Effective Natural Remedies for Flea Control in Pets

Multiple Remedies

Posted by Hiaama (Miamisburg, Oh, Usa) on 11/27/2011
★★★★★

I too have had the experience of living with itchy dogs. 10 pound Chorkie suffered all night and day. She is one of what began as six dogs so flea prevention is crucial. Our family is now down to 3 dogs due to old dogs going over the rainbow :-) THE Chorkie and our two Blue Heelers/Healers.

Here is our story: flea treatment from a vet, 150.00 per month. Grocery store dog crunchies, 20.00 per month, chorkie illness, 210.00 per one time only. then it occured to me to come here as I do for my own health and well being.

After reading all the information here I realized that while fleas are no day at the dog park it was not my Twinkie's trouble nor was the alleged flea allergy that cost $210.00. She received advantix and a 6 month cortisone/steroid shot along with a pat on the head and well wishes. Advantix left a huge lesion on her shoulder for more than 2 months.

To spare my readers of a long and emotionally driven story I will now get to the point. I changed the diet stopped the chemicals and got over my fear of over bathing my dogs

My dogs get homemade dog food that changes every week. A scant splash of ACV, Oatmeal, salmon fresh parsley fresh, canned pumpkin, garlic and coconut oil, one week, brown rice farm fresh organic free range eggs parsley garlic coconut oil the next. Turkey black beans and rice you get the picture. It cost no more than 5 dollars a week for me to cook it up while I prepare our family meal. The two heelers also get a couple fish oil capsules, Twinkie will not eat it under any circumstances.

They get a bath once a week with baking soda, anti fungal dog shampoo and a nice rinse of ACV. A drop of lavender oil on each neck every night. We have seen a huge improvment in the scratching. The heelers smell so much more like dogs and the ears are getting much better. Everyone'c coats are soft and silky and we are all sleeping much better. Healing is a process just as the illness is. Stick with it and trust in our mother earth to provide all we need for health and wellness.

love,

HiaAma

Cedarwood Oil

Posted by Ellie (Stga Sps, Ny) on 11/13/2012
★★★★★

I have to agree with Angie, Waverly, Oh. She recommended using cedar shavings instead of straw in a dog house. I bought catlitter cedar shavings and also used it to insulate my rosebush with it for winter. Surprisingly the following year for the first time my rosebush didn't have a bug anywhere on it or holes in the leaves as it previously had year after year. It is sold as catlitter and may be great to retard fleas and other critters too. Ellie

Garlic

Posted by Theresa (Mpls., Mn) on 04/14/2014

Hey Mark! Check it out: Https://www.sojos.com/learn/articles/pet-mythbusters-5-pet-food-myths Http://www.peteducation.com/article.cfm?c=2+1677&aid=2414 I have used powdered garlic in home made food for my dogs with no ill effects. While garlic may be toxic to dogs in large quantities, the health benefits of garlic in small quantities is widely proven. Http://ottawavalleydogwhisperer.blogspot.com/2012/06/garlic-for-dogs-health-benefits.html

Garlic

Posted by Suseeq (Sydney, Australia) on 11/10/2015

Mark, everything said very true.

Sulphur

Posted by William (California) on 09/19/2013

Louise, sulfur might be most effecive as a dusting agent in your yard. It repels fleas and other insect pests. A light dusting in the yard, once every three months, should be effective in keeping fleas away. Because sulfur does not disolve in water it will take quite a while for this to wash away in rain or during watering. You can add it to your pets food in the form of chicken egg, either raw or cooked. Eggs contain beneficial amounts of sulfur. Meat and dairy also contain beneficial amounts of sulfur. Three foods that dogs and cats seem to love by the way. Cheers, Liam

Cedarwood Oil

Posted by Rob (Kentucky) on 09/02/2024
★★★★★

How to Make Flea Spray From Peppermint Oil, Cedar Oil & Purified Water

Flea spray for dogs and cats can be made right at home by combining peppermint oil, cedar oil, purified water and a few other key ingredients by eHow.

eHow Youtube Video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tq8lPr-OJL0

Orange Rind

Posted by Teri In T Town (Tacoma, Wa, Usa) on 08/05/2011
★★★★★

I have used the orange rind on my dog who had a significant problem with fleas. I rub the inside of a peel all over her and then rub it in. It makes her smell heavenly meanwhile but really does a number on the fleas. I also made a spray by boiling 7 or 8 rinds down and filtering it. It is unbelievable how well this works. This and vacuuming seemed to eliminate our flea problem.

