I know i have owned dogs and cats all my life and never used this for flea control. I understand on my mattress and furniture I use a vacuum.cleaner. Ive made an old bulk size spice bottle to have more control of where and how much I put down! We recognize that amidst so many choices to buy Diatomaceous Earth Vs Nematodes For Fleas in the market, it can be perplexing and confusing to make the right pick. and apple cider vinegar to put on a cat? Your article says that the DE can be sprinkled on the lawn but it becomes less effective once moist. Should I, could I, use this ON my two dogs and the house because I have it already? I also use this for flea control and for personal use. Time to relax sweating my butt off, have to love Florida bugs haha, Hi Chris, thanks for sharing your success story and best of luck with the rest of the treatment. I plan on doing this each day for probably a month seeing as how a flea can lay 40 eggs in a day. Thanks. Thanks for your kind words, they are appreciated! We still are finding fleas and flea dirt on them. Great article Im going t try de this weekend. I wonder if I have to throw away a lot of stuffs. I wouldnt dump it on them, but 1/4 tsp or so per cat one time, plus whatever they do to themselves (which isnt too muchits not like its sitting in piles anywhere) seems to have helped a lot. Hope that helps and thanks for stopping by. My cats are miserable! Their little faces are only inches from the dust so they are going to have more irritation that faces that are 5 plus feet off the ground. Ive flea-sprayed the carpets and furniture. And what about myself?? .I have never seen one in the house but Now, I have DE all over my house, on my bed, his bed, throw rugs, behind the bed, EVERYWHEREall over the sunroom floor, cushions, (WHAT A MESS) I understand it kills the fleas but has to be re-done to kill the eggs that have hatched. Just rub it in and leave for about a day before vacuuming it up, that way it wont go to waste. HELP! Could this be that i found the fleas early enough? Hi Damien! Let me know how it goes! With a choice between the two, do u still recommend DE or borax for a small dog ? Hi Karen! etc., etc., etc. wherever she lays. Let me know how it goes and I will help you further where necessary! Hi Dan. Again I have found your blog verg helpful in answering any remainer question I have, and i will make sure.to reapply the DE over the next six week fo kill the flea cycle. You should see my legs :(. Hey Melissa! I figure tomorrow i will vacuum it up, do it every 3 days or so for the next 2 weeks and it should kill anything in my house, at least thats what i am hoping! DE appears to be working for us. I have read this but yet to find the answer i need to know can you use this in your yard i have a dirt floor kennel ??? It is possible but honestly, I cannot recommend anything unless it says food grade. (We live in an old coal mining area I am assuming the floors are slate). So Question 1, because its a very small room and I have no place to board my dog during the DE application Id like to use a salt and baking soda combination instead and DE along the baseboards how long should it stay on the carpet? I do have a large backyard. We finally decided to try food grade DE. and for my pets, I either use a natural treatment (check out my articles on specifically killing fleas on either dogs or cats) or a spot on treatment like Front Line. So far I am very impressed. Dr. Cathy Barnette is a small animal veterinarian with 13 years of clinical experience. I like that the pure stuff is white. Or maybe because i used a battery operated tea light candle instead of a real one and wasnt effective? Hi Julie! Saw one of them buggers dance around me as I sprayed. Have a question. I did it the first night with the windows open but the breeze made it circulated and i wheezed for a day, but that has gone and I have put a light layer on 3 days running, then vacuuming the next evening and am happy to say I have not been bitten in 2 days. Do you think I should have my husband cut all of it down and then spread DE within our yard and also on the outside?? And the NPIC warns, If an extremely large amount is inhaled, people may cough and have shortness of breath. My holistic vet recommended using it. I apply it with my hands, they get a little dry but nothing a good wash and some lotion wont cure. this will be great for your walk in closet) and then either a natural or product based method on my pets. I recommend you try this process again, it definitely works. Sometimes a little floury feeling in ears. Hi Heather! If I apply this dust to my subfloors, we have this because our hardwoods have not gone in 6et. We live in Florida and this is the first time wrve encountered a