We have a fleas problem at home. We started to apply diatomaceous earth powder and boric acid to our carpet area since beginning of September and right now the problem seems to be under control (we rarely get stung by fleas now. Diatomaceous earth works great in killing fleas. I found death fleas from both the carpet area and tiles area where we left diatomaceous earth.
Because of the mechanical nature of the killing action, there are only a certain number of fleas that it can kill in a day; if the fleas infestation is so bad that more adult fleas pop up than what DE in our home can kill daily, our fleas problem will get worse instead of getting better. DE (and boric acid as well) should be used to contain small to medium size fleas infestation. In a truly massive outbreak, daily vacuuming to remove as many fleas, larvae, and eggs as possible is going to be more helpful than DE until the fleas population is under control. Since we have a dust separator and it deposit the dust into a bucket, I verified that DE kill fleas of all size in both tiles and carpet area. I was mighty please that I found 7 dead fleas when I vacuum out the DE in the Master bathroom (a room that I thought was clear of fleas. How wrong can I get?)
The best recommendation for DE usage I read involve 1) apply DE on carpet and then vacuum out DE from the carpet 12 to 48 hours after the initial application (for tiles surface, just spread DE on it and vacuum it out with the same schedule as carpet area). 2) Then vacuum the house daily 3) Apply DE again 7 days after the initial application. Repeat the cycle 4-5 times. In our case, since we don’t see adult fleas much (but still a lot baby fleas), we modify the plan and left DE in the carpet (boric acid was vacuumed out a few days after application) until an area with active baby fleas population (my feet will tell me where the active baby fleas are). If I feel active baby fleas in the carpet, I would vacuum out the DE and go through vacuum twice a day routine on the infested area for 2-3 days and then apply the DE again. My hope is that the vacuuming will control the infestation to the point that DE in my carpet can kill the new fleas fast enough. And we will left the DE in the carpet for the next 6-9 months at least. So far the plan seems to work well (we are in day 17 now), I only vacuum selected part of the house every day and the fleas is still under control.
Maintaining a thin layer of DE on tile surface is not an easy task. In a busy room like the kitchen where a lot of people walking in and out, DE tends to get pushed to the grout line and stay there. By the end of the day, we are back to smooth tiles surface with most if not all the DE are in the grout line. Our solution is to swipe up all the DE with broom and pan and re-apply DE at night. The average time it take DE to kill a fleas is between 4-6 hours. So for the ‘DE on tile surface’ plan to work, we need to find a window of 8-10 hours that the kitchen is off limit to everyone after we reapply the DE daily.
For the garage area, we wash the floor with 5:1 diluted bleach solution weekly since DE in the garage is a no go. I am concern that the filter in my car will get destroyed if it suck up some DE on the garage floor
We also bought some Victor fleas trap(M230A, 8 of them) and deployed the traps to each room . We started with 3 and like it so much that we get the rest and put them to use in different parts of our house. And it is very helpful to have the fleas trap as our last line of defense. We caught a few fleas in rooms that we thought is clear with the DE. The operating cost of these trap are very low (about 10 cents a day including the cost of burned light bulb and electricity). For easing our mind, these fleas trap is a great investment.
Steam cleaner (the one with steam over 220 F) can be helpful to kill fleas in small area or furnitures. I used to have a McCullogh MC1375 for a while and in the process of switching to a Dupray neat steam (advertised to deliver 275F steam). It will be very useful to clear the stubborn small fleas infested carpet area, chair, sofa, bed with steam cleaner. Much faster than DE or salt/baking soda but more labor intensive so steam cleaning only work for small area.
Since fleas operates 24x7 in reproducing and biting us, we can never hope to out work them. The best hope, I think, is to make our home so hostile to the entire cycle of the fleas life to get rid of them. Boric acid, DE, and heated fleas trap all work 24x7. And hopefully we can defect these pest with these tools over time. After the past 17 days, our tiles area are reasonably clear of fleas activities (DE is on the tile throughout). Some carpet area still have baby fleas activities and I am vacuuming those area daily. Garage seem to be clear of fleas at this point. Cars still need work.
