sandgrubber Posted March 7, 2014 Share Posted March 7, 2014 (edited) 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 March 7, 2014 by sandgrubber Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VizslaMomma Posted March 10, 2014 Share Posted March 10, 2014 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 More sharing options...
kelpiecuddles Posted March 10, 2014 Share Posted March 10, 2014 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. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VizslaMomma Posted March 10, 2014 Share Posted March 10, 2014 (edited) 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 March 10, 2014 by VizslaMomma Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
persephone Posted March 10, 2014 Share Posted March 10, 2014 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 More sharing options...
sandgrubber Posted March 11, 2014 Author Share Posted March 11, 2014 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 More sharing options...
Steve Posted March 11, 2014 Share Posted March 11, 2014 I dont have a flea or tick problem but everyone I know who has used this stuff is raving over it . As long as you get the food grade one its safe. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dancinbcs Posted March 12, 2014 Share Posted March 12, 2014 (edited) 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 March 13, 2014 by dancinbcs Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Glen Posted March 12, 2014 Share Posted March 12, 2014 Where can you get the correct grade of Diatomaceous Earth please? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sandgrubber Posted March 13, 2014 Author Share Posted March 13, 2014 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 More sharing options...
dancinbcs Posted March 13, 2014 Share Posted March 13, 2014 I get my food grade one from Alternative Therapies. Alternative Therapies Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Glen Posted March 13, 2014 Share Posted March 13, 2014 Thank you Dancinbcs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Glen Posted March 13, 2014 Share Posted March 13, 2014 And Sandgrubber. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VizslaMomma Posted March 15, 2014 Share Posted March 15, 2014 Where can you get the correct grade of Diatomaceous Earth please? Glen, family that live in Queensland use these people http://diatomaceousearthonline.com.au/about-us/ Hope this helps :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mrs Rusty Bucket Posted March 15, 2014 Share Posted March 15, 2014 So if it stuffs up insect skeletons, does it work on ants too? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
westiemum Posted March 15, 2014 Share Posted March 15, 2014 I'd really like to try this - thanks for that link VM - if you want to treat a courtyard, a carpeted house and three westies how much would I need to buy please? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RuralPug Posted March 15, 2014 Share Posted March 15, 2014 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 More sharing options...
sandgrubber Posted March 15, 2014 Author Share Posted March 15, 2014 (edited) 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 March 15, 2014 by sandgrubber Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
_PL_ Posted March 16, 2014 Share Posted March 16, 2014 (edited) 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 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 March 16, 2014 by Powerlegs Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VizslaMomma Posted March 16, 2014 Share Posted March 16, 2014 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 More sharing options...
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