Wednesday, May 14, 2014

A Natural Way to Get Rid of Fleas

Fleas are a major problem in Florida. If you live here in Florida and
own a cat or dog it is likely that you will have to contend with fleas
eventually.

If you want to get rid of fleas naturally it is important that you understand their life cycle
The adult flea only lives for 7-10 days. The adult will eat, mate,
lay eggs and die. That’s it. The eggs will hatch into a larvae. The
larvae crawl around for a bit then enter the pupa stage. In the pupa
stage the flea is in a cocoon. The fleas are next to impossible to kill
during this stage as they are protected by the cocoon.

The pupa will hatch into adults after about 10 days if there is
activity from humans or animals nearby. The pupa relies on vibrations
from humans and animals walking around to tell them when to hatch.

If you want to kill fleas naturally, you need to attack the stages that are easiest to kill which are the egg and larvae stages.

The best way to kill fleas naturally is with a dust. A boric acid and
botanically based pesticide mixture will do the trick. Botanically
based pesticides are very safe and contain essential oils that will plug
up the breathing tubes of the fleas. The boric acid will affect them
when they ingest it. Ingesting boric acid will adversely affect their
digestive systems.

Another option is to use a silica based dust. This will dissolve the
wax coating on the body of the flea after they walk around through it.
When this coating is dissolved, the fleas will dry out.


Be sure to dust very well in all the places where the fleas are
living. Dog and cat beds, furniture they sit on, beds and carpeting are
hot spots for fleas. Doing this will disrupt the life cycle of the flea
and the adults will die off.

A Natural Way to Get Rid of Fleas