flea issue. Hi Barb! Having researched the deadly effects of Avantix and other poisonous big company products, I found myself reading an FDA Study report from a major topical flea poison maker and was thoroughly disgusted with what I read. Hi Natasha! Thanks, you have an awesome website with great info! Sorry. I tried everything, bathe the dogs every other week, I asked about frontline plus, which I was provided with good reviews but I had 9 dogs and that was too expensive for me. We cant cure the fleas on a farm. Any brush with stiff bristles . Although I dont have an infestation per se, what would you suggest to get rid of what ever is here before it turns into a problem. Does DE dry out eggs and larve too or t least eggs? I just sprinkled a lot of DE around my house. Put it under their sheets (vacuum it up after a couple days though and dont use too much) and put it liberally anywhere else, you dont need to worry because food grade DE is completely safe. No it will not deter them, sorry . I have been using borax periodically as a precaution, but after doing some research heard about DE and that it was more safe then borax, which is still a great product but not something I would use in the kitchen, on bedding, or near my pets food dishes. Two days after I had gotten home, I noticed that I had been bitten by something. I havent sprinkled it onto my area rug but I did around the bed and wall door crevices. Yes, definitely give that a try as it will help distribute the DE evenly. Food grade diatomaceous earth may indeed kill fleas in certain instances, but its not the most effective or efficient method of control or prevention, experts say. Thank you for your input. Luckily, there are a few natural food stores in the area that carry DE. Hey Mary! I have read many comments but none that stated it finally worked. Used with permission. Fleas are gone. You can stop the flea life cycle by using a IGR (insect growth regulator) spray. I notice when it gets thin, the d.e. If you store items under your bed you need to move them, vacuum, then dust the entire under-bed area with DE. I use it in the yard and I removed my carpets with DE to the garage for the summer. Boom! Have you any advice? Many pets, like those who are allergic to fleas, need alternatives that will kill fleas quickly. I wore a dust mask as I spread the DE around and noticed that my sinuses were very dry afterwards. It is a pleasure, I try my best to answer everyone Good luck! It lists the ingredients on the bag as 85% DE silicon dioxide, 10% Other element oxides, 5% moisture. My apt though is another issue. Much appreciated, the extra exposure will help and your kind words give me energy Thanks for the heads up, I will definitely keep that in mind for my community! I still have to do my room beyond what was done in the doorway but that may be tomorrow. Also put a flea traps down (I have a guide on how to make your own) and you will find relief. Natasha, I am so thankful to this site. Hi Jeremy, it is a pleasure! They sell small and large quantities for poultry mites and parasites. Can I combine salt with DE for a stronger effect? We have enrolled numerous homes in our flea control studies, where the homes were massively flea infested, even though the owners had been using DE. Its an absolute pleasure, glad you have found it useful I recommend getting about 10lb but since they do come in different sizes, I recommend getting enough to finely dust each room in your house. Me and my dog moved to my sisters for about a week. Fot application on my carpets I used a small seive with a handle for hard to reach spots, and an old hand crank sifter, probably 50+ yrs old, and it worked beautifully depositing finely sifted powder on the larger areas. in fact, farmers use it all the time in their animals food (about 3% is the norm) and if you google around a bit, youll see how helpful its been for their health! 3) DE kills any critter with an exoskeleton (insects/bugs/spiders), snails and slugs. And what brand? Thank you so much, Love Amita. The cleaning part can be challenging but it works and thats all that matters! Let us know how it goes, would love to hear another success story . My wife and have a 6 month old daughter and we have been sick with worry. It is a pleasure! Now after doing all of this, instead of combing my cat and getting 10-15 out at a time, Im finding around 3 or 4 after a full comb which is great. You can usually find it locally otherwise get it online Hope that helps! Hi Nic! Mind you, I have NEVER had bed bugs, so this was incredible scary and unexpected. It is a good thing that fleas are not an exception to the rule. Hi Yera, not really, will be writing some articles on ticks soon, stay tuned. I also put down salt hoping