DE is very messy to handle and easily blow out my home vacuum cleaner. we use a shop vac to vacuum out the DE when needed (Rigid 6.5 HP sold in Homedepot) and a dust separator (also sold in HD). Once I vacuum out the DE and boric acid from the carpet, I start to use my Dyson V11 for the daily vacuuming. And the filter in dyson V11 has to be cleaned using the blowing function of the Rigid shop vac 7-8 times already (the shop vac pick up most of the DE. DE buried deep in the carpet will cause problem for our V11) and 3 new V11 filter in the last 17 days. I can’t imagine a way to handle DE without a shop vac and constantly cleaning filter.
PS: update this review on 9/27/20 (about 3 weeks after initial application of DE). We still have a couple areas in our home (a small carpet area in dinning room and a small carpet area in family room) that still have some fleas activities. DE kill fleas slowly (take average 4-6 hours ) and it seem to be more effective in killing larger flea than small one. That mean I notice some stinking bite from the small male fleas occasionally from those small infested area). For now I just try to avoid these area and wait until the DE kill the small male fleas. Since we applied DE and boric acid in our house starting 9/3/20, we saw progressively less fleas activities in our house, I am hopeful that we will ultimately clear these 2 small area and our car of fleas . I cleaned the filter in the shop vac for the first time a couple days ago, and it is ugly. DE and boric acid stuck in the filter and I have to wash the shop vac filter. Be prepare to do a lot of filter cleaning on both your regular vacuum and shop vac when you use DE. One thing I really like about DE is that we have not sprayed any insecticide in our home since 9/3 and still have the fleas under control (not eliminated yet). Victor fleas trap is my last defense in car DE fail to kill some fleas.. I am hopeful that we can eliminate fleas in another 4-6 weeks.
PPS: update 10/4/20. As it turns out DE is very good in killing the female fleas which is bigger in size but it is much slower in killing the Smaller male fleas. we had 4 small area in our house and my car ( around 3x5 ft or so on an average) still have fleas. I noticed that I will get bitten once in a while if I stay in these in these small infested area. Obviously the most important one to kill are the female fleas since it break the cycle of more fleas. But these small male fleas can live a lot longer than the 4 to 6 hours average. So I vacuumed out the DE and applied 50/50 very fine salt (pop corn salt, prepared by using food processor and regular salt) to those area and let it stay in the carpet for 2 days and it seem to help 3 out of the 4 area. As of now, I have DE on all the carpet and just waiting for it to kill the Rest of the fleas (may be another couple weeks?). In the tiles area, keeping a layer of DE in our busy kitchen is an impossible task. So I just vacuumed the til floo o remove those fleas.
Given our experience so far, if we were to have fleas again, I would 1) apply a combination of boric acid/fine salt/baking soda for the carpet area and mop the tiles floor with bleach daily for busy area (And use DE for less traffic tiles area) to start. 2) Let the mixture stay in the carpet 2-3 days and then Vacuum them out and apply DE to the carpet area and less used tiles area. Use lighted fleas trap as on those infested area as a safe guard. 3) Vacuum busy tiles area with any sign of fleas. And for the carpet, steam cleaning the area with fleas activities (no need to vacuum out the DE. DE will still work after it dried) with a qualified steamer can clear a small area of fleas much faster than waiting for DE magic to work (an hour or less work for small area compare to waiting for a few weeks). This approach should clear the fleas problem a lot faster than the 4-6 weeks or longer needed by using DE exclusively.
DE is excellent as a watch guard waiting for adult fleas to emerge. But the killing action take a lot of waiting Time for the fleas to go from egg-> larvae-> Pupae -> adult. And it take even longer for the really small male fleas. It is best to avoid those area with fleas activity (even the area is covered by DE already since it take a while to kill the male fleas). It make no sense to let those fleas bit us if we can help it. My wife has a rain boot on walking around the house and it help her avoid getting bitten. I hope my experience is helpful for other who has fleas. I learn a lot and I am convinced that a lot of online article about fleas were written by authors who have never had a fleas problem. Some of the advise I read were ridiculous and impractical now that I have experienced the problem first hand. Steam cleaner, essential oil, fleas light, boric acid etc all can help but DE seems to be the one that can finish the job to clean up a fleas problem (at least I am hopeful).
