Diatomaceous Earth Flea Control

Better_Days

We used DE to keep the mites under control when we had chickens. Did the trick.

An interesting thread as I have also been looking at using DE in the house. I am unable to tolerate the likes of Indorex and as most of the fleas, larvea etc are in the enviroment rather than on the pet DE sounds like it is worth trying. Frontline does seem to becoming less effective.

Thanks for the link paddypaws101

If you have a look on amazon there are lots of interesting reviews about DE - it has been used sucessfully to treat bedbugs and cockroaches too.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Diatomaceous-Earth-Food-Grade-1kg/dp/B0083H1B3W

http://www.amazon.com/Diatomaceous-Earth-Food-Grade-10/dp/B00025H2PY/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1379317156&sr=8-3&keywords=Diatomaceous+Earth

ohmochraich

I have 4 cats and a dog. The only time I ever saw a flea was when one cat returned from the vets after being neutered. I'm not a fan of chemical treatments (after using it and seeing how my animals reacted afterwards.......looking dazed and wobbly! :eek:). So I sprinkled food grade diatomaceous earth all over the house and all through their fur. I have never seen a sign of a flea since. I also give them 1/2 teaspoon in their food every day to prevent worms and I have never ever seen one ( or any evidence of any).
I may start putting it through the dogs fur as he seems to be coming home with a tick every time he's out for a walk!
Reading up on the chemicals used in spot ons is enough to put you off - I'm happy with the DE for now.....I may revise it if they ever have 'passengers' hitch a ride again

Also saw much less earwigs/beetles etc after using DE! Added bonus lol.
I got mine cheaply ( HUGE tub) off ebay.

Air_Cooled_75

We use DE for red mite on our chickens, it does a good job and you can feed it to them, a little goes a long way, never thought about using it for other stuff though! I have dusted then hens and it does make them feel a little funny.

mrsyardbroom

I've just come across this thread and found it quite useful. The problem that we have is that the treatments from the vet are no longer working and one of the dogs is allergic to them. The spot on treatments make our collie feel really ill and she goes down for two or three days. The vet is using Stronghold on our collie cross but she's still scratching. We've tried tablets and sprays and the whole house and car have been done with Acclaim but the wretched fleas either seem to be resistant or the dog can't take the treament. I've used flea powder, flea combs and an electronic zapper all to no effect. The only thing left is DE so I've ordered some from Aamazon. It's taking quite a long time to get here. Is there a shop where you can just walk in and buy it such as Boots or Holland and Barrett?

catkins

I am a raw feeder and I know lots of raw feeders use DE for flea treatment on their animals.


I may have been incredibly lucky but in over 30 years I have NEVER had a dog that had fleas, cats yes but never my dogs.


If I needed to use anything I would use DE as I do not like the sprays or pills the vets give out

rrtt

Thanks everybody on this thread for the useful feedback - I can no longer see any tabs/buttons for 'thanking' individual posts, so dunno what's happened there!

murphy306

I got mine on Amazon, it was a good job

LolaLemon

I started using DE last year after my first outbreak of fleas from our cat. I done a lot of reading at the time, after buying the bob M stuff and then reading that its no goood for animals at all.

I got myself one of those white paper masks builders wear to limit breathing in the particles, got my massive delivery of food grade stuff and i went to work. When i say outbreak, every room in the house was full of them, it took a few weeks before i saw an improvement, but every two or three days i would hoover up, empty hoover outside in the bin bag then straight into the wheely bin, then start again by cleaning everything i could, then applying the DE , gently blowing it near the scurting boards, joins in the flooring so some woud get to where i could not, I would chop a bit off a flea collar and put in the hoover, i read that as useless as they are on a cat, they kill off any fleas/eggs that are in the hoover, something about the vapours and confined area will kill them.
The flea infestation came about around aug/sept last year and i was 'clear' by end of Nov at latest - i remember thinking i wasnt going to get any christmas decorations out for christmas if they where about as i didnt want them to be getting packed away in the loft to attack next year.
Past week or so i have now been bitten a few times , and i only notice a few hours after being in one room, which has been off limits to the cat since this outbreak, this is the junk room, which i was planning to clear out over May, this week i am starting DE again, as i did read that the fleas will hibernate when cold and come out again when it warms up - this has been the first weeks where it has actually been sunny enough to be out without a coat.

I was going to get a fogger before trying the DE, and im glad i did try it, ok its a bit longer to work, but then everything is not coated in chemicals, and as i try and avoid as much chemicals as i can, this solution worked for us. And once the room of doom has been cleared, im sure the flea population in our home will be very minimal.

Agree with the feel of the coat, it is a bit drying, im sure i read that adding fish oils ( tuna fish in the sunflower oil) to the food helps the coat. I only done the cat with DE once a week, but combed at least every 2 days.

Newlyboughthouse

Yes yes yes - I feed this to my animals every day as a wormer. Also has lots of health benefits for them.

It will kill fleas on contact, but I tend to prefer massaging coconut oil into my animals' fur as this repels fleas and makes your hands lovely and soft

rrtt

Newlyboughthouse wrote: »

.....It will kill fleas on contact, but I tend to prefer massaging coconut oil into my animals' fur as this repels fleas and makes your hands lovely and soft

Oooh - interesting re the coconut oil - does that really work and repel all wannabe boarders? Do you have to work into every last bit of their coats, or will just the main body do? (I have a 35Kg Italian Spinone with very long fluffy hair and some extremely hard to get at places!)

cheers