they would eat it and dehydrate too. As for keeping them away, if you have succeeded in killing the current infestation, and you dont bring anymore into your home, you shouldnt have a problem again. I heard that salt can kill fleas also. Hey Cath! Ive tried everything to get rid of the fleas but nothing works. Hi Cathy, its safe, you just need to have a decent vacuum to suck it up (preferably a regular bag one). Hey Crystal! Too much DE is fine, it just is a bit of a mission to clean up lol. Their health comes first which is why I chose Food Grade DE first Im bombing tomorrow with Hot Shot no mess, but it only kills live fleas. Sharon, sprinkle some DE on the end of a broom bristles and then pass the broom under your bed as much as you can reach on each side of the ed, that should do it. i called 311 inspector came after couple of weeks of spray and could not find anything , but my kids still gets bite here n there! Thank you for your time! LOL, Am I forgetting anything? 2 were in my hair, 2 were in my bed (and both bed fleas were spotted yesterday and today). Should I look specifically for food grade on the package next time I purchase this product? It took me 4 months to get rid of the infestation, July-October and since then I only had to bathe the dogs every once in a while and stopped using frontline for the next 7 months, I stick to DE to treat the house every now and then and no fleas were present. It is greatly appreciated. Great Question, Thanks for asking! Alternatively, you could always water down the area and mop it up, since it didnt sound like it was on stuff like carpets, etc. If you dont have any carpets, it can also be used on hardwood floors as a very effective way to kill off any. Once I got it home I read a warning about pets and I realized it was not food grade. 15.50 for a small bottle. How. Hoping we can rid our home and our poor pets of these pests! I did a dusting of DE all over my kitchen, bedroom, bathroom last night where we seem to have had a flea population for the last week or two (bleeding heart/rescue kitten/no forethought) ANYWAYS, when I got up this morning the fleas actually seemed to be worse! Hi Renee! I recommend using a decent vacuum cleaner but dont use anything fancy, a bag based vacuum is best as the power can get stuck in more modern systems. He (the stray cat Boo) weighs 9 lbs. Good luck! Spray it on your hand or directly on your pet and massage it to the skin. I find that it distributes it quite nicely. I also read that you mentioned to someone if they leave the DE on for 3 days after vacuuming there is no need to reapply, but earlier you had mentioned that it takes a bout a week for the eggs to hatch.. wouldnt it be better to either reapply or leave on the carpet longer? The food-grade version of DE contains a much lower level of silica than the versions used for industrial work. If the fleas really are in these areas, they will die. We have 9 children who love on this dog so its untelling where eggs have ended up! He likes to stay under my bed when he sleeps. I ordered from Amazon the correct type of DE to use on the carpets and patio. Hi: I am in the third week and there are still signs of fleas. We had tried everything besides this and I hated using the harsh chemicals to no avail. If you are going to use both, make sure you bath him first and then apply the spot on only afterwards. Hope that helps! I use a spray bottle, with a 1:2 ratio of DE:Water. 4) For the poster who has bees in her wall: If you can locate a beekeeper or beekeeping club in your area, you may be able to enlist their help to capture and relocate your bees. So is that safe enough to use for fleas in the carpet? Hi there, it should be fine. Do I have to wash everything down?? My name is Natasha, and I have been helping people with their insect problems since 2012. If you add Neem powder to the DE before you dust your animal It will take care of the drying of the skin. How can we keep him from picking up fleas from this place again? I am glad to hear that you have had such good results and thank you for your kind words. Hi Natasha, Thank you for the very informative advice on how to treat flea infestations. I wear contacts and after applying the DE dust my eyes got irritated. I suggest using fresh lemon and warm water, around once a week. DE can also absorb moisture from your eyes, so dont hesitate to rinse them from time to time. I am sure that it will help, thanks for stopping by and best of luck! I does dry my chihuahuas skin a little so I just make sure I bath her with a conditioning shampoo once a week, then reapply the DE. And its brown powder like dirt. Hope that helps! Just remember to use it when the grass is completely dry as moisture will significantly reduce