he visits. So, if your pets spend most of the time in your car, the chance that they left fleas in the car is pretty high.
Even if you don’t allow pets in your car, fleas could still get into it. For instance, you could carry one on your clothing, which ends up in the car. Also, if you park your car in a place with flea infestations, they are likely to get into it.
Prevent Fleas from Getting Into Your Car
Eliminating fleas in your car is not an end in itself. You want to make sure they won’t return. What it means is that you have to kill them from the source. Here are a few ways to prevent fleas from returning to your car:
1. Environmental Control
Since your pets didn’t grow fleas by themselves, there might have been a place where they pick them from. There is a high likelihood that they pick them from their surroundings.
Who knows, fleas could be thriving in your moist and shady backyard. So, you must identify these fleas in the surrounding environment to avoid future infestations.
There are several ways to get rid of fleas in your environment. You can use flea bombs and lea sprays on your yard, home, garden, and surrounding perimeters. If you don’t want to use pesticides, you can use diatomaceous earth, which is less toxic and environmentally friendly.
2. Pet Treatment
Most people with fleas in their car is because they took a ride with their pets. It means that they wouldn’t be struggling with fighting fleas on their car had they treat fleas on their pets.
But all is not lost yet. There are several products on the market that you can use to treat fleas on cats and dogs. A few examples include flea collars, flea shampoos, oral tablets, and household sprays.
For the best outcome, you may need to use a quality spray or shampoo to bathe all your pets. They usually kill adult fleas. Once they dry up, use spot treatment drugs between your pet’s shoulder blades or just attach a flea/tick collar.
This way, you will kill flea eggs and larvae. You might need to repeat the spot treatment every 3 – 4 weeks. Besides this, you may also want to put your pets on preventive medications.
The bottom line is that if you can’t treat pets first, there is a likelihood for fleas to return to not only your car but also your whole house.
3. Car Treatment
Sometimes, dirt attracts fleas. During their early phase, fleas hide in places in which they can’t be disturbed. So, if you have many of these places, the easier for fleas to hide. To prevent flea infestations, clean your car regularly. While cleaning, remove everything possible from floor, seats, to even glove compartments.
On top of this, throw out any trash. If you want to keep something, make sure it is sealed inside plastic bags and store them in a freezer. Fleas can’t reproduce in very cold places because eggs and larvae will be killed instantly. And if there is anything that you can’t keep them in a freezer place them in a sealed bag and left them in the sun for a day or two.
After you have sorted out removable items and get rid of the trash, remove and clean upholstery. Detach your steering wheel covers, cushions, floor mats, pillows, seat covers, and blankets.
After that, soak and wash them with a mild bleach solution or a quality detergent in very hot water. When they are clean, dry them up on the highest possible heat setting.
After cleaning the car and all the interior accessories, try sprinkling diatomaceous earth powder inside the car and leave it on overnight. Your target areas are the seat belts, seats, on the foot mats, and inside the boots, among other areas. The powder will shred the exoskeleton of the fleas.
Can You Use Diatomaceous Earth for Fleas in Car?
Diatomaceous is a powdery substance that is effective in killing fleas and other external parasites. You can use this flea powder to get rid of fleas in your car. However, you may only want to use it infrequently.
While it is non-toxic, it can cause allergies and other ailments when inhaled. Also, keep in mind that you should only use food-grade diatomaceous earth (DE) for flea control. You also need to vacuum clean the car after around 8 – 10 hours.
Do Fleas Die in a Hot Car?
Fleas will die if the temperatures get high enough. Most fleas will not withstand temperatures above 95°F (35°C. So, if you can leave your car in the sun and the internal temperature exceeds 95 degrees, then most fleas won’t survive.
Since good steam cleaners produce steam above this temperature, you will kill most fleas.
Do Fleas Die in Frozen Car?
In some cases, extended freezing temperatures can kill fleas. However, some fleas can adapt and survive in cold climates.
For adult fleas to die, the temperatures in your car must be colder than 46.4°F (8°C). Unfortunately, young fleas can sustain up to 10 days in this condition. So, the freezing should extend for about two weeks to ensure no flea survives.
Final Thoughts
To conclude, having fleas in your car can make your life difficult. It is even worse if you are sharing the car with other people. The main reason could be that you let your flea-infested pet to get into your car. So, you should get rid of them as soon as you identify them.
To avoid flea infestations, clean your car regularly. And don’t forget that if you have fleas in your car, they are probably in your house and surrounding environment, too. So, you can’t get rid of fleas without treating these areas and your pets.