How to Treat Fleas in the Yard

Treat fleas in your yard by following these practices ‒ taking care of your grass, constructing a barrier, mowing your lawn high, getting rid of thatch, and avoiding overwatering, to name a few. Let’s look at all of them in detail.

1. Take Care of Your Grass

The experts of Eden recommend using an external force apart from the natural resources to get rid of those lawn fleas from your backyard. Yard flea treatments like Nematodes Treatment and Diatomaceous Earth Treatment are all-natural methods of getting rid of fleas without harming the health of your plant and pet. 

Nematodes are beneficial microscopic worms that live naturally in the dirt and feed on flea larvae, causing them to die. Even though these beneficial nematodes already live in your yard soil, you can still purchase more and use a sprayer to apply more to your yard. You can apply especially to the shady areas since they even keep ants, grubs, and termites at bay. 

Diatomaceous Earth (DE), another non-toxic alternative to chemical pesticides, can be effectively used to treat fleas in your yard. This powder contains tiny micro skeletons of diatoms that cut the flea bodies and dry the fleas out, killing them with dehydration or suffocation. 

However, several precautions like using the DE during the night and away from blooming flowers are essential. The tiny particles in the powder can kill the beneficial bees and irritate the soft tissues of the lungs and throat if inhaled. Therefore, wearing dust-filtering masks and safety goggles is a must when applying them to the yard. Note that the powder works best in dust form when your landscape isn’t wet or it’s not raining. You can purchase these natural solutions from your local home improvement store.

2. Construct a Barrier

To get rid of fleas, create a barrier around your property, at least 6 to 18 inches tall, and make it an unfavorable space for fleas. Remove any or all leaf litter and plantings that can attract fleas. Also, the barrier can stop uninvited intruders or warm-blooded animals from entering your yard, which could be carrying fleas with them. 

Your yard is ideal for fleas to hide and lay their eggs. Putting up bright lights, setting up barriers in the yard, and prepping your landscape for flea treatments can help prevent fleas in your yard and make it a ‘flea-free zone.’

Eden suggests hiring experts who can build you a unique fence using high-quality materials and designs that you desire. 

3. Mow Your Lawn to a High Level

Mowing grass regularly and removing weeds from your lawn is the simplest and easiest way to prevent fleas from breeding. Long grasses provide fleas with places to hide. However, grasses mowed too short deter spiders and ants, both of which prey on fleas.

Mowing your grass regularly and at an ideal length, trimming shrubs and grooming your entire lawn can deprive the flea population of the shade they require for growth and development. 

4. Get Rid of Thatch

While an accumulation of little thatch is typical and beneficial for your lawn, a thick layer of thatch holds on to humidity, harbors disease-causing fungi, promotes disease, and interrupts the natural ecosystem of your lawn. 

Thick thatch offers pests, especially fleas, an exceptional and ideal place to hide and lay their eggs. And removing excessive thatch is one of the fastest ways to eliminate fleas from your yard.  

5. Overwatering Should Be Avoided

Irrigation is vital for your trees, shrubs, flowers, and grass growth development. But fleas thrive in moist environments, especially on a poorly-draining lawn. While overwatering can provide a moist space for fleas to breed easily, proper irrigation drowns and kills them.

To avoid overwatering your lawn, you should consider learning the proper way of utilizing water resources while employing aeration in your lawn if there is a soil drainage issue. 

6. Cedar Is a Great Mulch

The scent of cedar works as a natural flea repellant and, therefore, can be used around your lawn, particularly in shady areas. Fleas do not like the smell of cedar, so cedar mulch can be applied under a hedge, deck, or porch for effective protection. 

Along with flower beds and trees, cedar mulch can be employed around your yard’s perimeter and fenced areas to prevent fleas from entering your lawn. Apply cedar mulch to the spot where your pets do their business or like to play around to repel fleas and other insects.

7. Allow the Sun to Shine In

Remember that fleas prefer moist, shady, cool and dark environments, making your landscape an ideal space to feed and breed if it is not well maintained or manicured. At high humidity levels, fleas jump around and look for a host to feed on since the moisture assists the fleas’ eggs to hatch and proceed with their life cycle.

Keep bushes and trees well-trimmed to eliminate shaded areas and let the sunlight in. Fleas hate sunlight, making your lawn an inhospitable environment for growth. 

8. Get Rid of Clutter

It is somewhat difficult to get rid of pesky flea infestations if your lawn is cluttered with yard debris, providing an ideal environment for fleas to breed. Keeping the fences, area around the deck, and overall lawn clean can keep the fleas in check. Clear out the piles of dead leaves to eliminate any favorable spots that the fleas can utilize to hide and lay their eggs. 

