"natural" Ways To Get Rid Of Fleas?

[Guest taylorsmom]

Argh!! After many years of having a flea-free house, with dogs and cats, I found a flea on Rita and one on me this morning!!! OKay, deep breath. So I know I have to get more vigilant with the frontline on the dogs. But can anyone recommend any "natural" ways to get rid of fleas in the house and yard?? I don't want to do an indoor bug bomb, I think those are so toxic. But if I must, I guess I will do that. I have heard a little bit about spreading diatomaceous earth as a natural method--does anyone know about this or anything else?

I know that where there are two fleas there are more of the darn varmints--I would like to nip this in the bud before we are infested!!

[Guest ss556]

I used the DE this past summer in the corners of the house and outside. I can't say that it helped. I wound up spraying inside the house with stuff from the vet's office and leaving the house for a few hours. I had no choice. I tried an herbal spray on my grey as well, didn't help. Good luck - it was a nightmare for me and Alan.

[Pippin]

Try advantage instead of Frontline. My vet said that when we had an outbreak of fleas around here this year (early last month/late Aug), all the dogs she saw with fleas were on Frontline. (advantix if you want the tick prevention as well)

 

D.E. -- the guy at the big box home-store swears by it. Said if you sprinkle it on your carpet and work it down into the fibers, it'll get the fleas that are (probably now) living under there.

 

I used chemical sprays, sorry. Adams products are well-recommended, I think

 

 

[Guest MJandthe6]

In March I had my yard sprayed by a pest control company--2 treatments $150 each. I couldn't see any improvement so I tried some home remedies:

 

Dawn dish detergent is good stuff! The original blue, not the new fancy ones. Dilute and spray it on the outside doorways. It helps some. I flea comb when it's really bad here. Flea comb in addition to my topical flea stuff. The fleas will die with the Frontline or whatever but it drives some dogs crazy just to have a flea on them. Put Dawn dish detergent in a bowl and flea comb then dip the comb in the sudsy water--it kills fleas on contact. Then wipe the comb and start again. I do this twice weekly during the summer when the fleas are their worst.

 

I made natural flea collars from muslin then put drops of eucalyptus and lavender oil on them. Fleas hate that smell but I love it!

 

I have one Whippet with such bad flea allergies that I got desperate for alternate treatments. I've been giving everyone, my foster greyhounds included, brewers yeast and garlic tabs (3 per dog) every day since the spring. I've read on GT that garlic might not be good for sighthounds but I've had Whippets for many years and never had a problem. The tabs have worked wonders with Rusty (the allergic whippet) and he has grown fur back from that and some multivitamin amino acid oil I found. When Rusty's hair started coming back I used this oil on Bonnie, one of my fosters who had bald thighs and HER fur grew back too!

 

Good Luck!

[Guest wmlcml6]

D.E. does not seem to affect our Florida ticks, but it might have helped with fleas. I have it outside in the puppy house area, and haven't seen any fleas on the Muddlets.

 

Along with same "natural" line of thinking, I'm curious if anyone has tried Sergeant's new products - Natural Defense.

We got some free samples at a Petco adoption event on Saturday, and I used Stranger (my non-grey) as a guinea pig. On Wednesday, Bill found a few ticks on Annie's feet, so he checked the others - Annie, Rosemary and Hope all had ticks between their toes, but Stranger had none.

 

I've read several articles online, but would love to hear of your experiences if you have tried it.

The official website for the products:

http://www.sergeants.com/sentry_nd/index.asp

 

testimonials:

http://www.doggienews.com/2007/05/sentry-n...urting-dogs.htm

 

The smell of clove is very strong for 2-3 days, but it's not offensive. It's like a man's cologne that smells great, but he used too much that day. We could smell Stranger in the house, even when he was outside (sitting in the sun in front of the sliding glass doors). He is a hunter, so he is always running through the woods around our house. I will be interested to see just how long the critters stay off of him.

 

Thanks!

[duncan41]

My Fuzz is a bug magnet; fleas, mosquitos, gnats, flies, ticks - you name it, they LOVE her! And of course, she has flea dermatitis, too! About a year ago she started getting itchy and things went down hill quickly. After buying every "natural" product on earth, I found DeFlea shampoo and it worked! It not only killed the fleas, but her dermatis calmed down, too! Within about a month, she was no longer itchy, all her hair grew back in and she is my happy comedienne again! Of course, with two other greys and three cats, everyone was treated with a topical: Frontline for the canines and Advantage for the felines. As long as I treat everyone at the same time and stick to a regular schedule (I stretch it out to 5 weeks in the summer and 6 in the winter), it's not a problem and you KNOW that fleas are a constant battle here in FL!