its effectiveness. My house was infested with fleas. Fleas can live on humans but its not their preferred target. (They hate this stuff). Glad to see you are treating your pets otherwise you will never win the fight against fleas. If I leave it on overnight then vaccum is it safe for my cats to be walking around on it? Now, Im interested in using Borax. If you don't have any carpets, it can also be used on hardwood floors as a very effective way to kill off any flea infestations that may have found its way into your life. For a day or so he scratched a little and we saw a few crawling but now he seems fine and is no longer scratching. Used in the same way as DE, but left on for a few more days? Thanks Natasha! My bird thinks shes a dog and runs around the house on the floor with them and on the furniture. Hope that helps! For the fastidious gardener, this little beetle can cause a lot of frustration! It has long been used in the control of fleas, bed bugs, ants, and other household pests. For pest control purposes, diatomaceous earth is generally used as a barrier repellent to hard-bodied insects. Then mopped all hard surfaces with soapy water and gave the dog a spot on treatment. Im going to be traveling for several weeks and I wondered if its safe to leave the DE on the carpets while Im gone. I immediately gave him a bath with dawn and rinsed him down with vinegar and water and then dried him. Yes it does. We have fleas in a vacation home so we cannot vacuum for one month straight. How can I use this product on concrete or laminate? My daughter took her cat to live with her and apparently Im next on the menu. I will be spending a whole day doing all this and giving 12 cats baths. I planned on starting my dogs on vet flea treatments AND use the DE for inside the house an yard. We poofed the house and yard. It also makes them invigorated! Thank you so much for this site. Someone told me about DE, so I got some and used it 2 days ago, not sure if it is working or not ?? Most importantly is that you arent poisoning the Earth while killing a few weeds, or harmful insects. Hope, Youre probably getting infected outside the home and bringing them into your home on your clothing. We have laminate floors and I am not sure how I would go about using DE. First of all, make sure that you use a shopvac or something sturdy to vacuum it up. Weve recently had some stray cats staying under our shed and have just noted a major infestation around, under, and inside of the shed. I dont really want to bomb our whole house. I bought de from a pet food store. Ive searched around and found this site about using DE. Hi Deb I have been using DE for some time for internal consumption for myself and my cats as it is a brilliant wormer for pets and a marvellous health benefit for all sorts of internal problems etc etc. Since you have likely done some research on diatomaceous earth before reading this article, its highly probable that you have come across people on forums, blogs and even social media getting rather vocal about the dangers of diatomaceous earth. This has had the cats seek out alternative sleeping sites. I just used some DE in my living room this morning on the rug and the couch, but just in there as I only had a very small jar that my friend gave me. Plz help me; I recently had my male dog neutered & had to keep him inside for a few days & brought n our other dog as well but after bathing & treating them good. So why not use pool grade? I know that you (or your pets) are not going to eat it but it basically guarantees that its non-toxic in every way. You are and it sounds like you are doing a good job, well played! Joys of having such a wide audience i guess hehe. Hey Eileen! Oddly enough I have two 2 year olds and a 16 month old and a 4 & 6 yr old that play on the carpets all the time and have nothing. I am actually rubbing DE into all of my clothing which works for about half a day, then I can feel them crawling in my clothes. Depending on the humidity and moisture level (it works better in lower humidity), diatomaceous earth can last in the environment for an extended period of time, says Falk. Filter grade DE is added to pool filter systems, where it captures small particleslike dirt and bacteriathat other filters might miss. It is made up of the fossilized remains of single-celled aquatic microorganisms called diatoms. is going to be your best option. And thats likely to cause a problem in your vegetable patch, unless you take action. Glad that you have had success with DE and thank you for sharing! And it is also adept at flying. How should I apply? . Hi, I washed my dog with dawn and a little bit of lavender oil. My 4 yr old has been eaten alive. They even put it on the fans to blow it around, I