Anybody who has every had a cat or a dog has had to deal with fleas to some degree. Even if your animals have never had fleas, you probably had to treat them with a preventative of some kind. If you have not ever done that, then I am sure you at least read about fleas and considered the possibility of having to deal with this little menace. The bottom line is that fleas are an ever present threat to any type of furry animal and in some cases, even pets that are furr-less. Unless you live in a part of the country where fleas have a hard time surviving because of the environment, you have had to anguish over these little monsters at some point.

Among the many variety of methods to attack this vermin, one of the most common or popular treatments today is to administer an oily liquid medicine to the back of your pet and onto its skin. Occasionally these methods work pretty well. I have had decent success myself with such treatments. However, just like with anything else in life, this too has its drawbacks. As I mentioned the medicine is oily. It has a tendency to spread to almost everything and anything your animal touches or rubs up against. Of course the spreading onto your animal’s body is what you want, but you don’t need the stuff on your furniture. That is the problem with any method you use to fight these bugs. No matter what you do you are going to have to deal with some sort of failing.

So instead of discussing the various approaches to this dilemma why don’t we spend our time talking about what does work. What I am about to tell you about not only works, but it is guaranteed to eradicate those little nasties. What I am talking about is a product called Diatomaceous Earth. Never heard of it before? That’s okay, because neither had I until I had to wage a war with some fleas that were determined to fight to the death!

First, let’s understand what fleas are. Fleas are bugs just like any other. At first glance they look just like a fat (yet flat) little bug with a smooth body. Problem is, they are not smooth at all. The reason they are so hard to remove from your pet with only your fingers is because they have little hairs all over their body that point away from their heads. These hairs act like barbs preventing them from being pulled out of whatever they are heading into. They also have what looks like one big shell but is rather a series of shells called sclerites. These hard plates act as a protective shield to help them from getting hurt when they fall from high distances (like from a standing dog) or getting crushed by a dog or cats teeth or human fingers. Of course the whole point of a flea’s existence is to bite the animal and suck its blood for nutrients. This is what usually causes the first sign that your pet has fleas to be noticeable. The bites cause the animal to itch and scratch. Another great way to see if you have a flea infestation is to look for flea droppings.

While it may sound disgusting, flea fecal matter just looks like little black specs of dirt. Actually, sometimes the little specs of dirt are nothing more than little black specs of dirt. A really good way to tell is to pick a couple of them up in your fingers and get them a little wet. Start rubbing your two fingers together and if you start to see the little black specs turn into little red streaks in your fingers, then it is dried blood and therefore a flea dropping. Obviously at this point you have more than one flea and it is time to start figuring out how you want to attempt the eradication.

The best way to achieve success is to interrupt the flea life cycle. You want to be able to prevent these vermin from reproducing, hatching, or otherwise continuing to grow their numbers. Sure there are various ways to utilize pesticides to do this, but you still run the risk of using something that is harmful in some way to your pet or your family. Remember, pesticides are poisons that are used to kill bugs. Putting a poison on your pets skin or anywhere near your children or yourself is never a good idea. If used properly it is relatively safe, but do you want to take the chance? I’ll be honest, I have used various pesticides to try to kill fleas in the past and have always come away unscathed. The question is do I really want to keep pressing my luck?

So as I was frustrated with the fact that some of the more popular pesticide treatments had not been working I decided to look for other, more organic methods of treatment. That is when I came across a suggestion from one of the Boxer web forums I frequent. Someone suggested I try Diatomaceous Earth. The first thing that ran through my head upon reading this was that I will have to do some heavy research, just because it sounded… scientific. So I started doing some reading, and then finally did a little more reading. When I was satisfied that I knew what the stuff was and that I could use it properly I started to look for places to purchase it. This turned out to be the hard part. More on this later, right now let me explain what this stuff is.

Diatomaceous earth is the fossilized remains of a type of hard-shelled algae. So this naturally occurring algae dies off and eventually, over millions of years, becomes sedimentary rock which is then crumbled into a fine powder. This powder resembles pumice powder or even flour. It mainly consists of about 80%-90% silica with about 2%-4% alumina and up to 2% of iron oxide. All of these materials are safe to humans, animals, furniture, carpets, and anything else you can think of. The powder is a bit abrasive so I wouldn’t consider dumping it and then rubbing it into your hardwood floors, but who would anyway? Diatomaceous Earth is also extremely absorbent.Because of this fact it has

Diatomaceous Earth

been used in a variety of ways to keep things dry or to assist in a drying process. It has also been used as an absorbent in various materials such as cat litter, dynamite, polishes, and it has even been an ingredient in toothpaste.

So if it is so safe how does it kill fleas? This is the fun part. Since Diatomaceous Earth or D.E. as it is commonly known, is an organic material it is not going to kill the bug by means of a chemical process such as any other insecticide would. Rather, D.E. is considered a mechanicalinsecticide. This means that it kills insects by some sort of mechanical motion or by one part moving another, causing another to do something, etc.. To put it in simpler terms, the D.E. sticks to the fleas as they come into contact with it. It gets under their shells and starts to immediately absorb any and all liquids the bug has. Basically it dries them out. In addition to this, since it is highly abrasive at these sizes, when the flea gets it under its shell

D.E. up close

it starts to grind away at everything every time the bug moves. Because of this you could say that D.E. kills fleas in two ways, not just the one.

