If you have (or are worried about) fleas in your yard, you might be looking for safe and effective flea remedies. One homemade concoction that seems to be gaining traction is Dawn dish soap for fleas in the yard.
But if you’re considering a remedy like this, you probably want to know if it really works?
Does Dawn dish soap kill fleas?
The short answer is yes, Dawn dish soap can kill fleas. It can be an effective solution if your pet is infested. But Dawn soap for fleas in your yard is more complicated. Simply due to the size of an average yard, it’s not likely to be an effective solution.
In this article, you’ll learn more about:
Does Dawn dish soap kill fleas?
Can you spray your yard with Dawn for fleas?
Why is professional flea control a better option?
Is professional yard flea treatment safe?
At the end of the day, we don’t want to see you waste your time or money on a solution that might not actually be effective.
Dawn dish soap (as well as other shampoos or soaps) can kill fleas on contact because it compromises their exoskeletons. Fleas have an exoskeleton that allows them to float but when they become coated with a soap or shampoo, they’ll sink and drown.
This means that bathing a pet in a soap like Dawn can kill the fleas on their body.
However, even PetMD reports that it’s still not the most effective solution for addressing fleas on a pet for two reasons: It will not repel or prevent an infestation.
As far as Dawn dish soap for fleas in the yard, the idea is to mix the soap with water and fill a sprayer. You’ll then need to spray the entire yard with this mixture in the hopes of killing any fleas the mixture comes into contact with.
It sounds great in theory but there are a lot of flaws in this method of addressing fleas. We’ll explain in more detail why this approach really isn’t worth your time.
As we explained above, Dawn kills fleas by compromising their exoskeleton shell and making it impossible for them to float. As a result, they drown in the soap.
This might work as a temporary fix on a pet that is infested with fleas but there are some flaws when it comes to trying to kill fleas in your yard with this approach.
For one, you’d need a very high quantity of the soapy mixture to cover your entire yard. Given how tiny fleas are (adults are only 1 to 3 mm), even if you feel that you’ve got your whole lawn, there’s a high probability you’re missing lots of fleas.
Dawn soap also does nothing to address flea eggs, larvae, and pupae. So, if the fleas have already laid eggs around your yard, those will still hatch. It’s only after fleas mature and grow their exoskeleton that soap will impact them.
If you were to use Dawn soap for fleas in your yard, you would need to regularly reapply to attempt to keep up with killing the fleas as they mature into adults. It does not seem like a realistic undertaking.
There’s time and energy associated with this and we aren’t confident that it’s going to be an effective answer to your flea problem. It might also be annoying to have a soapy yard. If you do attempt this method, you probably want to make sure that you do a second hose-down of the yard with water to get rid of all the soap.
Fleas are a serious threat. Not only are they a nuisance that can make your pets itchy and uncomfortable but they can also carry and transmit diseases (like Typhus) and infest your home if brought inside. Therefore, flea control is not something to be taken lightly.
While Dawn dish soap might be able to kill some fleas on contact, it is going to be difficult to make sure you’ve taken care of all of the fleas in your yard. It will require a lot of soap and a lot of time.
Professional flea control for your yard is going to be a more effective approach. It involves blanketing the yard with a product that will control these pests.
At Oasis Turf & Tree, our product also works on other creepy crawlies in the lawn like ants and ticks. This is a big deal as ticks can be an even more serious threat than fleas. It can be difficult to enjoy time outside when you’re worried about what is lurking in your yard.
While our product is effective on pests in your yard, we always recommend that you also follow your veterinarian’s recommendations for flea and tick control for your pets. That might involve topical applications, medications, or collars. Fleas and ticks can be a dangerous threat to your animals so you want to do everything that you can to protect them.
We know that people might turn to options like Dawn dish soap for fleas in the yard because they worry about the safety of professionally applied products.
At Oasis Turf & Tree our program is designed to treat areas where kids and pets are playing because we want to keep them safe from fleas and ticks. These pests can pose serious threats to the health and safety of your family.
Our product is safe once dry. As with any product applied to your lawn, when you work with a professional, you are ensuring that best practices are put into place. Proper application is key to safety.
Keep in mind that controlling pests like ants, fleas, and ticks is an ongoing process.
A lot of people ask why they would need multiple treatments if the flea control products kill fleas. It’s important to recognize that even though the first application will kill the majority of the fleas in your yard, even a few remaining fleas can start reproducing and start the cycle all over again. On top of that, you have to remember that wildlife can continue to bring new fleas into your yard.
It can be difficult to enjoy time in your yard when you’re constantly worrying about pests. While you might be tempted to take matters into your own hands and try a remedy like Dawn soap, we don’t want to see you waste time on something that isn’t effective.
Investing in yard flea treatment is going to be the best way to protect your property from pests.
At Oasis Turf & Tree, our Ant, Flea & Tick Control program will take care of the majority of these pests so that you can get rid of your worries and feel confident that your family members, including the four-legged ones, are all fully protected. This will allow you to go back to enjoying your lawn instead of worrying about what’s creeping around inside of it!
If you’d like to learn more about our pest control services for your Cincinnati, Dayton, OH, or Northern Kentucky home, call us at 513-697-9090 or get your quote online, and help us find the program that is best for you, then sit back and relax.
Image Source: Dog in bath