NATURAL FLEA CONTROL

Image Gallery ILLUSTRATION BY ANDREW SHACHAT

PET CONCERNS

Get the jump on these pet pests, safely.

For all our modern accomplishments, we are still searching for safe, effective means to control fleas. Unfortunately, many flea products on the market contain ingredients such as carbaryl (Sevin), a nerve-paralyzing chemical that is endowed with a host of other side effects. DDVP (dimethyl dichlorovinyl phosphate), which is found in plastic flea collars, numbs an insect's nervous system and sometimes has the same effect on a susceptible pet. Or there is that increasingly familiar synergist, piperonyl butoxide, recently used extensively as a booster in most all the new pyrethrum products. It has been associated with liver disorders. On the other hand, if fleas get out of control, your pet—particularly if it is very young, old or unwell—can die of flea-induced anemia.

Alternatives

When an adult flea lays an egg, this whitish speck drops into a carpet, a crack in a wood floor, the upholstery or a dusty corner. After a period of time (which varies according to species), the egg develops into a larva which feeds on tiny amounts of dust, debris or other organic matter. Outdoors, this larva takes up residence in the yard, usually in a shady spot, where it feeds on vegetable or animal matter. The hairy, legless larva then spins a cocoon and eventually emerges as a hungry adult, ready to jump on the nearest warm body for a meal of blood.

Because the egg, larva and cocoon stages are of various lengths in various flea species (the general range from egg to adult is 28 to 42 days), your initial attack should consist of a conscientious three- to five-week program. In this way, you'll gradually get ahead of the massive number of fleas and eggs now sharing your pet and probably your home. If your pets stay outdoors, you can probably follow only the instructions concerning the yard, the animals and their living quarters.

The first step—and one you will repeat often initially—is to vacuum your house thoroughly. Not just the carpets, but under throw rugs, all floors, corners, upholstery, pillows, sofa cushions, under couches, mattresses—the works! (And don't forget the basement.) Then either immediately burn the vacuum bag or seal it securely inside a plastic bag and dispose of it. Remember, all that dust inside the bag makes a fast-food feast for larvae. After patting yourself on the back for already cleaning up hundreds, maybe thousands, of fleas, eggs and larvae, wash all throw rugs, pets' bedding and your bedding in water as hot as the fabric allows.

At this point you've made encouraging progress, but unless the next steps are taken, you'll soon lose ground. To kill the tiny pests the vacuuming missed, sprinkle dried pennyroyal ( Mentha pulegium ) in rugs, under sofa cushions, under mattresses and in your animal's bedding. (Pyrethrum powder or garden-grade diatomaceous earth is also effective.) While enjoying pennyroyal's pleasant, minty aroma, you can rest assured you aren't harming your pets or your family, but you are suffocating fleas. (The only caution to be observed with pennyroyal is that it has caused rare cases of abortion in pregnant pets, although this is more commonly associated with using the concentrated oil form on flea collars.) After three to four days, repeat the vacuum-and-wash cycle (again destroying the vacuum bag) and reapply pennyroyal.