Can Fleas Get Through Window Screens?

You rely on your windows and doors to protect your home, keeping pesky intruders at bay while allowing refreshing breezes to sweep through But the reality is fleas can absolutely get through window screens due to their size and mobility.

Fleas are incredibly resourceful when infiltrating your home or property, exploiting floor cracks and door gaps, and even hitching a ride on fabrics you introduce. Their minuscule size renders screens ineffective against them, as they can easily navigate through any opening or breach. Only solid barriers like walls and closed doors truly stand a chance when it comes to stopping fleas. If there’s even the slightest gap, fleas have a knack for squeezing through.

How Do Fleas Invade Your Home? And What surfaces Do Fleas Stick to?

Fleas can disrupt your home, especially if you have pets. Here’s how they invade your space and what surfaces do fleas stick to:

• Fleas, small and agile with impressive leaping abilities, pose a persistent threat.
• If you have dogs or cats, the risk of a flea infestation increases.
• Fleas can sneak inside on clothing, hair, or through openings.
• Once indoors, adult fleas, too tiny for screens to stop, hide in curtains, carpets, and furniture.
• They target your pets, laying eggs and relying on warmth for survival.
• Fleas may exploit gaps and cracks during rainy weather to enter your home.

What Attracts Fleas?

Understanding what draws fleas is essential for managing, preventing infestations in your home, and most especially keeping them out. Use this helpful knowledge to plan carefully preventing your flea problem below:

Ultraviolet Light

You might be curious about how fleas perceive their surroundings since they don’t have our visual capabilities. Surprisingly, fleas are attracted to ultraviolet light.

Light

Fleas track their prey by following shadows created by light, with up to 93% drawn to it in the dark. Green and yellow light wavelengths are especially attractive to fleas. Intermittent light, resembling a host’s movements, is 5-8 times better at trapping fleas compared to continuous light. Flea traps use lights and sticky pads to help you gauge infestation severity and post-treatment results.

Heat

Fleas thrive usually between 70 to 85 degrees Fahrenheit as it increases their chances of finding a host. These pests are naturally drawn to heat and with positive thermotaxis. They respond to warmth by searching for signs like shadows, CO2, and body heat, leaping toward their perceived host.

What Smells Attract Fleas?

It’s worth knowing that fleas are drawn to a variety of things around your surroundings and that might make you curios what smells are fleas attracted to. Here are the common smells that fleas are attracted to:

• Fleas are attracted to various scents in your surroundings, including trash and your pets.
• Garbage cans are particularly appealing to fleas due to the scents and heat from decomposing waste.
• Your pets emit distinct scents, and fleas are drawn to these, including their exhalations, which contain carbon dioxide.
• Fleas have an exceptional sense of smell, detecting even minute traces of carbon dioxide in the air.
• Introducing CO2 into a confined environment triggers heightened flea activity, with intermittent releases mimicking host respiration.
• The quantity of detected CO2 often corresponds to the size of the potential host, influencing their attraction to larger hosts.

Preventing Fleas at Home

When it comes to preventing fleas at home, there are a range of strategies you should consider for your own peace of mind and that of your pets. Another effective way of preventing fleas is hiring professionals for the preventive treatment at your home.

Managing Your Pets

First and foremost, ensure your pets are protected from fleas with targeted medications like flea collars, oral treatments, or skin-applicable drops. Dogs and cats are often the main culprits for bringing fleas into your home, especially after long walks, so even with these treatments, it’s wise to regularly check for fleas.

Avoid Flea Prone Areas

Avoiding areas prone to fleas is another effective tactic for preventing future infestations. Since fleas don’t live in trees , steering clear of wooded spots, leaf piles shrubs, tall grass, and locations where animals frequently rest can help you avoid picking up fleas. During the winter season, these are also the same spots where fleas would hide. 

Choose the Right Clothes

When you’re out and about, dress smartly by wearing long pants, long-sleeved shirts, socks, and closed shoes. This limits the amount of exposed skin, making it harder for fleas to find a place to feed. Don’t forget to wear white socks over your pants to fully shield your ankles and spot any fleas as black specks on the white fabric.

Use a Handy Flea-repellent Spray

Having a flea-repellent spray with DEET on hand is a valuable addition to your arsenal. This EPA-registered repellent will deter fleas from seeking a meal from you.

Cleaning Your Home Regularly

Finally, keeping your home well-vacuumed is a simple but effective way to collect any flea eggs, larvae, or pupae hiding in your carpets, upholstery, or near your pet’s bedding. Your home deserves to be a flea-free sanctuary.