I cannot read the linked article; it's been "negatived"--light-colored text on a black background, the opposite of normal type.
It's difficult enough for me to read negatived text on paper, but impossible to do so on a screen.
Re. the general idea about non-toxic flea/tick control...
We live in an area where the required consecutive 3 days of sub-freezing temps (required to kill flea EGGS) rarely occur. Therefore, flea populations burgeon without any natural controls. I flea comb my two cats regularly, and I "flea check" them every day. "Flea check" means that I take the flea comb and run it through the fur on their heads and necks. If I find fleas, I comb the whole cat. If not, I stop.
Re. the dogs...because my male dog was raised in terrible conditions for his first 22 weeks of life, I believe that his immune system has been permanently compromised. He has itchy skin, thin spots, chews on his fur, etc. 9 or 10 months of the year. I bathe him once a month or more often, if he needs it. I have coconut shampoo, oatmeal shampoo, and a medicated shampoo, Etiderm, which smells terrific and seems to soothe him. For about two days...During the worst of his hot-spot attack, last Thanksgiving through New Year's, I bathed (and dried!
) this 100-pound dog twice a
week to help keep him comfortable.
My vet recommended that, even though I practice "least-toxic" methods with all my animals, I go ahead and use spot-on topicals on the male dog. The vet (who has seen all of my cats since 1978 and all of my dogs, beginning in 1998 with dog #1) has observed that allergic dogs do better on the spot-ons than they do without, even though he can't cite any studies for me. However, he is an excellent diagnostician and veterinarian, so we're using *sigh* a name brand spot-on for both dogs. (The girl, 9 years old, began having skin difficulties last September.)
I administer milk thistle in capsules the day of and for two days after application of the spot-on, to help the dogs' livers process any toxins.
Re. the house: when we lived in Berkeley, we had outdoor/indoor cats and terrible flea problems. I became a real believer in
--hot-water laundry
--frequent vacuuming, even of furniture
--frequent changes of vacuum cleaner bags
--bathing my cats when flea combing wasn't enough
I haven't used DE for flea control yet; I'm extremely reluctant to apply *anything* to Vergil's skin, given how reactive he is...if I needed to, I wouldn't mind applying it to the carpeting, where we have such, but if fleas suddenly attack one of my animals
en masse, that animal gets a bath ASAP. I've worked in grooming shops + bathed my own cats all my life, so my technique is good and those fleas are GONE.
Was there anything specific in the article? Sorry, but I tried the first couple of paragraphs, and even after writing this response, my eyes still feel quite strained.
Cynthia H.
Sunset Zone 17, USDA Zone 9