If you have indoor pets, you probably deal with fleas on occasion. And you are probably asking, Does Vacuuming Kill Fleas? We have good news. Livescience.com reported on a study that found vacuum cleaners can kill fleas.
The study was conducted by researchers at Ohio State University using vacuum cleaners on rooms infested with the most common type of flea in North America. They found that simply running a vacuum cleaner reduces the number of fleas in a house and can even eliminate them completely.
This is great news if you are a robot vacuum owner. Let your small mechanical friend take care of almost all the work. You will probably still have to use a manual vacuum to go around the edges and spaces your robot can’t reach. But even still, it will take much of the burden off your shoulders.
But, of course, fleas are very resilient creatures. If you’re going to get rid of them for keeps, you’ll need to know a few things.
The eggs that fleas lay are very tough to kill. Naturally, just sucking them up into your vacuum bag isn’t enough. If you really want your robot vacuum to be a viable weapon against fleas, you’ll need to run it daily and clean its storage bin at least once daily.
A flea might live a year and a half under ideal conditions. These include the right temperature, food supply, and humidity
How long is the life span of a flea
Once fleas are trapped inside the bag of an ordinary vacuum, they will probably have a tough time getting out. But some of them are still likely to escape. A robot vacuum’s small plastic containment unit is better at containing them than an ordinary vacuum cleaner. After the robot completes its run, it should be cleaned as quickly as possible.
After letting your robot vacuum run each day, please take it to an outside bin and dump the collected dirt. If you toss it into indoor trash, the fleas will escape and find a new place to lay eggs.
Robot Vacuums VS Fleas
Pest control experts recommend using a vacuum cleaner before applying pesticide treatments to your carpet. They also tell us that an ordinary vacuum’s heat and vibration can trigger flea eggs to hatch. Once they hatch, they are vulnerable to insecticides.
But robot vacuums are a bit different.
For a start, most robot vacuums will miss the edges of the room and detail areas. That means you will need to go around and hit these spots with a handheld vacuum or with the attachments of an ordinary vacuum cleaner.
Second, flea eggs will likely hatch inside the robot vacuum’s dirt container. This means you need to clean out that bin as soon as possible. The longer live fleas are inside the containment unit, the more likely they will escape. You could even apply some insecticide to the inside of the robot’s storage bin but do so with caution.
Some robot vacuums will dump their onboard bins into a trash container attached to their charging stand. If you have a unit like this, you need to intervene and take the trash outside on your own. If you are using your robot to help deal with fleas, you could disable the automatic dumping function because you don’t want vacuumed fleas just sitting in indoor trash.
After your robot vacuum has run a full course, it will probably be warm inside of it, and that will trigger flea eggs to hatch. Therefore, you must be proactive in cleaning the robot’s onboard bin.
Getting the Most Out of Your Robotic, Anti-Flea Partner
Its persistence makes a robot vacuum a great tool in the battle against indoor fleas. You can set it to run every day on schedule. This gives you a persistent, scorched-earth approach to tackling fleas. But more than a robot vacuum will be needed. Our recommendation would be to incorporate it into your regular anti-flea regimen.
First, run your robot vacuum in a full course until all the areas are cleaned.
Then apply an insecticide meant to kill fleas. Be sure to use the insecticide according to the manufacturer’s instructions.
Once the insecticide has been applied thoughtfully, and any requisite cleanup is complete, it is recommended that you vacuum your home thoroughly.
After that, the flea population should be degraded to the point where daily use of your robot vacuum should be able to finish them off. Just make sure to clean out the robot’s bin each day so that any remaining fleas don’t get a chance to reestablish themselves.
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