dont suggest this. Hi Sharon! Let me know how that goes. D E seems to work but I dont want to ruin my expensive hoover. I always bathe dog in Dawn mixed with vinegar but she is white and it seems if there is 1 flea anywhere its going to find her! It is a pleasure, I enjoy helping the community! Why not use the Frontline all the time? Half my furniture was trashed 70 % clothing thrown out. We went away for a week and came back, no more fleas. I put down DE last night and after reading your article I went around and used a broom on the carpets. Hello After reading the article, I wonder if I can use DE with my smaller dogs. Will DE kill all stages of the flea life span? While it wont hurt your cat (if its the food grade one as I mentioned in this guide), I recommend alternative natural methods like dawn soap and warm water for treating fleas on cats. I dont know how they got in here again, Unless through open windows (with screens.) Don't confuse food-grade diatomaceous earth with the stuff used to filter pools. at the end of cleaning a dusted (with an applicator) the entire coop pen and both goats (not the chicks) I will dust again in a week (at this time I plan to wash the chickens) Question: ongoing how often do dust? You can apply it, leave it for a couple days and after vacuuming it up, repeat (if you still find fleas). Def where the problem lies. That sounds like a fairly serious infestation, I honestly recommend that you call an exterminator in to deal with that, its a bit much for a DIY job. I lay down DE around the walls and in bedding areas. I let Boo in our kitchen briefly, he wanted to go down the cellar to eat & sleep, but with all the fresh DE down there, I was afraid he would get respiratory problems. I suppose it is better than it was before, but.. Hi Bonnie, yeah that dust effect is a bit overwhelming but dont worry, you will be happy when you are flea free . This past Summer I had a TERRIBLE flea infestation in my home. Hey Niecy! Food grade means that its 100% safe, even for eating. If it doesnt kill the fleas we already have why bother with it? Article is on this blog. I have 2 pugs that are on my heels wherever I go .their constant digging drives me nuts !going to Lowes today ! Here are some of the most common. Oh boy,I already applied it and left it for 24 hours and i still see them attack me.Should I leave the component for 4 days and more? Tapeworms in animals can be caused by fleas. You will be fine, dont stress just always use food grade in future. Powder can get everywhere. Can you give instructions on how much to feed them (with their food). I bought a bottle of Diatomaceous earth from green acres market brand is LUMINO does this work for roaches plz help. Hope that helps! Thorough vacuuming every three days (including all crevices) can really help control House Fleas, too. To answer your question, yes, its completely safe and I actually recommend it. Hi Sue, yes that should be fine. The woman at the health food store recommended that I cut up some old nylons and put the powder in and sprinkle it lightly, not to just not waste it but also to ensure a fine and even coating. overkill? COPYRIGHT 2023 ASK THE EXPERTS LLC. We are vacuuming twice daily and washing clothing we are wearing and bedding every other day. This powder absorbs the liquid from fleas exoskeleton which is fats and oils. Our home is over 85 years old Victorian style, remodeled kitchen with over 85 years old wood flooring on the first and second levels. BUT, I could find nothing on how long it was going to take to kill these little boogers once they made contact with it. It is a pleasure, thanks for your kind words. Does it help kill fleas for cats to take some orally? I thought they would dry up the eggs and larvae too. I notice that I have not been bitten and jump upon this buggers so therefore it works! If there are cracks between the wood, DE can help a bit there. Is there a brand that you can direct me to? For inside the home I used old fashioned 20 mule team Borax..It seems to be working better then all the high priced stuff we tried.. Trying the tealight method now these last few nights which seems to help some, will try to order some DE online that were mentioned here in the and try that soon. I would like to say that when I use it in my house I do have to wear a mask while applying because it bothered my lungs pretty bad last time. The whole thing clogged up and stopped twirling round I had to pull it all apart after a minute or so. in the 20 years i have had dogs, this is the first time any have had fleas. One of the cheapest places to get food grade DE is at a feed supply store. Hope that helps! My kitty has tapeworm, and is never going outside again because all she does is eat grass.