Can you use rock salt to sprinkle on your carpet to get rid of fleas instead of iodized salt?
By Betty Hudson from Jacksonville, FL
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Before you sprinkle salt of any kind on your carpets, think of it this way. Imagine yourself with maybe a tiny cut on the bottom of your foot or feet and having to walk on your carpets with this salt on them.
Now imagine you are a baby crawling around on this same carpet. You get tired or get a "boo-boo" and rub your eyes with your fists that you've been using to crawl on the carpet.
You can never get ALL the salt up. No matter how good of a job your carpet cleaner or vacuum does. No amount of scrubbing or vacuuming will get up all the salt. It'll get up the majority of it, but never will it get up all of it.
Now imagine those same feet with tiny cuts, or even worse that baby rubbing its fists into its eyes. OMG! Pain, pain, pain, pain! Not to mention the possible damage to the baby's eyes.
I have always used a LIQUID FLEA KILLER on my carpets. I spray it on good, then set up fans to help it dry faster. I do this once a week for a month. This makes sure I not only kill all the fleas, but also any "hatchlings" that survived. Even using the stuf that kills larvae, I always like to go through and do it 4 times just in case.
I keep my pets off the carpet till it dries. If you have babies in the house, then after each treatment, I'd use one of those foam carpet cleaners that you spray on the vacuum up.
During flea season, I have found that it is nice to sprinkle salt under all the bed sheets, where we will not roll into it. I sprinkle it into the cushions of couches and along the walls. I never thought of how it might sting a baby, if the baby were to scratch its face, but I do know that you are supposed to step in into the deep part of the carpet, not just let it sit on top...but that is a good point. I will be using baking soda also. I use it in the kitchen for roaches. I am going to order FOOD GRADE DT for the dogs, cats, etc. and put it all over everywhere. IF it is food grade, you can even let them eat it and it deworms them. The pool stuff will kill them. I don't try to guess which is which. I order it from here:
www.wolfcreekranch.net/
With fleas, the best thing you can do is vacuum and launder things. Vacuum all the time and then keep the ends of the hoses covered and a flea collar in the bag or empty it out into an outside trash receptacle. The vacuuming is so important as it will pick up the eggs, and get the fleas too.
What I noticed about this question {Sprinkle salt on carpets to kill fleas}was everyone decided to overlook her question. She asked a direct question, and I'm looking for it too, which salt do you use, iodide salt, non iodide, sea salt, regular table salt? Or is salt simply salt? lol Q:Which salt combined with baking soda kills fleas>? thx
I think salt is salt in this case. When I have used it in the past, I just used plain iodized salt. I think I would avoid thicker crystals, like Kosher to ensure that the coverage is more even.
Let us know how it works for you. I see many people who use food grade diatomaceous earth for flea control too, so that might be an alternative if the salt isn't effective.
Good luck!
even tho pink himalayan salt is expensive I sprinkle on carpets dont have that much carpet.
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I have fleas in my home in the carpets. This makes me crazy, I don't want use chemicals, I have 2 babies and I have asthma. What could I do? I read about using the salt, but I'm confused about the rock salt, regular salt, or sea salt. What is the correct kind for killing fleas?
By Adri
I am trying Diatomaceous earth which dehydrates insects and have not used salt. You might want to consider DE. It is as fine as baby powder. It must be organic DE and not the type manufactured for swimming pool filters so you have to make sure you buy the correct DE. Home Depot in my area did not carry organic but an animal feed and garden supply store did supply it. I purchased 4.4 lbs for $11.00 The product is by St. Gabriel. It can be used indoors and outdoors and is approved for pets. It says to keep out of the reach of children and is a food grade item. It kills many insects, including fleas, within 72 hours. It does say you can treat carpets etc. but also says to void breathing it. You can call the manufacturer at 800-801-0061.
I use it in my carpets every month and then vacuum it 2 days later. If I had little children, I would not put it in areas they liked to sit and play with toys, crawl, etc.
I used the salt and just used reg. salt.....cheapest you can get and poured it in my hands and broadcast it everywhere then put baking soda on the same way it took about a month to really know it was working and had to treat the 2 small dogs that go in and out of the house and now no fleas. you may notice little white spots from the salt as it will draw any stains out also. Taking stains out with salt is an old remedy so I was not surprised at the light colored spots where a lot of salt dropped.
I would suggest that you put the salt out at night and vacuum before babies get into the rugs much. Baking soda doesn't do that and you may want to just use the soda instead. you will have to figure out what you need to do but if I were you I would get Bengal spray for carpets, you treat it like tonight and in the morning vacuum and no fleas.
My sister uses Borax on her carpets. Before she goes to bed she sprinkles it on and drags her feet around getting it into the carpet and then the next morning she vacuums the heck outta the floors. That works real good for her and she has 3 dogs in the house. Just a suggestion...
How to get rid of fleas in your house. The best thing that I found was sprinkling salt in the carpet. You don't see the salt like you do powders. This was so effective, I was amazed. We have 2 dogs and 2 cats that come in and out. The fleas got in the carpet and were biting us all the time.
I started looking for natural ways to get rid of them. In my search, I found out about salt. A box of table salt, so cheap yet so effective. The salt dehydrates the eggs and larva in the carpet. After a day or so you can vacuum. Reapply as needed.
By Kathy from Birmingham, AL
Have you ever gotten salt in a wound, or had a grain of salt gotten into your eye? Do you remember how badly it burned until you were able to rinse it out? Well think of your pets. You're talking about sprinkling salt on the carpets that they walk on. If a dog has an itch on it's face, how does it scratch it? It uses it's paws. The same paws that have been walking around on your carpets picking up tiny grains of salt! And cats wash themselves, including their faces with their paws.
So please, do not sprinkle salt on your carpets. Sure, it may kill the fleas, but your pets will pay for it! (10/27/2009)
By Cricket
If you have flea problems in your house, the best safe way to get rid of them is to sprinkle salt on the carpets and let sit for a few days. The fleas will eat the salt and die. It will also dry out the eggs. I used it last year and worked great and it's a cheap way to rid the fleas. Make sure to do this a few times and you will kill every flea in the house.
Source: A friend told me of this remedy.
By DAVD from Garden Grove, CA
What a great idea as flea killers usually cost quite a bit. I have 15 cats and it is in the middle of flea season. I have treated them but the fleas get into the carpet. Thanks for the tip. (08/12/2008)
By Debbie Maggs