PPPS: update 10/10/20 Finally give up on the idea of using DE. Have a talk with an extended family member who had a fleas problem (resolved) and an exterminator and come to the realization the importance of very frequent vacuuming. DE is a mean to eliminate adult fleas in the house but in order to eradicate the problem, we need to control the egg, larvae, and pupa stage as well, vacuuming is the tool that can eliminate fleas in all these stage. So vacuuming is the star while DE (and a lot of other approach) are supporting characters. I think I loss sight of the important distinction. In our particular situation, the carpet area is about 1600-1700 sq ft. It took me 2 hour+ to vacuum up DE that covered abut 800 sq ft yesterday. With frequent vacuuming that mean I need to vacuum and then replace the DE every week for 4-8 weeks. Using the shop vac for 5+ hours every week is too taxing for me (I am 60 now). That is why I tried to use the lazy approach and only vacuum up DE in area with more fleas activities. My approach miss the point that frequent vacuuming is the single most beneficial fleas control tool. With professional exterminator, they will spray insecticide+IGR and then we vacuum for 1-2 weeks. And reapply if necessary. Vacuuming everyday using a Dyson is within my physical ability. This is the finer point that no one mentioned. DE is extremely messy and physically demanding to vacuum up.
I use a shop vac with a dust separator and my shop vac’s filter was still mess up and loss suction quite rapidly. A lengthy cleaning bring back the filter back but it is more work that no one mentioned. For anyone who consider using DE, the daily workload is something to be considered. For now I am vacuuming out all my DE and will vacuum our carpet area like crazy. I ordered PT ultracide and apply them when it get here. hopefully it will help us eliminate our fleas problem. Our house has never has a major infestation. Just minor fleas activities non stop in various part of the house that drive us nut (the small fleas that won’t bite us but crawl all over our legs and now getting on our beds and body). DE is doing very well in killing those larger female fleas and eventually those smaller males adult fleas but the saga won’t end. We are basically at a standstill 5 weeks into our fleas journey and we are at the same spot as when we began in early September (no major infestation but problem in different small area (e.g. 3x5 ft) around the house. I am hoping the much more aggressive vacuuming and IGR will help us eliminate our flea problem in a few weeks instead of back to the same spot again. Good luck to everyone who has a fleas problem and decide to pursue with DE and vacuuming.
PPPPS: we have our house sprayed on 10/15/20 by an exterminator. After talking to the exterminator, I realize that they know about fleas and the chemical that can kill them effectively much more than I do. Our exterminator use a combination of 3 insecticide. 1 for fast knock out with no residual, one kill adult fleas in 3-4 hours with 90 days residual and finally one with combined insecticide and IGR. This is the first time I heard about residual and the importance of residual killing of fleas in eradication. Residual simply means how long can the insecticide keep killing fleas after the spray. DE has infinite residual if we keep them in the carpet but 0 residual effect once we remove it. The delima of using DE is that we cannot vacuum out the fleas egg, larvae or adult fleas when DE is in the carpet. So the ideal is to put DE down for a day or 2 max and vacuum it out. But the work involved in vacuuming out DE is very messy and physically demanding (because the shop vac are not designed to vacuum carpet) once the size of the carpet area is > 1000 sq ft to handle in one afternoon. So there is a work load issue for using DE in handling fleas. Another issue we run into is both our cars and house has fleas and we bring the fleas back and forth. Using insecticide with long residual help us resolve both problems at the same time without worrying about re-introduction of fleas into the house or car (since they will be kill within a few hours once they get drop onto the carpet treated with long residual insecticide). This is a concept that I don’t understand and DE has problem with. Once the DE is out of the carpet, new fleas introduced into the environment will be free to roam and lay eggs until the next scheduled DE round. I think that is one major reason some users reported that they cannot resolve their fleas issue with DE. Insecticide with long residual will help enormously.
