Dish Soap – NOT a Good Flea Treatment

Author: Celene Hoag

Why dish soap ISN’T effective at getting rid of fleas to begin with:

Let’s just say for the sake of argument that dish soap can either drown a flea or destroy its exoskeleton (this isn’t actually proven either – read the Discussion Here). Assuming the soap actually killed any fleas on the pet, there are a number of reasons why it won’t really help the infestation itself:

1. Fleas hop on and off pets all the time. Any fleas that jump ship before the bath will simply sit around and hop back on afterward (or alternately, lay some eggs in the carpet or ferret’s bedding and die). In fact, most research suggests that the fleas on your pet at any given time only account for 5-10% of the total flea population in a home.

2. The flea life cycle can actually take up to several months (between the egg being laid, and the flea growing up to be a bloodthirsty adult). In the meantime, your ferret will run around and visit a bunch of places, shaking flea-eggs off in all sorts of places (in bedding, under furniture, in the carpet, etc.) These eggs will sit quietly for a while before hatching and growing. The adult fleas will hop back on your ferret and start this cycle all over again.

A one-time bath won’t really help, which is why a constant treatment (such as Revolution) is recommended for at least 3 months. During this period, all adult fleas that bite your ferret will become infertile, so no more eggs are laid, stopping the process. (Any larva or eggs that come into contact with the ferret’s skin are also poisoned and killed.)