Organic Flea
Control Guide

Organic flea control versus traditional flea control is more labor intensive, but you do avoid using commercially available flea products that have several potential side effects.

If you are going to attempt to control fleas organically you will have to combine several different methods in order to control them.

Remember, you have to clean the environment and your pet in order to put an end to the fleas.

Flea Life Cycle

Adult fleas make up a very small percentage of the total number of fleas in your home, therefore you have to focus on destroying the eggs, larvae, and pupa stages. These three stages are not found on the pet at all, only adult fleas are.

Controlling Fleas

1. Flea Combs

This is a fine tooth metal comb. Brush your pet daily and when you do see fleas on the brush, you can drown them by putting them in a bowl of water. Keep track of the number of fleas you remove each day to see how your efforts are progressing.

If you see a decrease in the numbers you find your efforts are working. If you see a sudden increase in the number of adult fleas you should change strategies.

This only will help reduce the adult flea population, so we also have to work on the environment, otherwise, you will have new adult fleas on your pet very soon.

2. Flea Bath

For dogs, a bath with Rosemary oil, tea tree oil and citronella oils (don’t use these oils on cats) can help to have a residual deterrent effect on not only fleas, but mosquitoes and flies as well. There are several herbal shampoos you can use as well.

3. Sooth Itchy Skin

Flea bite allergies are very common. Many pets have circles of red skin around flea bites, which is a caused by an allergy to flea saliva. A bath can help sooth the skin. Also products that contain ingredients like German Chamomile, Cleavers, and Witchhazel can also help.

4. Dietary Supplements

Some people feed garlic powder or brewer’s yeast to their pets, which can help make them smell more unattractive to fleas. You can buy these in pill form or a powder to spread over your pet’s food.

5. Wash bedding

Try to wash bedding at least every 3 days, every day if possible. This helps to remove fleas from the environments and picks up eggs, larvae and pupae off the carpet.

6. Vacuum

Spread some Diatomaceous Earth on the carpet and vacuum it up. If your vacuum can’t reach all areas of the room, just spread some of this around. It is non-toxic for people and pets and is often used as a dietary supplement. It is believed that this dries out fleas.

7. Dehumidify

Use dehumidifiers to keep humidity below 70%. Fleas need humidity to be over 70% to hatch. Larvae need at least 50% humidity to survive.

Fleas need at least 70 degrees F to survive.

If you use a combination of humidity and temperature control, and vacuuming you should be able to eliminate fleas from your house.

Even just using one of these techniques you should see a drastic reduction in the number of fleas in the house.

7. Outdoor Flea Control

Many pets pick up fleas outside in the yard and bring them in which is why you should spend some time focusing on controlling fleas in your yard.

>The plants and herbs like sage, thyme, peppermint, rosemary, can repel fleas. A plant called Pennyroyal is a natural flea repellent as well, but very toxic if eaten.

> Only allow your dog to play in sunny areas of the yard.

> Sprinkle diatomaceous earth in areas where sun cannot reach.

> Cedar chips placed in the yard can also help to repel fleas.