Diatomaceous Earth has multiple uses as I mentioned earlier. However, because of the fact that it is not a chemical insecticide, insects cannot grow immune to it. Therefore D.E. can be used to kill multiple insects and for long periods of time. Although this is a huge benefit to using D.E. there is one drawback to its use. It takes a little time, so you have to be patient. It also does not kill the flea in the larvae stage like some insecticides can. You are not going to have one flea get infected with this, take it home to its little flea family and infect the rest. This material needs to spread, physically, to all of the fleas. The adult fleas that is. This is not entirely a deal breaker however. D.E. still has the ability to break the flea life cycle. The only thing is that as it kills the adult fleas that are currently living, there will be no more eggs laid. So whatever eggs already exist will have to hatch and then come into contact with D.E. and die. However, after that happens and since no adult fleas will exist in order to lay more eggs the cycle will have been broken. It takes up to two weeks for the entire process to occur from egg to adult and for them all to die. So if you can deal with all of this for about two weeks time you will rid yourself of this menace for good.

Food grade D.E. is the best type of D.E. to use. Simply because it is pure D.E. with nothing else added. As I mentioned earlier I was having some difficulty locating the pure, food grade D.E. and would have to have ordered it online if I wanted it. It is available almost anywhere online and as long as you find what you think is a reputable dealer for organic materials you can order as much as you like. I did not want to wait that long however because I wanted to start right away so I went to the only place local to me that I could find that carried it, and that was Lowes. The only problem (that is not really a problem) was that Lowes did not carry pure 100% D.E.. The stuff they sell is made by a company called Garden Safe and distributed by Schultz Company. They call it “Crawling Insect Killer – containing Diatomaceous Earth“. This might seem a bit misleading and if you are looking for D.E. only this could scare you away. At first I was a little reluctant myself. Remember though, I did loads of research and in the process I looked up what is called the MSDS sheet for this product.

For those not familiar with the term, a MSDS sheet is a Material Safety Data Sheet. This is an information sheet that all chemical, chemical compounds, and chemical mixtures producers are required to include with their products. Without going into a long explanation, the MSDS sheets exist so that emergency personnel or anybody for that matter will know everything there is to know about a product. The boiling, melting, and freezing points, health effects, first aid, what reacts with it, etc… it provides information about a chemical product that might not normally be available so people can know how to handle any situation that might arise from its use. They are great sources of information.

The MSDS sheet for this product explains that it is perfectly safe. After a little more research I discovered that because the company wanted to market this as an “insect killer” it also had to put on its label that it could be potentially harmful. If they did not, they would not be permitted to sell it in the Lowes stores. So of course, they marketed the product as an organic insect killer and also had to include the warnings on the label. Either way this is almost as good as getting pure, food grade D.E., and just as safe. So with my research easing my mind, I picked up a bag at Lowes and went on my way. incidentally, when you go to a pet store or anywhere else to buy one of the popular flea remedies like Frontline or K9 Advantix you can expect to pay anywhere from $30 to $60! The 4 pound bag of D.E. was only $9!! You do the math.

Using this product is pretty easy, but it is a bit messy. The idea is to spread it anywhere that fleas (or other insects) inhabit. Spread a thin layer along baseboards, windows, under pet bedding, and in the carpet. You can and should also spread some of it outside along the perimeter of your home. If you want you can also spread it anywhere else to prevent other insects from entering your home or harming your garden. Remember, this will not harm you plants, vegetables or anything else.

You are advised to leave it there for a couple of weeks. The good thing about the makeup of D.E. is that since it is basically crumbled up rocks/fossils, it will stay wherever you put it until something disturbs it. So if you line your baseboards with it, it will remain there until you vacuum it up or otherwise remove it. This process can be a bit dusty, so I would suggest either using a mask of some sort or at least doing it when you are the only one in the house. Although it is not going to harm you if you happen to breath some of it in, it can be a bit irritating to your eyes and lungs just as any dusty powder can be.

Of course your typical “flee removal advice” still holds true. Changing vacuum bags immediately after vacuuming, and washing everything that you can is always a good idea. Any type of help that you can give D.E. to do its job is going to make getting rid of these little guys much easier and quicker. There is never any easy and painless way to rid yourself of any kind of insect infestation. Regardless of the method you choose there will be some inconveniences but this might be by far the easiest, cheapest, and safest way to rid your home of fleas.

Since using D.E. and following the process outlined above I have been “flea free”. It is still a good idea to use some sort of preventative measure to keep them from inviting themselves back into your home. How you do that is up to you, but if you wish to do it in the safest possible manner for everyone involved Diatomaceous Earth is probably the best way to go. Do a little of your own research. It is always a good idea to read up on anything you are going to use in your home and around your family and your pets. Don’t take my word for it, just take my advice.