When it comes to home remedies, a flop-proof method to treat fleas is something hard to come across, especially since home remedies aren’t long-term solutions if you want to get rid of them, but have you ever tried to use baking soda to kill fleas?
If you haven’t crossed baking soda out of your “treatments for blood-sucking pests” list yet, you might want to read this guide first before doing so because the info we have here will surely change your mind!
In this guide, we’ll tell you whether or not you can use baking soda to kill fleas, among some other details, so keep on reading!
Does Baking Soda Kill Fleas: The Short Answer
Yes, but only to some extent. Baking soda does effectively kill flea eggs and larvae; however, it doesn’t kill adult fleas but rather dehydrates them, which means they can still survive and feed off the pet owners or the pets.
In short, baking soda kills fleas, flea larvae, and flea eggs, but it isn’t always practical, especially if you’re dealing with a large flea infestation.
How Does Baking Soda Kill Fleas?
To understand how active baking soda is used to treat fleas, you’ll need to know what it is.
Baking soda is a common name for sodium bicarbonate. By mixing baking soda with table salt, warm water, or peroxide, you’ll trigger a chemical reaction that absorbs water and releases carbon dioxide. However, unlike other harsh chemicals, this baking soda won’t cause a hazard to house owners.
Baking soda damages fleas’ cuticles (the outer layers of fleas) and overall dissolves fleas’ exoskeletons. The mildest outcome is to dehydrate and repel fleas.
While it’s true that any pet owner should avoid toxic materials when handling their flea problem, using only baking soda won’t do much in terms of controlling fleas. Instead, you can use it on the side with other pest control methods, especially if you’re having trouble controlling the flea population due to existing eggs and larvae.
How Long Does It Take To Work?
It’ll roughly take 12 hours for baking soda to kill fleas. The reason for that is that salt and baking soda usually don’t get rid of fleas right away, and the treatment will have to sit overnight to dehydrate them completely.
For this flea prevention method to actually work, we’d recommend you leave the house or, as mentioned above, use it overnight.
Using Baking Soda for Killing Fleas
With that said, you can now set your expectations and better understand how to control fleas if you use baking soda and salt. You can use baking soda in multiple ways, which we’ll list here. However, note that you should leverage other preventative measures to get rid of fleas completely. Check these methods below:
Carpets
If you’ve ever dealt with a flea infestation, you must know by now that fleas love to hide in carpets. Therefore, the easiest way to get rid of these fleas is to liberally sprinkle baking soda into your carpets. Then, carefully scrub the mixture so it gets inside their hiding places. Here are the exact steps:
- Get a medium-sized plastic tub and punch holes into it or simply get a shaker bottle.
- Mix baking soda with salt in equal amounts and add them to the bottle.
- Cover all infested carpets.
- Use a bristled brush to scrub the mixture evenly inside the carpets.
- A 12-hour duration is ideal to allow this mixture to kill fleas, but don’t forget to vacuum it in the morning.
- Empty the contents of the vacuum cleaner into a well-sealed plastic bag to ensure that no dead fleas escape back to your house.
The sprinkling method will take time to fully prevent fleas from coming back, so you can use Borax instead of baking soda and salt to kill fleas. Here’s what you’ll need:
- 1 cup of baking soda
- 1/2 cup of Borax
- 1/4 cup of salt
Apply the same steps above, but only leave this treatment for a few hours, as Borax is quite deadly to fleas (as well as other parasites).
Tiles and Floors
Normally, fleas don’t find hiding places in tiles and wooden floors, but you’ll need to treat your entire house to cover all your bases. Plus, fleas don’t just leave flea dirt on floors–they might also drop flea eggs, which will hatch later and repeat their life cycle.
There are two ways for using baking soda for fleas on tiles and floors:
Powder Form Treatment
Apply Borax, baking soda, and salt to your tiles and floors. You can do this step while treating your carpets, and follow the same steps.
Flea Spray Bottle
A spray bottle will help you cover more space, and you won’t have to vacuum after! So, use flea spray on all infested areas. For better results, use this recipe to make a spray that will kill fleas instantly:
- 1/4 cup of apple cider vinegar
- 1/4 cup of salt
- 1/4 cup of baking soda
- 2 cups of warm water
Spray only a fine mist, as excess baking soda, apple cider vinegar, and warm water can do more harm than good to your floors.
Pets
Whether you have a cat, dog, or other animals in your house, household pets are the perfect breeding grounds for fleas. So if you’ve already used collars as well as oral and topical treatments to no avail, consider the baking soda treatment. Here’s how to go about this:
Dogs
For dogs, and other animals, baths that contain baking soda are excellent for killing fleas.