With what I went through since beginning of Sept, my 2 cents is that professional exterminator is really the best bet. DE will do what it advertised. But as an individual, we lack the experience to deal with fleas and use DE correctly. In the best case, DE can be used to help take care of small to medium size infestation (my guess carpet area less than 800-100 sq ft). Once over this size, chemical is the solution if only because of the workload issue. A good exterminator is worth their weight in gold. When I called around there are exterminator who want the job with no guarantee or follow up (why would anyone hire them?). Our exterminator did the initial spray on the carpet and sideboard on all the tiles area (nothing on the tile), will come back in one week to do a second spray on the carpet area only with the fast knock out and long residual insecticide and set up glue board. And he will check back on the third week. I wish individual can share their experience in more details and it will help future users decide if DE will help them. Cost wise, DE are pretty expensive to use if you need to get the shop vac etc. our exterminator cost use $350 in Northern California and DE probably cost us about the same up to this point (multiple new dyson filters that it kills, new shop vac, new dust separator). Heated fleas trap is a good item to get and it help tremendously. Steamer help on spot cleaning. Don’t know about whether boric acid is effective or not since I cannot determine whether larvae get killed or not. Fine salt and baking soda work somewhat and it depends if you can apply them on the fleas or not. At the end, it is important to note that the soonest DE can eliminate all the fleas take 4-6 weeks but chemical (insecticide+IGR) can deal with fleas in 2-3 weeks. Times is important discussion since fleas will keep reproducing if we give them the chance. I think I come to conclusion that chemical is the better solution.
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This Item  Harris Diatomaceous Earth Food Grade, 4lb with Powder Duster Included in The Bag |  |  |  | |
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Reviews with images
Awesome Product - very effective if applied correctly
Okay, so there's a lot of people complaining about a few things:1. The duster leave a lot of powder marks2. It doesn't work at killing ants, fleas, or other creepy crawler insects like expectedFor the first one, I used to agree with some reviewers but I've found that it works perfectly if you flip it upside down (with the nozzle pointed up) and give it a few shakes before squeezing. I also balled up a little bit of screen and pushed it into the nozzle to help disperse the powder.For number two, you kind of have to know how this works. For one thing-- this is very important! It doesn't work if it's wet. This fine powder works because it's super absorbent and super sharp. If it gets wet, it's pretty much useless. Here's how it works---let's use an ant for an example. When the ant steps on the DE (Diatomaceous Earth) its exoskeleton is pierced by it and then the powder absorbs the moisture in the ants body. Basically, it's sucked dry and dies of dehydration. I've heard people claim that it will kill the colony-- but the only way I think this is even possible, is if the powder clings to the ants body and it carries it until falls off. Then the other ants may step on it.At any rate, death by dehydration doesn't happen overnight. I would say it takes about 3 days or so, but it definitely will kill the ants when it's stepped on.The powder will last for a long time and you don't need a lot for it to work. If you vacuum it up, it obviously won't work. It also wont work on flea eggs because...well.. flea eggs won't roll around on top of DE.I've been using this stuff for years and it really works. I personally like the duster and have been using it as my go-to applicator whenever I see any ants scouting my kitchen.This product was originally recommended to me by a professional exterminator who we contracted for our business offices. He mentioned that they usually don't tell people this because it's bad for business :)**Note** If you end up using a little balled up screen at the end of the nozzle, it will eventually need to be unclogged. You can do this by simply squeezing the tip a few times to loosen the DE caught in the screen. If the nozzle is clogged, pull the screen out, squeeze hard to force air through the nozzle (watch out for the cloud of DE!) and then replace the screen. The video shows me squeezing it somewhat softly and a little aggressively. The harder the squeeze, the more applied. I think it works great!
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Yulia N.
Effective and safe
Reviewed in Canada on January 20, 2023Style: Diatomaceous EarthVerified Purchase
Doug Deep
Flea killer
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 6, 2020Style: Diatomaceous EarthVerified Purchase
Amazon Customer
keeps my chickens healty
Reviewed in Canada on December 4, 2022Style: Diatomaceous EarthVerified Purchase
AP Member
This thing works
Reviewed in Canada on March 6, 2024Style: Diatomaceous EarthVerified Purchase
Daryl R Preston
Better than insecticides
Reviewed in Canada on December 8, 2023Style: Diatomaceous EarthVerified Purchase
