Shoo flea: are those little ankle biters getting to you and your pet? - natural remedies - Answering Machine

Vegetarian Times, June, 1997 by Jeanne Rattenbury

Yes there are, and there are good reasons for using them, as chemical-laden flea collars and soaps are suspected of impairing the immune systems of animals who wear them.

The war against fleas must be waged on two fronts: on the animal itself and in the animal's environs. In both cases, the objective is to kill the fleas already present and to repel those that may be looking for a warm body to nuzzle up to. As you begin your quest to relieve your companion animal of the pain and itching of fleas, it's important to know the facts.

Fleas are capable of causing severe skin irritations at best and of carrying serious diseases at worst. These blood-sucking parasites can live as long as two months without feeding and up to eight months after they get their blood "fix." Only about 5 percent of the flea population is visible, and an adult female can lay as many as 50 eggs a day on a host animal.

To get rid of the tenacious fleas living on your pet, seek out shampoos and powders containing orange oil, an effective anti-flea substance. To eliminate fleas in your house, sprinkle diatomaceous earth powder (a fine white powder made from the fossilized remains of one-celled algae) or table salt around your furniture, carpeting and pet's bed -- all likely flea homes -- and then vacuum.

To keep fleas away, use products with pungent (to a flea's sensibility) odors. Natural products containing the essential oils of citronella, cedar, eucalyptus and bay work well, as do those containing botanical apyrethum (derived from dried chrysanthemum flowers). For your companion animal, try collars, powders and shampoos made with these substances; for your house, sprinkle powder wherever fleas hide. It's important to keep your house and your pet's bedding or favorite sleeping area scrupulously clean. And after you're done vacuuming, be sure to throw away the vacuum bag because fleas can linger there.

You also can make natural pesticides from herbs but doing so can be dangerous -- herbs that are toxic enough to kill fleas also can be harmful to animals. (Ready-made herbal products, on the other hand, are diluted to make them safe.) The herb historically used to ward off fleas is pennyroyal; the herb's botanical name, mentha pulegium, is actually derived from the Latin word for flea, pulex. Pennyroyal leaves can be rubbed right on your companion animal, or you can make a collar by braiding pennyroyal stems together, according to Penny King, an herbalist with the American Botanical Council in Austin, Texas.

King warns against using pennyroyal oil, however, because it is terrifically concentrated. It takes an acre of the herb to make just one ounce of oil and can be toxic. Medical studies dating from 1897 (in the British medical journal Lancet) to a November 1996 article in Pediatrics document the fate of dogs and children who have died or become ill with liver damage due to use of pennyroyal. "Whatever you do, don't apply the pennyroyal oil directly to your skin or that of your pet," says King.

Natural pesticides and flea repellents can be found in specialty pet-care stores and natural food stores across the country. One mail-order source is Natural Animal of St. Augustine, Fla., which also publishes a free brochure titled Natural Flea Control, written by L. Phillips Brown, D.V.M. To have a copy sent, call (800) 274-7387 or (904) 824-5884.