Today’s talk, DIY Homemade Natural Flea Powder with Essential Oils is for the pet lovers.
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It is summer here and pest season is upon us. Living in the south, we have pests pretty much all the time but summer is worse. We live on a farm, in the country with animals, lots of animals. So as you may figure, we have to deal with fleas and tick. So we found a recipe for homemade flea and tick dust with natural ingredients.
If you are a pet and animal person, you know there is always bad to go with the good. Most times the good times outweigh the bad. But there are some things neither you nor your pet can live with, the fleas and ticks.
A. The Bugs
1. Fleas
Not only are fleas and tick a trouble for your poor pets but they can also be health hazards as well.
Fleas of course are in themselves, are an issue with many pets and in many places. Fleas make your dog itch and scratch, which may drive you nuts. Fleas drop eggs that will hatch out and make more fleas.
2. Tapeworms from fleas
Fleas also carry tapeworm eggs, which can infect both you and your dog if you are not very careful. If this becomes an issue, do not get rid of the dog, just see your doctor and your vet. Tapeworms can easily be treated with pills for both you and your dog. But do make sure to see to it quickly, tapeworms can make your dog loose weight and drops the immune system. This can make your dog sickly.
3. Ticks
Of course ticks are just nasty. Blood sucking parasites that drain your dog of his blood and health. Tick can also carry diseases and transmit those to your dog when the tick bites your dog. Tick bites themselves can be ugly. Tick bites can be big, lumpy and red and can get infected.
So if you have a dog or have ever had a dog, you know fleas and ticks are an issue. Depending on where you live, these two pests can be a year-round thing.
B. Treating for Fleas and Ticks
But there are many ways to handle fleas and ticks. You can go the all-out chemical attack and get flea bombs, spray poisons, chemical powders, and chemical treatments to put directly onto your pet. But as you know, we try our best to be green and environmentally friendly here on the farm. So we try to go with natural, chemical-free ways to deal with things, yes even fleas and ticks on our beloved pets.
We use a recipe we found some time ago that has worked well for us. This recipe does call for some ingredients that you may not have on hand but they are easy to come by. We normally have these ingredients on hand as we use them for some of our other DIY projects. But if you want to try this recipe and do not have the “stuff” you need, you can get them at StarWest Botannicals. You can also find some of the ingredients at Jeffers and other general stores but these stores may not have them all. Star West is where we get all of our ingredients in one place.
If you have to get all the ingredients at once, this may be a bit pricey to start with but it will save you money in the long run. Your pet will be chemical-free, flea and tick-free. And your pet will smell like a tea party.
C. The Recipe: DIY Homemade Natural Flea Powder with Essential Oils
Ingredients:
2 cups of Food Grade Diatomaceous Earth
2 cups of Arrowroot powder
2 cups of Neem Powder
30 drops of Peppermint Essential Oil
30 drops of Citronella Essential Oil
30 drops of Eucalyptus Essential Oil
The Diatomaceous Earth and Neem powder are very fine and will get everywhere before you know it. Arrowroot is a fine powder also but it does not seem to want to cover the world like the other two do.
We love to recycle and be as green as possible here on the farm. Pretty much everything can be saved, there has to be something we can reuse it for. Even the plastic bags inside the cereal box can be re-used. Once you wash and dry them, cereal box baggies are better than plastic storage bags. Cereal bags are stronger and last through more re-uses than the standard plastic storage bag. We also save and reuse empty crisp bags in the same way.
We know it may seem strange but we use the empty crisp bag for our flea powder.
D. To mix the DIY Homemade Natural Flea Powder with Essential Oils:
1. Measure out the Diatomaceous Earth into a large bowl.
It is a bit of a dusty job so be sure not to pour too vigorously.
2. Add the arrowroot powder to the bowl.
3. Mix the Neem powder into the bowl.
4. Carefully pour the powders into whatever container you are using. Do not mix in the open air.
5. Now you can shake and mix to get the three powders well blended.
Be careful not to shake the bag or container open or you will have a mess. Yes, we did that once also.
6. Added the essential oils to the powder mix.
We took a small amount of powder mix and added the essential oils to the it one oil at a time. Mix well, but again being careful not to throw dust everywhere.
7. Put the essential oils, and powder mix back into the rest of the powder in your container.
Again, be careful when shaking and mixing, the powder will get everywhere.
8. Make sure to label your new flea powder, not that you are likely to get this mixed up with anything else.
If you prefer to do it all at once, you can just put the powders and essential oil in a container and shake well. The essential oils make cause the powders to clump up so you will need to watch for that.
Do not mix in an electric mixer, it throws dust all over the kitchen.
