Jump to content

Diatomaceous Earth For Flea Control


 Share

Recommended Posts

Following up on the fleas thread . . . Some people around here swear by diatomaceous earth for preventing fleas on the dogs and lice on the chooks.

Has anyone had experience with this? If it works it would be an inexpensive and pretty easy approach . . . just sprinkle the stuff in the dogs bedding and wash it out periodically.

I'm a little afraid of silica dust . ..

Edited by sandgrubber
Link to comment
Share on other sites

You can purchase a domestic grade product. That is what you must be careful of getting rather than the type used in swimming pools.

The point of the grade selection is it is safer for humans.

We have used this in Australia & Louisiana.

Firstly we sprinkled the outside lawn with a ligh covering. Then the bedding of the dogs was sprinkled too. Bedding was left outside for the day for the fleas to 'feast'. Beds then washed overnight.

In the past 11 years we have had to resort to flea medication only once for the older dogs.

I am a convert.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Is it any good for ticks? Was thinking of sprinkling it in the garden beds at our property before we move there to try to reduce parasite numbers.

I have had no personal experience with ticks. Simple reason never lived in a tick area with dogs.

However,there are articles via google that suggests there may be some use. It is a mechincal use for breaking down skeletons of the fleas so may work too.

I would check with your Vet.

:)

Edited by VizslaMomma
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Following up on the fleas thread . . . Some people around here swear by diatomaceous earth for preventing fleas on the dogs and lice on the chooks.

Has anyone had experience with this? If it works it would be an inexpensive and pretty easy approach . . . just sprinkle the stuff in the dogs bedding and wash it out periodically.

I'm a little afraid of silica dust . ..

if you have a heap of humidity, it may not work ...Arizona would be perfect! AFAIK it scores/cuts the insect exoskeleton ..allowing the insect to dry out ..but if wet/damp ,the powder doesn't cling or do what it's supposed to, apparently .

Diatoms are amazing little things alive,or fossilised, it seems :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Following up on the fleas thread . . . Some people around here swear by diatomaceous earth for preventing fleas on the dogs and lice on the chooks.

Has anyone had experience with this? If it works it would be an inexpensive and pretty easy approach . . . just sprinkle the stuff in the dogs bedding and wash it out periodically.

I'm a little afraid of silica dust . ..

if you have a heap of humidity, it may not work ...Arizona would be perfect! AFAIK it scores/cuts the insect exoskeleton ..allowing the insect to dry out ..but if wet/damp ,the powder doesn't cling or do what it's supposed to, apparently .

Diatoms are amazing little things alive,or fossilised, it seems :)

If you have air con and high humidity, you probably have dry air inside. So should still be effective for indoor remediation. Outdoor, not so good.

Action on the exoskeleton is good. It means this should work on fleas and ticks alike, and there's no danger of developing resistence.

I'm confused by warnings about applying directly. Cautions that it may be drying. Does this mean it's ok if the dog tends to have oily coat and skin? Might direct application actually help reduce incidence of hot spots and cut down subinaceous body odor?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I feed it to my dogs and sprinkle it on them only if I need to as it does dry the coat and make it coarse. The BC gets a teaspoon full and the JS a half teaspoon, added to wet food each day. It is supposed to work as a wormer and flea repellent from within. I haven't trusted it for worms and still use monthly heartworm/wormer but it does seem to work for fleas. You need to avoid inhaling it so I would be a bit worried about sprinkling it on beds inside. Last summer one dog had a reaction every time I walked him in certain grass areas. I tried rubbing the DE into his legs and belly before a walk and the itching stopped. I assume that the itch must have been caused by some sort of grass mite rather than the grass itself. Thankfully we haven't had the same problem this summer. We have only had one flea picked up this summer so only used Advantage the one time and so far no fleas since for about 3 months.

The other thing it is great for is ants. They hate it and will run from it as soon as you sprinkle a little where you want to get rid of them from. If you need to sprinkle it around, putting it in a metal chicken salt shaker from the supermarket, works well and saves a lot of mess.

BTW, I am in humid Sydney.

Edited by dancinbcs
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Where can you get the correct grade of Diatomaceous Earth please?

I have no idea in Qld. But note that the stuff is heavy, so expensive if you have it shipped. Have you tried your local feed stores? or ask them if they can order it for you. It is used with livestock as well as dogs.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Personally I would not be sprinkling the stuff around in a profligate manner. Basically you are sprinkling minute razor blades that cannot discriminate between unwanted insects and helpful ones. By all means sprinkle away indoors, but if you like to share your outdoor space with native birds/butterflies etc.etc. please don't use it outdoors.

It cannot harm birds directly but it will remove some food sources for the insectivores and basically unbalance your soil condition as well.

Just my opinion, I am only sharing in the hope that it may prompt a bit more thought and care. In the end it is a personal decision you make.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

So if it stuffs up insect skeletons, does it work on ants too?

Yes.  <div><br></div><div><br><div>p.s. it's the exoskeleton that gets stuffed.  In answer to Rural Pug's comments, diatomaceous earth is probably bad for a wide spectrum of arthropods, but because it is heavy and settles rapidly to the ground, it's unlikely to affect flying insects (bee safe) and because it mechanically affects exoskeletons, it's unlikely to have effects down the food chain, ie, on predatory insects, birds or insect eating mammals.  </div>

</div>

Edited by sandgrubber
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I had to use it one year because the fleas suddenly stopped responding to Advocate (I guess they finally got resistant) and started to get on the dogs.

I did the entire grassed area with it ... food grade.. in preference to the sprays like coopex. And all the grooves in the concrete. & spots where my cat snoozed in the day (yard is cat proofed).

I have frogs and fish ponds so anything toxic was out of the question. I didn't do the garden beds and kept my fingers crossed that it would offer the good bugs somewhere to live. I made a little compost spot so the baby frogs would have vinegar flies to eat.

Anyway, the yard looked like a weird snowstorm :) and of course it got tracked inside which was most annoying. Seriously. Thank god I don't have carpet.

I changed fleas treatment, mopped indoors with eucalyptus in the bucket, swapped everyone to plastic beds (no polyfil etc) and bedding I could swap out daily and do a hot wash. We've got leather lounges and wooden floors so no places to incubate eggs.

By the end of all that I got rid of them all :cheer: and now I just use Advantage during flea season. Without the diatomaceous earth I think the rest of the flea extermination mission would have failed.

eta: I DON'T recommend it indoors if you have carpet or rugs (or indoors at all really). It's like a heavy fine dust, get it damp and it goes grey like pumice. You'd need to flea bomb indoors.

Edited by Powerlegs
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Personally I would not be sprinkling the stuff around in a profligate manner. Basically you are sprinkling minute razor blades that cannot discriminate between unwanted insects and helpful ones. By all means sprinkle away indoors, but if you like to share your outdoor space with native birds/butterflies etc.etc. please don't use it outdoors.

It cannot harm birds directly but it will remove some food sources for the insectivores and basically unbalance your soil condition as well.

Just my opinion, I am only sharing in the hope that it may prompt a bit more thought and care. In the end it is a personal decision you make.

I agree. It's not something to splatter around like confetti.

We have only ever done a light sprinkling outside.

As you recommend, we were most careful to not go overboard.

:)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
 Share

×
×
  • Create New...