Side Effects From Hartz Flea Powder

Posted by Zookeeper (Sunnyvale, Ca ) on 07/09/2011
★☆☆☆☆

WARNING!

I was told by my vet to use just plain old mild dish detergent to wash my pet. Honestly, I'm afraid to use any over the counter flea rememdy after my 1 yr kitty got so sick and had seizures. She is an indoor cat and I only let her out for 5 minutes while watering the garden and she got infested. I first used Sargeants squeeze on for cats and kittens and she started bouncing off the walls and was throwing up all night. And on top of that it didn't kill the fleas. So a few days later I went and got some Hartz Ultra Guard Flea & Tick Powder for cats and rubbed her down. The next day she started having seizures and had to be rushed to the vet. I can't tell you how bad I felt and how scared I was. I don't know why they sell this toxic stuff.

I gave the kitty a bath today after a day of rest and just used mild baby shampoo. I hope this does the trick because I will never use Flea Powder or Spot applications again.

Don't use Sargeants or Hartz!! Very toxic!

Side Effects From Hartz Flea Powder

Posted by Diamond (Salisbury, Usa) on 07/09/2011

HARTZ HAS BEEN ON RECALL FOR MANY YEARS BUT IT HAS NEVER BEEN TAKEN OFF THE SHELVES. IT WOULD HAVE BEEN BEST TO BATH HER WITH DISH LIQUID AT LEAST UNTIL YOU FOUND THIS SITE. I BOUGHT SOME NATURAL HERBAL FLEA AND TICK REPELLENT IN EITHER WHOLE FOODS STORE OR NATURAL HERBS, WHICH I PREFER NATURAL HERBAL STORES BEST. I DID A TREATMENT ON A KITTEN I FOUND ROAMING THE STREETS IN THE COLD WINTER NIGHT, SHE LOOKED LIKE DEATH ALREADY, SHE WAS INFESTED WITH MANGE OR WHAT EVER BUT IT TOOK ME SOME TIME TO SEARCH THIS SITE AND I THOUGHT I GOT RID OF THE MANGE UNLESS THERE IS ANOTHER TYPE OF INFESTATION GOING ON, BUT I'M BACK TO GIVING HER MORE OF TED'S REMEDY TREATMENTS ONLY THIS TIME ITS WARMER OUT SO THERE ARE MITES AND ALL KINDS OF BUGS IN THE HOUSE.

GOOD LUCK WITH YOUR KITTY

Banana Peels

Posted by Diana (San Marcos, Texas) on 04/27/2011
★★★★★

For fleas in the house, throw banana peels down around the areas where the fleas are concentrated. Leave them until they're black & dried up. They emit something that kills fleas as they dry. Is sounds gross but the peels don't get nasty, they just shrivel up & get hard.

Banana Peels

Posted by Picturesleuth (Califon, New Jersey) on 12/31/2013
★★★★★

Banana Peels also seemed to help as well as putting a bowl of water in each room with a night light (fleas would jump in and drown)…Also Ants came into the house and I realized they were hunting and harvesting flea larva or cocoons in-between floor boards or in rugs and taking them back out to their nest… Great thing that nature helped us! We also tried amethyst and we also used masking tape to capture any flea that hopped on to us. Religious combing of both our cats in morning and evening and cat baths too…. Also vacuuming… First infestation ever and boy was it a horrible long experience… But banana peels really did seem to be the turning point for us….

Dish Soap and Lamp Method

Posted by Laura (Yorba Linda,Ca ) on 08/31/2016

I'm printing this out & going to Party City for green glow sticks. THANKS.