Baking Soda Bath
Prepare a bath by adding baking soda to kill fleas in your pet’s coat. These are the steps you’ll need to follow to get rid of dog fleas:
- Add a tablespoon of baking soda to 1 1/2 cups of water.
- Wet your pets’ fur thoroughly.
- Pour the mixture into your pet’s fur and avoid its face.
- Leave the mixture in for a few moments, then rinse it.
Tip: Apply baking soda both on your dog’s skin and the area where the pet spends time to perform optimal pest control.
Cats
Unlike most pets, cats hate water, and they might hate baths with baking soda even more. So if your kitty has itchy skin and really hates baths, the best solution here is to use a dry shampoo.
Baking Soda Dry Shampoo
Making this one is pretty easy, and it involves only a couple of steps. This is what you’ll need to do:
- Sprinkle your feline pet’s fur using baking soda, either with your finger or a sprinkler tub.
- Rub the baking soda deep into your pet’s coat.
- If your cat has long hair, a flea comb will brush the baking soda evenly through the hair.
- Ensure that you avoid your pet’s face and focus on areas that fleas populate, like the back of the neck, the underside of the tail, and the back of the ears.
Note: After a while, rub the baking soda out of your cat’s fur thoroughly. Your pet’s skin might not be sensitive to baking soda, but if they ingest large amounts of it, they’ll surely suffer from digestion problems.
Furniture
If it’s flea season, and you spot one of these nuisances somewhere around the house, then it’s time you check every nook and cranny for fleas. That includes checking every piece of furniture down to couch cushions.
Treating your infested furniture could be as easy as sprinkling salt and baking soda into them and waiting for twelve hours, and that’s about it! No additional steps are needed.
Yards
Sometimes fleas populate your yard instead of your house. This happens if an infested wild animal frequents your yard. If that’s the case, here’s a baking soda recipe you can use for yard flea control:
- Dish soap
- Diatomaceous earth
- Coconut oil
- Salt
Use a considerable amount to cover your yard. You can also use dish soap, warm water, and salt with ACV instead.
Note that this recipe also works for indoor areas, and the same could be said for the indoor recipes we mentioned earlier. However, this might offer better coverage for an open-door environment, especially since the dish soap attracts and traps fleas, while diatomaceous earth is an excellent flea control method.
Human Hair
Unfortunately, some people might be afflicted with human fleas, but baking soda works just as well on human fleas as other types! What’s even better is that baking soda is organic, and it’s not harmful to humans at all.
Similar to pets, humans can use baking soda as an excellent anti-flea shampoo, so if you often find adult fleas in your hair, a baking soda shampoo might help you control them.
If you’re looking for a baking soda shampoo recipe, here’s what you’ll need:
- 1 cup of water
- 1 tablespoon of baking soda
- a few drops of lemon juice or any essential oil of your choosing (optional)
Be sure to adjust the amount of shampoo you have depending on your hair length. Now, here’s how you can use this shampoo:
- Generously add the shampoo to your hair from roots to end while paying close attention to your roots where fleas reside.
- Massage it into your scalp until all of your hair is thoroughly covered.
- Leave the solution on your hair for 15 minutes.
- Rinse the hair and wash it with a gentle shampoo.
- Rinse and repeat.
Note that this process can take its toll on your hair, especially if it’s dry, so nourish it with a hair treatment afterward. Also, if you have sensitive skin and scalp, it’d be better to consult your doctor first before proceeding with this treatment.
Mattresses
Typically, you can’t use harmful chemicals to kill fleas infesting your living areas, so opting for a homemade recipe that won’t cause a health hazard is definitely the better option.
If adult fleas are infesting your mattress, a baking soda and salt mixture should do the trick to control them. Maybe add Borax to your treatment to eliminate them, but baking soda will ensure that no flea larvae or eggs remain on your mattress.
In Conclusion
With that said, you now know whether or not to use the baking soda method to kill fleas. Baking soda does work effectively against large flea infestations. However, it’d be better if you didn’t use it alone.
If you want to avoid chemicals and pest companies entirely, baking soda, Borax, and lemon juice combined will work, but use it vigorously and apply it to every nook and cranny to the infestation area. With that, you’ll kill fleas without having to resort to chemicals or flea bombs at all!
References:
https://www.entirelypets.com/how-to-get-rid-of-fleas.html
https://pestsamurai.com/does-baking-soda-kill-fleas/#Fleas_in_Human_Hair_and_Baking_Soda
https://www.thebugsquad.com/fleas/baking-soda-fleas/
https://www.fleabites.net/how-to-kill-fleas-with-baking-soda/
https://www.gopests.com/does-baking-soda-kill-fleas/
https://www.greenpestsolutions.com/blog/does-baking-soda-kill-fleas/