How to Get Rid of Fleas on a Human
Video transcription
Hello, I'm Michael Piacenza with Advantage Pest Control, in Saint Petersburg, Florida. The other day a question came in on my website. How do you get rid of fleas on a human? Well, fleas will attack a humans, but their preferred host is really a cat or dog. Most of the fleas that we deal with here in the United States are mostly feline fleas. But, they like dogs as well as cats. And what you're going to find is that you'll get one person in the household, one or two people that the fleas seem to go after. And the others, they don't have any interest in. It's just that we all have a different sent that we give off. And some people have a sent that fleas like. So, they're going to attack that individual. But not if the dog's sitting right next to them. They're definitely going to go for the dog or the cat. Usually the problem when humans are getting attacked is because the pet has been removed from the premise. Alright. And they have no one else to attack so they're going after the humans. Now, you've got them on you, alright. The first thing you want to do is get your clothing off and put it directly and straight into the washing machine. Not into the hamper where it's going to contaminate the others. Alright, and then get right into the shower. Alright. And just take a really good shower. It doesn't have to be scalding hot or anything like that. You just want to use a lot of soap. Go ahead and shampoo your hair, and do it twice. Okay. You often times hear about soaps killing insects. You know, well how does it do that? Well, it does it in a couple of ways. Okay. Almost all insects have a waxy coating. And the soap can dissolve that waxy coating, which leaves them exposed. So, they'll either dehydrate or they're susceptible to being attacked by parasites that normally go after them. Alright. The other thing it does, is it can plug up their breathing tubes. Insects don't have lungs like you and I, they actually have little tubes on their body that go straight from the outside of their body, through the exoskeleton and into their bloodstream. If you plug up those tubes, they're basically going to suffocate. Alright. But most likely, most of them are just going to drown during the shower, alright. Because those breathing tubes are all going to be covered with water, right. So, they're going to drown just like anything else will. So, that should take care of it. Don't, for any reason, spray your own body with pesticides. You don't need to do it. Just take a shower. I'm Michael Piacenza, with Advantage Pest Control, coming to you from sunny Saint Petersburg, Florida.