Dish Soap and Lamp Method

Posted by Lynne (Shady Valley, Tennessee) on 02/22/2011
★★★★★

When we first moved to Tennessee, our "new" house had wall-to-wall carpet upstairs, our bedroom shared by the dog of course. We noticed that where the sun hit the rug, there were fleas hatching into yucky little worms. By hit or miss, we came up with a simple and very cheap solution! Get a dinner or sandwich plate (light color like yellow or white) put one drop of dish soap and fill with water. Then place the dish on the floor under a desk light that you put on the floor and aim the light at the dish. In a few hours the warmth of the light attracts the fleas and they jump in the water and drown! How simple and safe!

Borax, Hydrogen Peroxide

Posted by Millie (Milliewhite84@yahoo.com, Missouri) on 10/27/2010
★★★★★

My son has a black lab and she got case of fleas. He wasn't sure it was fleas because he treats her monthly with frontline. She was in the process of developing mange, he had her to the vet a couple of times but he hasn't go a lot of money, he lives on disability, so I went on line and found your idea of borax and peroxide. He tried it and she is as good as new. We thank you so much we can't tell you how much. God bless you and your work. He also put cider vinegar on her spots as you recomended.

Amethyst

Posted by Janice (Coloma, Mi) on 09/16/2010
★★★★★

You can add me to the YEA list on the amethyst. My homeopathic vet told me under no circumstances to use the flea and tick poison. Having two cats and a dog I was really afraid I was going to get infested with fleas. I had read about the amethyst for fleas a while back on Earth Clinic and decided to try it. All I had was an old amethyst ring (yes, it was polished) and I threw the whole thing in a big bowl that the animals all share. I probably threw it in there around March. It seemed to be working very well and then a friend who has a gem shop gave me some rough amethyst and I threw that in the bowl also. I left the ring in because it was working and I wasn't going to take any chances. They didn't seem to have any problem with it being in there and they drink from it every day. This was a very bad year for fleas and I am thrilled that it worked. I did have to do a lot of explaining about why my ring was in the animal's water dish.

Amethyst

Posted by Isabella (Raleigh, Nc) on 07/04/2011
★☆☆☆☆

WORKED TEMPORARILY

UPDATE: I'm into my second year and flea season using the amethyst. One thing that has definitely changed - it no longer works for my dog. I've had to treat him twice with Frontline this year (other natural remedies have failed for him); however, I have not treated my cats since last spring - they don't need it. I DO see a flea on a cat from time to time but they do not scratch and chew on themselves as a cat does when it's being bitten. I have five cats and they absolutely have no flea problem - despite being indoor/outdoor and living with my dog who does need flea treatment.

The rock I use is a tumbled amethyst I bought from ebay. The cats drink from a ceramic bowl. I remove the rock only to clean and refill the bowl. If you try this, give it time to work. Good luck!

Amethyst

Posted by Cleoppa (Cleburne, Tx) on 08/28/2010
★☆☆☆☆

Before trying this, I did a bit of research. Although not a lot of people had commented on their results online, I found that nearly everyone who had cats found this to work and maybe half the people who had dogs did. I thought maybe some other circumstances, such as the size of the amethyst, made a difference. I wanted to get a large amethyst, just in the off-chance it was ingested in the water. I bid on two large (3 inch) amethysts on ebay, expecting to only win one. I ended up winning both. I put them both in my dog's water for some time and saw little, if any difference. So, I'm pretty sure it's not a matter of the amount of the amethyst. Possible there are different types or qualities of amethyst? Or maybe my flea problem was too extreme to it to help? I'm keeping the amethysts in the water and if I do think it makes a difference, I'll post here.

Diatomaceous Earth

Posted by Cleoppa (Cleburne, Tx) on 08/28/2010
★☆☆☆☆

WARNING!

I've long been a fan of DE. I know it can do wonders, but it has been less than helpful with my recent problems. In trying to discourage fleas and roaches when I was on vacation, I spread it on my carpet. Not only did it not seem to discourage the bugs, but my vacuum cleaner started smoking when I vacuumed it up. There was still dust floating around for days (which really isn't healthful to breathe). I will definitely never try that one again!

