Fighting Fleas

The last few days have been beautiful – warm, sunny spring days.  These beautiful days you want to spend as much time outside as possible.  Unfortunately, nice warm days also bring the summer bugs.  I got my first mosquito bite yesterday while spending some time enjoying the outdoors.

Of course, in our house, we are far more concerned with how the bugs affect our four-legged fuzzy children than we are with how they bother us.  Spring weather means fleas.  We had a dog, Franklyn, who died because of topical flea treatment.  We decided then and there that the pain of watching him decline and die because of something we gave him was not something we ever wanted to go through again.  Nor did we want anyone else to have to experience it.  So, after loads of research and reading, we have successfully been able to win the war against fleas with all natural products that are safe for our dogs, ourselves and the environment.  This is our battle plan:

First, we use an all natural soap to bathe our boys regularly.  A good choice is one that contains Eucalyptus and Tea Tree essential oils which are both great at repelling fleas.  The Tea Tree oil has the added benefit of being a natural antiseptic so it will help ease the pain and itching from any flea bites

To get rid of any fleas in the house, we use Borax.  It can be found in the grocery store with the laundry detergent.  We sprinkle the powder on the carpet, sofas, chairs, beds, etc., rub it in with a dry broom and let it sit for a few hours.  Then just vacuum it up.  Borax will suck out all the moisture from the fleas and kill them.

For the outside, we use food grade diatomaceous earth.  It is very important to buy the food grade material and not what you find at a pool store.  The diatomaceous earth at the pool store contains silica which makes the dust harmful if inhaled.  We sprinkle it all over the yard.  The small sharp crystals will literally poke holes in the fleas, killing them.  It also works for other crawling bugs – roaches, ticks, bed bugs, beetles and more.

We have been using this approach for the past year and a half and have had fewer problems with fleas then ever before.  We encourage you to fight fleas all naturally this year.  You, your pet and your environment will be better off.

Jenn & Gayle

————————————————————————————

Gayle and Jenn own Glynne’s Soaps, Inc an all natural skin care company. Soon after Jenn finished her Master’s Degree in Chemistry, she became interested in more creative outlets for her chemical knowledge. About this time, tragedy struck, as their dog, Franklyn, suffered an unfortunate and untimely death, traceable only to the use of a topical flea treatment.

The combination of sorrow and their passionate commitment to not have another pet owner go though what they went though losing Franklyn drove Jenn’s search for a safe flea treatment. She formulated All Natural Dog Soap and successfully controlled fleas on their personal dogs. Based on the effectiveness of that soap, Gayle and Jenn thought perhaps others might want to try a safe alternative to topical flea products as well. And VOILA! Glynne’s Soaps began.