Fight fleas with Diatomaceous Earth

Photo courtesy of RBirtles at Flickr.com.

Looking for an alternative to chemical pesticides? Diatomaceous earth is a great way to control insects with a hard exoskeleton (including fleas, ticks, and cockroaches). The sharp edges of diatomaceous earth kill these bugs, but diatomaceous earth doesn’t harm people or pets if used properly.

Diatomaceous Earth is great for controlling a wide variety of hard shelled insects, including silverfish, tomato hornworm, bed bugs, carpet beetles, slugs, snails, house flies, fruit flies, red spider mites, and earwigs. The pests that devour your garden can be turned into useful fertilizer. These ground up fossils also provide valuable trace minerals to your soil – they contain approximately 3% magnesium, 86% silicon, 5% sodium, 2% iron and fractional percentages of titanium, boron, manganese, copper, zirconium, and other minerals.

One last thing to watch out for – it’s important that you choose Amorphous Diatomaceous Earth instead of Diatomaceous Earth that’s been processed for use in swimming pools. According to the Winter 1987 issue ofCommon Sense Pest Control Quarterly:

Both swimming pool grade and natural diatomaceous earth come from the same fossil sources but they are processed differently. The natural grades are mined, dried, ground, sled and bagged. The pool grade is chemically treated and partially melted and consequently contains crystalline silica which can be a respiratory hazard.

So, shake off the fleas with Diatomaceous earth!

Photo courtesy of BOB008 at Flickr.com.