Brewer's Yeast

Posted by Mikki (Youngsville, Nc Usa) on 04/08/2012

I wanted to add to this a little as well. Some dogs do have a high yeast count in their body's and giving them supplemental yeast could result in a yeast infection of the skin or ears. But as a general rule, brewers yeast is effective on flea prevention and is very safe for your dogs. If you are concerned that your dog might develop a yeast infection talk with your vet about assessing yeast levels on their skin before you begin.

Amethyst

Posted by Blackcat (Istanbul, Turkey) on 05/11/2010
★☆☆☆☆

I had put an amethyst stone in my cat's drinking bowl as soon as I came across the posts on amethysts for fleas. I waited almost a week, but did not see a difference, then I started adding apple vinegar to his bowl with the stone still there. Do you think that I should have waited more and that the amethyst still works with vinegar? By the way, it's been weeks since I had started the vinegar but there are still fleas:-( Thank you...

Soap Nuts

Posted by Namooni1974 (Portland, Oregon, Usa) on 02/18/2010

Natural Flea, Tick, and Lice remedy

So we have had so many different animals in our family over the years that fleas have been a problem. We have tried so many different products with as many results. All have eventually failed except one. Soap nuts!

A friend introduced us to them for allergies to laundry soap. I found recipies online to make liquid soap out of them. We all now use it as our only household soap (bodywash, shampoo, house keeping,ect..) I bathe the animals monthly with it and stopped having any problems with fleas. We also do not get bitten by mosquitos. I buy my soap nut online, and they last a very long time.They are 100% natural with no side effects and are compostable.

Lemons

Posted by Robyn (Hampton, Tn) on 12/21/2009
★★★★★

Homemade Flea Repellent

You can make an effective flea repellent from lemon by cutting it into quarters and immersing it in boiling water. This is then steeped overnight to get you the repellent. By spraying this all over your pet, especially behind the ears and generally around the head, and also at the base of the tail and the 'armpits', you can rid it of fleas.

I am wondering if Grapefruit boiled in pieces in water and then steeped overnight would do the same thing...probably would.

Also as a note...dawn baths, baby shampoo and peroxide mixed together baths, and dove baths afterward are great for killing fleas, and the dove washing makes the skin feel better if it is dry.

Robyn

Dish Soap and Lamp Method

Posted by Joni (Lorimor, Ia) on 10/15/2009
★★★★★

I tried the candle in a pan of soapy water to kill fleas and It really works!!! Every night I catch about 20 of the little devils. I am going to attempt to bath my cats with ACV. This should be interesting!! Thanks for the suggestions.

Garlic

Posted by Db (San Francisco, Ca) on 10/06/2009

Hi, I came across your site while searching for safe & natural flea bath options for our cats. I noticed your garlic food supplement suggestion and thought it would be good to pass this info along to you and your readers:

http://www.aspca.org/pet-care/poison-control/plants/garlic.html

The suggestion of garlic on the dog's food jumped out at me because our boy cat loves to nibble on house plants and we've had to spend some time learning about what plants are toxic to cats; Bulbs and many other plant parts from members of the Lily family (of which garlic is a member) are especially bad for cats. -I did not know that garlic was also toxic to dogs but apparently it is as well (I do know that cats don't have some of the toxin processing apparatus that other mammals have, so they tend to have the broadest risk of plant poisoning.)

Thanks!

EC: Please see Lisa Newman, N.D. about garlic for dogs: https://www.earthclinic.com/pets/garlic_for_dogs.html#ARTICLE

We also have pages of positive testimonials from readers about dogs and garlic in the same section.

Borax

Posted by Werknut (Cincinnati, Oh) on 09/16/2009
★★★★★

Borax is a miracle cure for getting rid of fleas and from keeping flea eggs from hatching. You buy it in the grocery store in the laundry aisle. Just sprinkle it on your carpeting and then vacuum it up. The residue will stay in the carpet and will kill fleas and keep flea eggs from hatching. It is more effective than any bug spray or expensive flea spray from the vet. And it's cheap! One box will last a long time. It's non-toxic to pets and it will leave your house smelling fresh. I used it when I lived in Florida, where fleas are plentiful and they are so hardy, they seem to be bionic. I swear by Borax, and everyone I've ever recommended it to has had the same marvelous results I had.