Where to find diamateous earth?
I was wondering if anyone could tell me where to buy diamateous earth please? I live in Portland so there are tons of pet stores / health stores / med stores, etc etc. Online it says "any local health food store" - but does this mean like GNC? Or could I find it in, say, the health-food isle at Whole Foods? I just don't want to drive all over the place, all the specialty stores are pretty spread out.
And second question: How much does it cost for how much? I often end up buying too little of a home-remedy flea product. Like $__ would cover my dog and his bedding ___ times? Thank you so much for any help and advice on using diamateous earth, and sorry in advance if "this question has already been asked".
And second question: How much does it cost for how much? I often end up buying too little of a home-remedy flea product. Like $__ would cover my dog and his bedding ___ times? Thank you so much for any help and advice on using diamateous earth, and sorry in advance if "this question has already been asked".
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by John Wolff on
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I'm not sure I'd want the stuff in my house, lungs, or gut. If I'm right, it's microscopic silica, the shells of diatoms (a type of algae, basically powdered glass, totally insoluble. Although secreted by living organisms, it's about as "organic" as sand. It kills insects by poking holes in their cuticle. What's it gonna do in my lungs? Perhaps the particles are too large to penetrate deeply into the lungs. But wherever it goes, it isn't going to dissolve and wash away. It's going to stay there.
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Permalink Reply by Aber, Ragnar and Kelso on
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I wouldn't say it pokes holes so much as it just abrades the exoskeleton---it takes a few days to kill them after all. I'm a lot more comfortable with using that on my pets than a neurotoxin like flea meds. After all, the cats can't get near the dog if he has some Frontline because it will make them horribly sick or even kill them. But if I rub some DE into everyone, they can safely clean one another and in a few days, the stupid little fleas are dead. I don't like to breath any kind of dust when it comes up, including from cat litter or the chicken feed I now use for litter. That will mess up your lungs too. But if it goes through the digestive system, it should be fine. It also doesn't work once it gets wet, so if you dust your yard or the dog goes out in the rain, it doesn't dessicate like it used to.
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Permalink Reply by Joanna Kimball on
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It's very safe for cats to be around Frontlined dogs; fipronil is the same med used on cats. You have to be careful with permethrin and cats (so Advantix or one of the Bio-Spot/Zodiac/whatever cheap spot-ons).
If they clean it off each other, they ARE breathing it in. The particles are so tiny that they are breathed in easily.
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You know, it's late and I'm a little punchy, but did you really mean to say that algae are made of powdered glass? lol.
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Permalink Reply by Greg Bickel on
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Of course... Everyone knows that. :)
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Permalink Reply by Melissa and Franklin! on
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DE is actually VERY safe despite being similar to silica. They use it all the time for "organic" flea control. It's perfectly safe to rub into carpets to kill fleas and it is commonly used in the livestock industry as a natural dewormer/fly control and it also prevents colic. I know a few barns who sprinkle it on the hay of both horses and livestock every day and not a single animal has had adverse health issues from inhaling it. My current barn as been using it daily for 30 years. I'm sure using it periodically on pets and in carpets for flea control isn't going to do any damage, much better alternative than using toxins/poisons. PLUS, horses and cattle live much longer than dogs and cats so if you were to see adverse reactions (i.e. respiratory issues, etc) from DE you'd likely see it in these long lived animals.
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Diatomaceous earth is broken diatom shells, silica, essentially microscopic broken glass. I would not want it in my house or lungs, nor my pets'; once in, it will never dissolve. Google "silicosis".
Check out Fleabusters if they're still around; they dust your house with borate salts (borax), dehydrates fleas, we had very good results once with them when we had 1 cat, 1 treatment lasted years (Seattle, same climate).
Diatomaceous earth acts by scratching the fleas' shells, drying them out. Think what it'll do in your lungs.
I visited a diatomaceous earth mine in central Vantage, Washington once, and old lake bed, diatom sediments, whiter than snow, with petrified wood inclusions made of silica, broken edges sharp as glass, 'cause that's what they were made of.
I don't know much about it though. If the silica particles are big enough, maybe they can't float as fine dust and get deep into the lungs. The particle size that's really nasty is the size of the dust grains on your computer screen; they float deep into the bronchioles and stay there, a la smoke or black lung disease. Do some research. Just because it's "natural" doesn't mean it's any safer than a neurotoxin.
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Silica is NOT glass; it is primarily found in nature as sand or quartz or diatom shells. It is used in the production of glass, among a LOT of other things. But if you really fear breathing silica, then I would avoid the beach if I were you :)
It is a very common additive to foods, as it keeps powders free flowing. Chances are you've been consuming it for years without knowing it. Colloidal silica is used as a fining agent in wine-making. Silica is used in pharmaceuticals when making tablets, so if you've taken a pill in your life, you've probably ingested more. But it's not glass until it's heated. Diatomaceous earth, strictly speaking, doesn't slice the fleas like little knives or glass shards--it just abrades them and and dries them out, like a really harsh exfoliant, if you will. Salt and sugar can be used to slough off dry skin, abrade it as well, but that doesn't mean I'm now fearful of ingesting and breathing around my salt shaker and sugar bowl. Even the powdered sugar bowl. Seriously, farms use it constantly to keep the feeds from clumping and, as Melissa says above, for parasite control. Horses live 30 years. If it really abraded and sliced and diced lungs, throats, intestines and stomach linings, horses would be dropping like flies.
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Permalink Reply by Sam Tsang on
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Silicosis- from the book "Clinical environmental health and toxic exposures"
The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) reports that each year more than 250 die from silicosis in the US- United States Department of Labour
Just FYI: John works in a lab
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How did we go from de-worming and treating the house with DE on an occasional basis to equating it to a disease that people get from working daily with stone dust thrown off a saw? Practically anything is dangerous if you are around it constantly. Vegetables are the greatest thing in the world, but if you eat nothing but vegetables, you'll get sick and maybe even die. It's the same giant leap into ridiculousness for me to say I'll never eat vegetables then since they'll kill me to say if I use some DE on my rug, my lungs will grow nodules just like stone masons who work for 20-30 years breathing the stuff all day, every day.
I still hold to the fact that farmers and keepers of livestock use it in the food and horses, cows and sheep don't seem to keel over from silicosis.
Finally, what on earth does the fact that John works in a lab have to do with anything at all?
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Permalink Reply by Sunni A. on
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Fortunately Eddy has been flea-free since I started this post in July 2009. With the harsh winter and cold summer we've had over the past year, Portland's doggies have been lucky! Eddy is currently not even on a flea med. Woo hoo! I actually treat just my vacuum cleaner's filter w/ flea spray, and no other measures are taken.
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