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Can Fleas Live in Clothes?

Learn From The Pro's

What fleas need and what fleas will tolerate are not the same. Fleas will always navigate themselves as close to their potential preferred food source as possible. Clothes and fabrics do not typically have enough of what fleas need to survive to sustain them. However, fleas can use clothes or fabrics to travel from food source to food source and/or just remain stranded on fabric until that food source comes back in proximity or the flea starves.

Can Fleas Live in Clothes?

People who have pets, especially inside pets, understand the challenges fleas cause. Fleas like to jump around, and when your pet is inside, those fleas jump off and into your carpet, bedding, furniture, and clothing. Can they live once they are no longer attached to an animal? Can fleas live in clothes, your bed, your furniture? Without your pet as a host, fleas will not live very long inside your home, but in the meantime, will still cause mischief.

Fleas thrive in warm, humid environments and are most comfortable living on animals. Life on an animal provides fleas with their primary source of food, which is blood. However, once off an animal, if fleas are in contact with clothing or other fabrics around your home, they will cling to it and infest new areas. These tiny parasites latch onto clothes, looking for their next meal, but without blood, they won’t live very long. Understanding how fleas behave on fabrics and what steps to take can help you avoid bringing them into your home.

Fleas vs Fabrics: Can Fleas Live in Clothes?

Our Kapture Pest Control team in northern New Jersey receives call after call from concerned customers regarding fleas. One of the main questions is: can fleas live in clothes, like lice that can jump from one garment to the next?

Clothing provides no nourishment to fleas, so they’re not going to hang onto a piece of fabric for long. Fleas know that they need a warm-blooded host to get fed and they very well could bite you while on your clothes, but they can’t live on them so fleas will look elsewhere. Though they might jump on your pants or shirt, they won’t stay there for more than 24 hours.

The chances of spreading fleas back and forth through clothing are slim. Fleas want to stay close to a food source, so they will search for anything near them. Fabric doesn’t provide the moist, cool, and shady surroundings they prefer, so they would rather hang outside in wet grass, a leaf pile, or pet bedding. However, fleas will hitch a ride on your favorite sweater and find a new host…like your furry best friends.

Removing Fleas from Your Clothes and Home

One flea today could be 100 in a couple of weeks, as these pests multiply very quickly. Each female can lay 27 eggs each day, and these babies will hatch anywhere from two days to two weeks after they’ve been laid. This makes things a little more complicated with one tiny flea turning into many.

So while the technical answer to “Can fleas live in clothes” might seem like a straight forward “No!”, fabrics can transport fleas into your home. You can take several actions to stop fleas hitching a ride on your clothes and spreading to your pets. Here are several tips you should explore to ensure a flea infestation does not occur.

Treat Your Yard

The source of your flea troubles often comes from your yard. Your home can get fleas even if you don’t have any pets. Their favorite place to be is on your pets, but fleas can survive on clothes for a short while.

You should wash and change your clothes after yard work to prevent bringing fleas into contact with home furniture and fabrics. This method works against fleas as well as ticks and chiggers which can enter your home through clothing.

Vacuum Frequently

Even if fleas live on clothes briefly, you don’t want to see them in your home—vacuuming catches tiny pests like fleas and ants. If a flea slips into your home, they can drop eggs in your carpets that you don’t see. The vacuum and rollers will dislodge these eggs and keep them from hatching.

If you have a bag-style vacuum, you need to ensure that you empty the bag frequently, as the eggs can still hatch inside. Don’t forget to use your attachments and vacuum beds and furniture. These actions will help keep things under control.

Limit Pets’ Time Outside

While your pets love to spend time in the great outdoors when the sun is shining, you should limit them a bit. The longer they’re outside, the more likely they will get fleas and mites on their fur. If your pup interacts with wild or stray animals, this only increases the chances of them developing a flea issue.

Check Your

Check your pets after being in risky environments and at regular intervals. Your pet digging and scratching at themselves while biting indicates they probably have fleas.

Treating Your Pets

Pet owners need to administer treatments since fleas and ticks present problems throughout all seasons. Only treating them in the spring and summer months is not sufficient. No matter where you live in the state, you can have a flea infestation well into the winter months.

When your pet is protected with these medications, fleas die when they bite the pet or are repelled altogether. It all depends on which variety of medication you use. Even if your pet does encounter a flea in your yard, they’re not going to bring them into the house where they can cause a further issue. Additionally, you can’t treat one pet and not the other.

Wash Pet Beds Often

It’s only natural that fleas will settle in Fido’s bedding. If your dog or cat has beds and blankets, make sure you launder these in hot water. This will kill any fleas or eggs that are left behind. Even if the pet is treated, it’s possible they can bring fleas with them on their fur before they’ve bitten them.

Keep Rodents at Bay

Can fleas live in clothes? Not for long! But humans aren’t the only possible culprits. Rodents are flea carriers as well, so much so that the Bubonic Plague that killed millions of people in the 1300s started from disease-infected fleas. From there, unsuspecting victims found that yes—fleas live on clothes.

Fleas covered with disease bit the rats and mice and infected them. When these rodents made their way into the home, they would often bite people or leave a trail of bacteria in their feces or urine. The disease quickly infected people and left them with high fevers, seizures, and glandular swelling.

Though this zoonotic disease is still around in small numbers, it’s not nearly as dangerous. The disease can easily be treated with antibiotics nowadays. The threat from Black Death remains low but rodents can still create other serious problems. Fleas attach themselves to mice, rats and squirrels as hosts but if these rodents enter your home then fleas will too.

When Fleas Require Professional Treatment

Although the answer to can fleas live in clothes is “technically no“, they can use them as temporary transportation to new environments—potentially leading to a larger infestation in your home. While it is quite possible to encounter a time when fleas live on clothes in your closet, managing fleas in your home can have a pretty simple solution. Kapture Pest Control is the answer. If you notice any signs of fleas on your clothing or around your home, it’s best to act quickly to prevent them from spreading further. Preventative maintenance from our Kapture experts is the most efficient and cost effective way to ensure you stay flea-free.