Cleaning up after bad tenants is never fun. Cleaning up after bad tenants who left behind a flea infestation is a whole different level of unpleasant — and creator @kayla.castroo documented the entire, sticky ordeal.
“These are the worst renters I’ve ever cleaned up after,” she says, walking through the property. “I have no idea what all that stuff is. I don’t know what’s on the floors, but it’s so sticky.” The damage isn’t limited to grime — there’s a broken door, food left in random places throughout the unit, and what she describes as “a lot of bugs.” “This whole thing got messed up. The doors got opened a little hard,” she says, surveying the wreckage. “I already feel defeated.”
Then comes the moment that reframes the whole cleanup: she spots something moving on the floor. “What the heck is that? Turns out they’re fleas. I didn’t expect this. I didn’t come prepared for that.” What was already a demoralizing deep clean has now become a full pest treatment project, on the fly, with whatever she has on hand.
Her first move is bleach — “we’re gonna bleach the entire house” — with a plan to come back with a proper insecticide treatment, something along the lines of a product like Advantage, later. In the meantime, she turns to a home remedy she’d researched: salt. “I watched a bunch of videos on what’s the best thing to use, and I saw salt. So we’re gonna put a bunch of salt everywhere.” She spreads it across the floor, working it into the carpet and cracks.
By the time she checks back in, there’s some progress to report, though the job clearly isn’t finished. “Let’s check. Oh, I already see them. There’s a lot less than yesterday. So the bleach helped a little bit.” But fleas being fleas, one round wasn’t enough. “Since the leaves didn’t go, we’re gonna do that again and then leave it for another day.” She signs off with the weary honesty that’s made the series relatable to so many viewers: “I’m going home again.”
What Actually Gets Rid of a Flea Infestation in a Rental
A flea infestation left behind by tenants is one of the most frustrating problems a landlord or property manager can inherit, because fleas don’t just live on carpet — their eggs, larvae, and pupae burrow into fibers, cracks, and baseboards, which is why a single round of cleaning rarely finishes the job, exactly as this video shows.
Bleach can kill fleas on contact and helps sanitize surfaces, but it doesn’t reach eggs embedded deep in carpet fibers, and it isn’t a substance most flooring or professional pest control companies recommend as a primary flea treatment, since it can damage certain materials and doesn’t have residual killing power. Salt, similarly, has some real basis as a folk remedy — it can dehydrate flea eggs and larvae over time — but it works slowly and needs to sit for days, then be thoroughly vacuumed, to be effective, which lines up with why this cleanup is stretching across multiple visits.
For a genuinely stubborn infestation like this one, pest control professionals typically recommend a combination approach: thorough vacuuming daily (and immediately disposing of the vacuum bag or contents outside, since eggs can survive inside the canister), an insect growth regulator that stops eggs and larvae from maturing, and a residual insecticide labeled specifically for fleas, applied to carpets, baseboards, and any upholstered furniture that was in the unit. Full elimination typically takes two to four weeks because of the flea life cycle, even with a proper treatment plan — a single day of bleach and salt, however diligent, usually isn’t the end of the story.
You can follow the rest of the cleanup and follow @kayla.castroo on TikTok for updates.
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