Once the mixing is done, it is best to let the mix sit for a few days so the powders absorb the oils. But you can use it immediately if you need to.
And there you have DIY Homemade Natural Flea Powder with Essential Oils.
E. To use the DIY Homemade Natural Flea Powder with Essential Oils:
First, take your dog outside. Do not treat your dog in the house, unless you want to have Christmas inside.
At this point, you will need to decide on how you will apply your powder to your pet. Some pets are fine with just a hand full of powder and rub it in. But many pets know you are up to something and will try to avoid it. Do not let your pet run away, this will not get you anywhere.
Normally we have at least two people to powder the dog. One person holds the dog, on a leash is best, unless the holder has fleas also, then powder them both.
You can get all kinds of gadgets to “dust” you dog, you can find these at a general store or feed store. You can buy a spray duster, a duster can, a dust puff and there are others. But we just use the direct method.
Be sure not to get the powder in the dogs eyes or face. It is not good to breath and it is not good for the eyes. If you do get the powder in your dogs face or eyes, rinse immediately.
With one person holding the dog on a leash, get a dipper of powder and rub it into the dogs hair. Depending on the size of your dog, you may need more or less powder. We use a one cup measuring cup so we know exactly how much we are applying to each dog.
Then you can take a dog “rake”, it is really a brush and brush the powder through the dogs hair. Be sure you get the powder all over the dog. Make a special note to powder the dogs belly and underarms, as fleas like to hide there. Try to brush the dog so that most of the powder gets down into the hair close to the skin. There will be some powder on the hair when you are done, that can not be helped. But do not use to much at one time. Powder and brush, trying to get as much powder as you can down into the hair. If you just dump the powder on the dog it will stay on the surface and that will waste a lot of powder.
We just use our hands to massage the powder into the dogs hair and rake it with our fingers. But whatever method you use, the principle is the same. You want to get the powder all over the dog and into its’ hair, down to the skin.
Now let the dog go and it will shake the extra powder off. The shaking will also help get the power down into the dog’s coat.
You can also use this powder in your dogs bedding, dog house and around the yard. Just remember you will have dust everywhere the dog walks if you use it around the house.
F. Cautions
An important note: Your air conditioner and vaccum cleaners will not like this fine dust. You will need to clean your filters to keep them from getting clogged up.
We have not tried to powder the cats. We are not sure that all of these ingredients are cat safe. We also do not want to loose fingers or hands to an angry cat.
We have not used it on any of the farm birds either. In theory this mix should be safe for birds but as we are not sure, we are not willing to take the risk and accidently kill one of our birds or make them sick.
We do use this powder on the goats, donkeys and horses. For large animals the hand full of powder method works. But we also have an old sock that we fill with powder. This way you can “swat” flies and distribute flea powder at the same time.
As long as you keep the ratio right, you can make any size batch you need. We make large batches as we have several pets we use it on. This recipe mixed up into a find powder, a little bit goes a long way.
G. More Info
For those of you that are not familiar with the ingredients:
1. Diatomaceous Earth is a fine powder made from crushed shell and fossiles. It is basically like microscopic glass shards to insects. It cuts the outer shells to make the bugs dehydrate and die. But it is harmless to people and pets.
2. Neem powder is a natural bug repellent, fleas, gnats and mosquitoes do not like the smell. Neem oil is often used in home remedies to help skin issues and hair loss.
3. Arrowroot is a natural powder that comes from dried arrowroot plants. It can be used in all kinds of things from baking to body powder to pets. Arrowroot helps the other powders mix and is a good filler. Arrowroot also helps soothe irritated skin.
4. Peppermint, Citronella, and Eucalyptus are all natural essential oils that are known for repelling bugs. There are other essential oils you can use to kill and repel bugs. You can experiment with the oils on different batches to see which combo works best for your pet. Be sure your pet is not allergic to any of the ingredients before you use them.
Also, note if you add to many essential oils to your powder, your dog will start to smell like an old medicine cabinet.
We bought our Diatomaceous Earth in bulk from the local farm store. You can buy Diatomaceous Earth from StarWest, they do carry it.
The essential oil, and Neem powder, came from StarWest.
The arrowroot powder we bought from Misfit Market Place, we did a talk on them some time ago and we still love them.
If you missed the talk about how great Misfit Market Place is you can find it here. Misfit Market Place is one of the best companies for going green, zero waste, reducing food waste and money saving on groceries. Check them out for yourself.
We hope you have enjoyed this talk. Try making DIY Homemade Natural Flea Powder with Essential Oils yourself and see how well it works.
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Thank you for visiting and please come again for another edition of Out Standing in the Field.
This is really a wonderful alternative to harsh chemicals. No waiting or worrying about the side affects.
True and this recipe does smell pretty good.