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How To Fight
Fleas The Natural Way
by:
Wayne Foster
How to fight fleas The
natural way:
• Vacuum your home frequently and seal vacuum bags before
disposing.
• Wash the bedding of your dog weekly in warm soapy water.
This is where fleas usually breed.
• Bathing your pet weekly with a mild dog shampoo prevents
flea invasion.
• Use cedar shampoo for your dog, and put cedar oil in their
sleeping mats. Cedar will repel fleas and other insects.
• Fleas are attracted to dry skin, so to avoid it, give your
dog Linatone oil mixed with its food. Excessive shampooing
should be avoided.
• A mixture of brewer’s yeast and garlic, available in
powder or tablet form can be given in small doses to your
pet. This creates a certain odor in pets, and fleas are
surely to avoid them. • Fresh or dried
pennyroyal leaves is a natural flea
repellent. Use this in carpets to avoid the
abundance of fleas in the home. Do not use
it if you have small children around, as
this could be toxic.
• A mixture of 60 ml of lavender oil with
2.8 liters of rock salt can also be placed
in areas where dogs usually come in contact
with and this solution could also be used to
wash your dog.
• Planting marigolds in the yard is helpful
too, it repels certain types of bugs as well
as fleas.
• Boiled lemon or orange peel in water can
be used as a dip for dogs and can be used
too to soak in dog bedding for a few hours,
then washed with warm soapy water.
•
Lukewarm water with little shampoo and
detergent is a good way to prevent fleas. A
dog’s body may be dipped into the solution
for fifteen minutes and then rinsed. This
only works if flea infestation is light.
The natural way of treating fleas is
effective only if the level of flea
infestation is average to very few. This
method usually is recommended for
prevention
only.
Read more about dog allergies and
training at
http://www.gamebird-hunter.com/Hunting-dogs.html
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Different commercially available products
with chemical contents:
• Advantage. Active ingredient is
imidacloprid. This is a flea poison, from
Bayer. It is in a liquid form and applied to
the skin, at the back of the dog, and works
for about a month. This works by upsetting
the nervous system of fleas when they come
in contact with the liquid. This product is
fast acting and is not absorbed into the
internal organs and bloodstream of the dog.
Studies indicate that this product is highly
toxic to fleas and other insects as well. A
dog will be free from fleas in just a couple
of days. |
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Ingredients are: imidacloprid -- a
chloronicotinyl nitroguanidine integrated
from the nitromethylene class of a compound.
This joins the nicotinyl receptor sites of
insects, thus upsetting normal nerve
transmission which causes death.
A set of two vials costs 15-20 dollars.
• Frontline. This product is very similar to
Advantage, but is not water soluble, so
alcohol is needed to wash it off. This can
safely be used in pups, dogs, cats and
kittens.
Efficiency in repelling lasts up to four
months.
Active ingredients include: Fipronil 5-amino
-1- (2, 6-dichloro-4 [trifluoromethyl]phenyl)
-4- (1,R,S)- (trifluoromethyl0sulfinyl)
-1H-pryazole-3-carbonitrile 0.29% inert
ingredients 99.71%.
Fipronil works as a nervous transmission
interruptor, which causes quick death to
fleas and ticks. It is proven to kills 96%
of fleas for the first two hours and 100%
within 24 hours. Ticks die sooner than they
attach themselves to the host. Fipronil is
from the new phenylpyrazole class.
Very
effective and can be considered
safe, so long as dogs are not
allergic to fipronil.
• Knockout. Performs like Frontline
and is as effective, but can only be
used in dogs. Active ingredients:
Pyriproxyfen:
21[1-methyl-2-(phenoxyphenoxy)ethyoxy]
pyridine....0.05%
cyclopropanecarboxylate 2.00% inert
ingredients 97.95% Also has NYLAR,
which is flea growth regulator.
• Biospot. This is for topical
application and kills up to 75
percent of fleas, eggs, and ticks.
It also is a good repellant of
mosquitoes and works for about a
month. Temporarily, at times, it
turns white hair to yellow. This can
not be used in cats and contains
permethrins and IGR.
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Proban (cythioate) and Prospot (Fenthion).
While not to be used in cats, they
are widely used in dogs. This is
absorbed by the bloodstream and
fleas die due to the poison that is
present in the blood. For it to
work, it requires the bitting of
fleas. There are certain conditions
to be considered though. You are
injecting a small dose of poison
into your dog’s body and side
effects are not known. Then this
does not help if a dog has flea
allergy, and can not risk to be
bitten.
Generally fleas abound during the
summer months, when it is their
breeding season. These commercial
products can greatly help in
fighting heavy flea infestation and
needed where severe invasion occurs.
However, it is always best to
consult with your veterinarian as
the choice of flea control will
greatly depend on your life style.
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