Citrus Repellent: Cut a lemon into quarters and place in a pint jug. Cover the lemon with boiling water and let it steep overnight. Next day you have a flea repellent that you can use in a spray bottle. Spray all over your dog remembering especially behind the ears and around the head generally (careful of eyes), around the base of the tail (once again keep away from delicate bits) and under your dogs "armpits."
Aroma Therapy Repellent: Using 10 ml. of Pure Almond Carrier Oil as your base, add 10 drops of Lavender Essential Oil and 5 drops of Cedar wood Essential Oil. Shake well and use 1 or 2 drops [of this mixture] spread over the skin at least twice a week to keep the fleas away.
A flea collar can be made by rubbing a few drops of one of the following into an ordinary webbing or rope collar or even a doggy bandanna: Eucalyptus Essential Oil, Tea Tree Essential Oil, Citronella Essential Oil, Lavender Essential Oil or Geranium Essential Oil. Don't forget to do this weekly.
Your home: Fleas spend most of their time in your furnishings and only hop onto your dog or you for their next meal. Make sure you wash your dog's bedding regularly because no flea ever survived a hot wash cycle. If you add Eucalyptus Essential Oil to the final rinse it will also kill 99% of house dust mites according to research from the University of Sydney, Australia.
Vacuum your home very thoroughly and sprinkle a fine layer of ordinary table salt over your upholstery and carpets and leave overnight before vacuuming again to evict your unwelcome guests safely but don't forget to empty your vacuum bag.
Bathing: A badly infested dog really needs to be bathed so use your favorite dog shampoo. Rinse the dog off very thoroughly and in the final rinse add a couple of drops of Tea Tree Essential Oil or Lavender Essential Oil. An alternative is to make your own herbal flea dip which will also work on ticks. Steep two cups of fresh Rosemary Leaf in two pints of boiling water for 30 minutes. Strain the liquid, discard the leaves and make it up to one gallon ( 8 pints) with warm water. Pour this mixture over the dog until it's saturated. Do not rinse off and allow the dog to dry naturally so this is a remedy to use on hot summer days.
Internal Flea Repellents: Garlic may not be your favorite cologne and it's not the flea's favorite smell either. When your dog eats garlic, the smell is excreted through the dog's skin making your dog less likely to be the flea's next meal. In case you think you might need to give your dog a breath freshener along with the garlic, my dogs, Mack and Josh, eat a garlic clove every day and I don't find their breath smells from it at all. Brewer's yeast tablets will also help to make your dog less attractive to fleas because once again the smell is excreted through the skin.
Adding a dessertspoon of natural apple cider vinegar to the water bowl will make the skin more acidic and unpleasant to fleas and ticks. If your dogs don't fancy apple cider vinegar in the water bowl, dilute it 50/50 with water and use in a spray bottle instead of the citrus repellent. [Or, you can use natural apple cider vinegar tablets.]
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Request: Getting Rid of Flies
Archived on 09/14/2009
I have a horse next door which creates lots of flies. I use fly bait and they take it. But I also have porch flies which don't take the regular bait and they just stay circling on the porch. Any suggestions?
I use a window pepper fly trap. The trap will sit on a window sill, or can be stuck to a window with sticky pads. The flies buzz down into the trap and are retained. Once they fall into the pepper they cannot cling to a smooth side of the trap. Then soon die of dehydration. Safe to use, no toxic chemicals, no smells, only pepper smell, and it solves a problem. It also works for yellow jackets/wasps/pantry moths and other insect pests. Obtainable from stirtsystems.com. Hope it solves your problem. Good luck. (06/22/2009)
One thing I read recently, but have not yet tried. Take a few clear Zip-loc, or similar bags, quarts will probably work, fill them, (nearly), with water, drop in a very shiny penny. Hang these around the corners of your porch, or position them so that they are "around" the porch area. The reason is, flies eyes are nothing like ours, and they see what appears to be a large predator, or a barrier and will not go forward.
Another suggestion was to put some wadded newspaper into a brown paper bag that has been crumpled a bit, then tie, or glue that near where you do not want the flies. They will "see" a hornets nest, and stay away. I think I got this information from-ta-da-Thrifty fun. Hope this works. (06/23/2009)
Check out Rescue Fly Traps. These things are great. You can get them at Ace Hardware or online at Amazon. They have a strong smell (which is what attracts the flies) so you have to put it off a distance from doorways. But, boy, does it catch flies. (06/23/2009)
I used the large Ziploc bag filled with water last year and it never did a thing. Only thing I know that works is fans. We had 4 box fans last year during the 4th of July cook-out and it helped, but not a very great deal. I just brought a large fan from Wal-Mart for $70.00, but you have to hold onto your paper plates and paper cups. I also use Raid Ant and Roach killer spray. (06/23/2009)
