Farm Dreams

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Fleas Fleas Fleas!!!! Finding a natural way to rid your life of the pests.

Now that it is spring the heat and humidity bring on the inevitable flea population explosion. I am desperate for a way to manage the fleas that my lovely pets bring into the house. I am trying to find an organic/natural way to manage the flea population without using the drops, shampoos, flea bombs, collars or powders. I have two cats (indoor/outdoor), my neighbors "stray" cat, and the wildlife (opossums and dear) that visit my yard. The house that I am renting has carpet. Any suggestions will be greatly appreciated! So far I have tried:

Shampooing the cats with regular dish soap

Pro: Kills fleas currently on the cat

Cons: You must give the cat a bath (yikes!), no long lasting effect

I comb the cats with a flea comb daily

Pro: Kills fleas currently on the cat, Cats LOVE it

Con: No long lasting effect

Sprinkle borax on carpet

Pro: Seems to make a dent in the overall population.

Con: Makes a mess, cannot really walk around the house for a day or 2, not matter how much you vacuum you can never get ALL the borax out of the carpet (perhaps that is a pro)

Tags: Animals, Borax, Bugs, Cats, Fleas, Pests, Pets, Shampoo

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Daisy on March 31, 2012 at 6:52pm

Wish I knew a good answer. I feel like I've tried everything! A daily rub of Diatomaceous Earth on our dogs keeps the population down as well as sprinkling on their bed and carpets. Just don't make too much of a dust storm when you do it because it can be irritating to your and pet's lungs. I've also tried repelling them with essential oils. Clove and Sweet Orange are supposed to work. I mix a spray bottle of water and essential oils to spritz them with each day. Pets smell lovely! These things keep numbers down, but not gone.

On the other hand, Rose Geranium essential oil works amazingly well to keep ticks off. Just a drop a day on the back of their necks keeps all ticks away!

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Permalink Reply by Heather S on April 1, 2012 at 7:55am

That's brilliant re. ticks, thanks for that - from another who's awaiting the onslaught..!

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Permalink Reply by Mary Schmidtke on April 1, 2012 at 8:30am

Hello I am Mary Schmidtke. I usually talk over on the prepper site, I just don't have time for all. Because I have been around a few more years than most of you. I wanted to share a debugging/flea tip that I picked up about 50 years ago. I have a really old Dept. of Ag. book that dates from about 1910ish. You will find it in the old vet. books if you can find one at a flea market. Take 1 oz. of tobacco and make a strong tea by boiling it in 1 Quart of water. Soak the infected animals fur and leave on to dry. Yep. Tobacco is an insecticide. I tell this story to many people see smoking. Ya know you are smoking an insecticide? I have often thought the real reason Native Americans briskly traded tobacco was not to smoke but may have been the only de lice/de flea treatment they had at the time. In a time when men smoked cigars more than now and I was little. I would watch for the men to discard cigar butts outside business. I fed them all to my pony and that is why he was so fat ---no worms. The tobacco dewormed him too! A note on Borax, Sprinkle around the outside of your kennel after the kennel has been washed/flooded. These critters hate flood water and you can see them jumping away from the water. The borax will help keep them from coming back. Something you can try if nothing else is working.

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Permalink Reply by Homesteader on April 6, 2012 at 11:12am

Free range poultry does a great job of keeping down fleas and ticks. Also weekly dusting pets with DE keeps a good handle on fleas too. It is important to vacuum the carpets every couple days to keep fleas from hatching in house.

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Permalink Reply by Dean Farago on April 14, 2012 at 1:40am

DE,chooks and a combination of Neem oil sprayed has worked wonders for us

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Permalink Reply by Amanda Farr on April 24, 2012 at 10:52am

I read something somewhere, I can't remember where, about putting fresh garlic in your pets food to keep fleas away. Has anyone tried that?

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Permalink Reply by Shari Green on May 8, 2012 at 10:21am

Amanda Farr said:

I read something somewhere, I can't remember where, about putting fresh garlic in your pets food to keep fleas away. Has anyone tried that?

I have heard that if you put crushed(minced) garlic into there food that the flees will want nothing to do with them. I started to do it fall of 2011 and it seemed to work its now May and I haven't had any flee. Not 100% sure if it really worked or if it was just because it was getting into the winter months.

Best wishes

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Permalink Reply by Marcia Kincaid on June 10, 2012 at 5:38pm

I spray my yard with Nematoids. They eat the fleas larvae. I don't have even with tons of squirrels coming and going. You can find several different companies that sell good nematoids for pest killing.

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Permalink Reply by Dan on June 12, 2012 at 1:27pm

Cedarcide.com
Cedadcide is cedar oil that we use directly on our dogs and also fog the house.
It may take 2 or 3 foggings with a week in between to break the cycle.
Works really well

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Permalink Reply by Dan on June 19, 2012 at 8:26pm

It's just cedar oil
They also have other natural products for outside egg laying bugs.
I just used in and around my house and garden.
Fleas gone
Aphids gone
Inch worms gone
White flies gone
It's a super safe and clean way to get rid of fleas ond other bugs.
It also makes your house smell fresh like a cedar closet.

Dan said:

Cedarcide.com Cedadcide is cedar oil that we use directly on our dogs and also fog the house. It may take 2 or 3 foggings with a week in between to break the cycle.
Works really well

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Permalink Reply by Sarah C on June 22, 2012 at 7:59pm

Diatomaceous Earth! I know I spelled that wrong... For us, we noticed the flea population was strongest in the area pretty much right in front of our door. Dirty buggers! We had to stand in them to hang laundry, walk through them every time we came in or went out, and the cats did the same. What we did was sprinkle some of the earth in that area, sprinkle a bit on our sofas (and let it sit before vacuuming it and throwing away the bag immediately), vacuum like a crazy head nearly daily for a couple weeks, mow the lawn as short as we could get it and keep it that way (easier said than done...), and wash the cats every third day. That last part was not as hard as it sounds, although it wasn't super easy either. We did have to break down and get them a flea treatment, though. They were going nuts scratching themselves... when one of them actually cut himself fairly deeply, we decided that we would get what our vet had recommended (I think it was Revolution) although instead of a monthly drop year-round, we would divvy one container among the two cats and only do it for two months during peak flea-season. When we washed them, we gave them lots of treats, made sure the room ad water was warm, and never let their heads get wet. We used a local-to-us lavender/rosemary-based cat shampoo and brushed for fleas daily. It was a lot of work, but the fleas stayed outdoors (and off the cats!), and we didn't have any problems with eggs hatching indoors once the temperature dipped outside.