food grade diatomaceous earth

I'm dealing with a flea infestation in my household right now. I'm reading up on food grade diatomaceous earth, as I want to use a more natural approach against these stupid fleas. Is the airborne powder going to be harmful to my dusky conures?

Do you have dogs or cats??? I personally don't trust any powder form of anything around my birds...why risk it?

I've used DE for fleas before...it'll get dusty when you put it down and then once you start vacuuming it'll get REALLY dusty -I had to cover my nose and mouth with my shirt. Although food grade DE is non-toxic it irritated even my nose. I suggest you remove the birds to an area where they wouldn't be exposed to the dust to avoid any irritations or them breathing it in....or not use it at all.

Another method we did was put shallow bowls of soapy water on the floor before you go to bed with flashlights pointed into the water- fleas are nocturnal and suckers for light. They'll jump towards the light and land in the water and drown. Do it every night and you'll see the numbers dwindle after a while.

You'll also need to bathe your dog/cat (whomever is infested) on at least a weekly basis with dawn dish soap- its not as chemically as flea shampoos but it'll still kill the fleas.

Peppermint oil also repels fleas, so if they're biting you, get a body wash or something that has it in it and that'll help keep the bites down.

Thank you for the recommendations! I didn't know that about the fleas and light.

While I'm on the subject of non toxic flea products, I have another product, a spray, that contains primarily these oils: peppermint, cinnamon, lemongrass, clove and thyme. Would the odor from these oils be harmful to the birds?

I'm not 100% sure, but I believe they're sense of smell isn't that great- yet they're very sensitive to odors. We have an outdoor spray to repel ants that uses a lot of oils, and it gives me an ENORMOUS headache every time because of the peppermint in it. I **personally** wouldn't use any odorous sprays (non toxic or not) around them or even if the scent could travel from another room.

As far as I know those natural oil mix with water to spray is fine. Are you using the natural remedies to rid fleas??? I think it was lavender mix with water....

Not yet, although I was intrigued by the prospect of making a rosemary/hot water infusion to spray on the dogs. Lavender would definitely be a lot nicer on the olfactory receptors over the rosemary, that's for sure!

I used that to spray my dogs with no effect on fleas....so I give up on it and went with frontline plus and all fleas disappeared in a month.

In my area both Frontline and Advantage have stopped working. The fleas have built up an intolerance to them, which is why I'm having such difficulties right now.

DE affects the joints of bugs/insects...and...like has been mentioned, you'll have an airborne dust problem with any most any vacuum unless it is a HEPA type.....

Here are a couple of links you might want to take a look at...https://insects.tamu.edu/extension/publications/epubs/e-433.cfm and http://apps.cdpr.ca.gov/schoolipm/managing_pests/74_antgrub.pdf

I use 5% Sevin dust for the rare occasion fleas decide to pester us.....

Here's a post I did several days ago, for the same problem:

As to getting fleas out of carpet, rugs, from hardwood floors, etc., get yourself 6-8 new vacuum bags...to start with & get yourself a large package of Sevin Dust (be sure the pkg. mentions fleas) & turn off your A/C & running fans, vacuum all carpets, rugs & other floor4 areas, remove the vacuum bag & discard it...either in an outside bin or take it to a garbage disposal area...DON"T LEAVE IN THE HOUSE. Next, install a new vacuum bag, sprinkle the Sevin dust around, take a stiff bristled broom and drag it through the sprinkled material (I say drag rather than broom) so as to get a good spreading without aerating the dust. Once the initial dust has settled, you can turn your A/C and/or fans back on.....

Let that set for 48 hours, then vacuum & go through the same process as above.....the 3rd, 4th, 5th & any succeeding treatments can be on 72 hour separations.....the reason for all the treatments is to break the fleas life cycles & since each flea doesn't hatch at the same time you have to attack the various hatchings.....

Pigeon keepers & keepers of fancy show chickens even dust their birds with Sevin dust, to keep fleas & mites out of their aviaries & nest boxes.....

Rabbit breeders, mink breeders, chinchilla breeders & other animal breeders, use Sevin dust in & around cages also.....

Going after the fleas is only a band-aid solution if you don't go after the carriers.....get your vet to give you oral medication for your dogs & cats or get Frontline (not the cheap knock offs) products for both & applicate them according to directions.....or.....make them outdoor animals.....

Gizmomania said:

In my area both Frontline and Advantage have stopped working. The fleas have built up an intolerance to them, which is why I'm having such difficulties right now.

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I've heard of that before...been using frontline plus for 6 years now so far no issues....hoping I won't have any issues either......perhaps try treating your lawn and your house? Borax will kill fleas too but it is toxic so you must rinse off your lawn first.

Awesome! Thanks Weco. Looks like Sevin dust will be a safe alternative around the birds.

I appreciate everyone's help!

Good to know about sevin dust! Thanks weco!

Gizmo- good luck!!

I use diatomaceous earth a lot around my amazons. You don't need to spend the money for food grade the plain jane works fine. I don't use it for fleas but it should work on them OK. The best nontoxic fix for fleas to use a shallow pan with water, i use an old table lamp with no shade , set it on the floor and the fleas jump to the heat given off by the bulb.Hopefully they land in the water and drown,LOL. I set up several of these "traps" around the house, let it sit for a day or two and move to another room. In a couple of weeks you should kill off most of the fleas. You can see when your only catching small ones(fresh hatched) and know your winning the battle. The closer you can get the pan to under the light ,the better it will work. Diatomaceous earth works better on things like ants and roachs that crawl around. I put it out around the base boards and let them crawl thru it. It's not a poison, it's made from the skeletons of diatoms(plankton) that live in the ocean. When they die the skeletons are all that remains and sink to the bottom where it's mined. The skeletons have sharp points on them and are very small, these sharp points get into the joints of insect where they cause them to " bleed " to death. It really works good around most of our pets, dogs ,cats, birds, etc. I could see where a vacuum would stir it up and irritate respiratory tracts, i just wipe it up ,no problem. If you spread it around the outside of your home it will keep many "bugs" away, however you'll need to reapply after a good rain. I use it outside in the yard on fire ants because i have free range chickens, the chickens will "dust bathe" in it and i've never had an issue there either.

My heart goes out to you because we have been in your shoes. We tried DE inside and did not see any results. We sprayed our carpet with a Raid product that was formulated for fleas. The process was done twice just to be thorough. We did remove the bird to do this and opened all the windows to air it out afterwards. We use triflexis (sp?) on our dog because it treats heartworms, worms and fleas. A great product. We found that the topical Revolution worked better than the others on the market. At the time we were experiencing an infestation, I felt that Frontline was helping the fleas to reproduce. I took a flea comb daily to my cat and the fleas were still found in large numbers until Revolution was given. Our cat is an indoor cat so the dog was bringing them in.

Good luck and let us know what works for you.

We thank the Lord for trifexis, it works for us.

I am glad somebody else like that product because it's relatively new.

We bombed our home with an industrial strength flea killer because my Pug was being eaten alive. We took my Senegal to my mothers house 2 hours away and left her there for a week and a half. Aired out the house for two days before we brought her back home and everything went well.

Front line did not work for us AT ALL. It was horrible.

That's one advantage to not having carpeting! The good rugs can be picked up and taken for professional cleaning.