Cleaning out the yard will also force the fleas (if they end up on your lawn) to find other areas to hide where you can use natural treatments to eradicate them easily. 

If fleas invade your home through a host, be it your pet or any second-hand furniture, keeping your home clutter-free and thoroughly clean can also dry them out and suffocate them to death. 

9. Evict Animals

If you don’t have a pet in your home, that doesn’t completely imply that you can’t have flea infestations in your yard or house. Indoor space is a perfect surrounding for fleas to feed and breed for a long period. And for that, they don’t just require your pets. Fleas can breed on any warm-blooded animal, from squirrels to rodents, with the sole purpose of reaching your lawn, your home, or any space that is favorable for them to live on.  

Animals like rabbits, skunks, squirrels, and opossums may bring fleas to your yard. You can use fencing techniques and certain repellent methods to evict animals from your yard. 

Why Should You Treat Fleas in the Yard?

Fleas can repeatedly bite and trigger their host to scratch themselves. You may think that fleas only attack warm-blooded animals to feed, live, and breed on them. However, doing so, they also cause several serious conditions that are fatal to your pets and you. 

Therefore, flea treatment and management are important because:

1. Fleas can cause constant itching and scratching for your pet.
2. Plague and typhus are some of the most common diseases transmitted during a flea bite.
3. A flea bite can also cause an allergic reaction to your skin, resulting in extreme itchiness, infection, and irritated red skin. 
4. Constant itching can also lead your pets to lose their hair.
5. Fleas may carry tapeworms.
6. Dogs can develop Flea-Bite Anemia who have lost too much blood to bloodsucking fleas.

How to Know if You Have Fleas in Your Yard?

Typically it’s hard to spot the wingless, narrow-bodied pests on your lawn through your naked eye. Nevertheless, Eden has suggested a few tips to figure out if fleas are living in your yard. 

1. Inspect your pet cat or dog for fleas. A routine fleas checkup can also suffice.
2. Observe if your pet is scratching excessively or has pink spots on the skin.
3. Check if there is any fur loss or reddened areas on your pet. 
4. Look for flea feces on your pet’s fur. 
5. Check your pet’s bed and other favorite spots where he/she likes to lay, roll over or sleep. You may need to use your phone camera’s zoom-in feature or a magnifying glass to detect the tiny flea eggs. 
6. Look over carpeting since this is one of the most common places where fleas lay eggs or the eggs fall from your pet’s fur. But you might have to acquire tools like a magnifying glass to detect the eggs if your rug or carpet is of light color. 
7. Consider doing the white socks test to determine if you have fleas in your yard. This method asks you to wear white socks and walk around your lawn in the afternoon. If there is a flea infestation, the odds are that a few will be visible on your socks.

How Long Can Yard Flea Infestations Last?

Flea infestations can last for several months. You should note that a flea’s life cycle begins when it is laid on a host’s body by a female flea. The female flea lays up to 20 eggs on its host or on the animal’s fur. Also, the eggs don’t need a host to survive. 

But fleas don’t emerge fully as adults until they have a host to feed on, which is why flea infestations can last for several months. On the other hand, female fleas lay eggs when they feed, making their life cycle continuously repeat itself.

Remember that adult fleas live only a few days to 2 weeks if they are deprived of a host. 

With a life cycle like this, it can be difficult to eradicate them in a few days fully, but the continual treatment of the premises can accelerate the process. The time frame under which you can eradicate the flea infestation depends on your yard’s environment and how long the fleas have been there. Remember that the key to handling these difficult pest situations is persistence. 

What are the Products you can use to Treat Fleas in the Yard?

You can use several flea treating products for these effective methods and techniques are:

1. Mower and rake to keep the grass blades at an ideal length. 
2. Beneficial Nematodes to kill flea population.
3. Diatomaceous Earth (DE) to cut and suffocate the fleas.
4. Pet and plant-safe spray.
5. Boric acid is non-toxic to any other animals but quite harmful to fleas. However, you should apply it cautiously since it is toxic to plants. 
6. Neem oil, commercially used as a pesticide, has long-lasting effects and can be beneficial against fleas. But it is also harmful to aquatic animals.

To conclude, you can treat fleas by employing the following methods ‒ take care of your grass, construct a barrier, mow your lawn high, get rid of thatch, and avoid overwatering, among others. 

Other preventative measures, such as using a flea comb on your pet, monitoring your pet’s outdoor activities, and managing and maintaining your yard, are critical steps to be taken to prevent fleas. 

Contact Eden today to engage with our experts who can assist you in preventing and treating disease and pest infestations.