Pets and Pests: How to Combat Fleas and Ticks

By Stacy Mantle

There is nothing more terrifying to a pet owner than happening across a flea or tick on their pet. The first thought that runs through their head is that they must do something immediately. While you do need to take action, you should always be thinking of ways to prevent pests in the first place.

Prevention is the key when it comes to pests such as fleas and ticks. While you may not have them in your home now, there is always a distinct possibility that they are on the way. The best way to prevent pests is to have your home treated with an environmentally friendly, yet effective pest control service. Treating the outside of a home is optimal, and will help in eliminating anything that may show up indoors.

If you do find fleas or ticks in your home, there are a number of steps to follow:

1. Vacuum: Studies show that merely vacuuming the home regularly can eliminate 50% of fleas and ticks. Don’t let waste be stored in a bag. Wrap it in a plastic bag and dispose outside or empty and clean canister after a quick spray of frontline.

2. Laundry: Do lots and lots of laundry. This will help eliminate any current pupae (flea larvae) and help prevent future problems.

3. Treat your pet: Using a nontoxic spray or monthly treatment, be sure to have your pet treated. Be very cautious when choosing a treatment and do your homework. If you’re treating cats or kittens, be careful. They have a tendency to react poorly to these treatments and it’s important to choose one that is nontoxic and approved for use on cats. Read the instructions and never try to use a dog treatment on a cat.

4. Treat bedding: Be sure to vacuum and clean the areas where your pet spends most of their time. Wash bedding, treat with a nontoxic spray or powder, and vacuum often.

With these guidelines, you should be able to prevent and eliminate any future infestations. If you already have fleas, remember that you will need to do this often. Fleas have a 15-day life cycle.

Read more articles by Stacy Mantle

Garden Pests: Tackling Ticks with Natural, Dog-Friendly Sprays

 
Whether you’re talking about the tiny black deer ticks, Ixodes scapularis, or the larger brown wood or dog ticks, Dermacentor variabilis, ticks are more than just a gardening nuisance. Carriers of tick born illnesses such as Lyme Disease, several relapsing fevers, ehrlichiosis, and tularemia to name but a few, they are a significant health hazard to both people and pets.

Where we live in coastal Massachusetts, ticks are a particularly serious problem. And even though the diseases caused by ticks are serious, the problems associated with tick repellants are equally problematic, never mind the fact that they aren’t completely effective in any event.

Emily was successfully treated for Lyme disease.

Most chemical tick control agents (such as Biospot or Frontline), do little or nothing to actually repel a tick from climbing onto your dog and nothing for the ticks that you carry in yourself on your clothing. They kill ticks that climb onto your dog but that can take up to 48 hours. Even utilizing one of those products, we found ourselves removing several ticks a day from each dog, and it wasn’t unusual for a tick to fall off the dog onto us or our bed.

With one dog already having had a bout of Lyme Disease, we are quite aggressive in the treatment of our pets and yard for ticks. Most “natural” repellants that are commercially available consist of essential oils in an oily or watery base. I find that witch hazel makes a very nice base for these kinds of mixtures; there is no oil to stain clothing and it dries nicely on the dogs as well as us.

My recipe is simple: In a clean spray bottle, combine one bottle (16 ounces) witch hazel and one small bottle (about 15 ml) of each of the following essential oils: oil of eucalyptus, oil of lemon grass, and oil of rose geranium. The oils will float on top of the witch hazel so shake the bottle gently to mix before spraying.

I spray the dogs with special attention to their legs, tails, bellies, chest, and under their chin twice a week and that goes a long way toward preventing ticks from hitchhiking into the house in their fur. We still check them carefully twice daily, but the number of ticks we’re finding has been reduced to one or two a week on all of the dogs, down from 3-4 daily on each dog.

I also recently obtained a homeopathic tick repellant from our holistic vet that is added to the dog’s water every time you change the water in the bowl. Since we have been somewhat inconsistent about using it every time we change water (we have several water bowls, several people changing the water, and I keep the drops in the kitchen so they are often overlooked), I can’t verify that it has made a substantial difference, but I have to acknowledge that it also may be playing a role as a tick repellant as well.

We also add oil of rose geranium to our general garden spray at least once a month. That, along with home made garlic oil, helps control the number of ticks and fleas in the environment; we have yet to have any issues at all with fleas and we do notice a dramatic decrease in the number of ticks we observe on our dogs, on us, and in our home when we spray on a regular basis. You can find our entire protocol here.

But ticks still manage to find their way into the house. We check the dogs daily for stowaways and we check ourselves when we come in from gardening. Light colored clothing makes them easier to spot but not infrequently we will spy one crawling on the furniture or floor, most definitely having traveled indoors on our clothing.

A handy way to quickly trap and permanently secure them when you spot them crawling on clothing, furniture or the floor is with adhesive tape. They readily adhere to the tape and when you fold the tape over on itself, they are permanently imprisoned and can be tossed into the regular trash.

Stuck to the tape, the tip can’t extricate itself from the adhesive.

Fold the tape over on itself and dispose of the tick in the trash.

It’s a quick, hands off way to quickly trap and dispose of a tick permanently.

For ticks that attach themselves to the dogs, we keep a small jar with several ounces of cooking oil and a pair of heavy large tweezers handy. After removing the tick, they are dropped into the oil where they smother. Every few weeks, the jar is disposed of in the trash and a “new” jar prepared.