Flea Powder for Pets – How It Works and When to Use It

This flea treatment product is exactly what it sounds like. It’s a powder that you sprinkle on the fur of your pet to get rid of fleas. By applying flea powder on your pet, you can exterminate all living fleas in a couple of days. The powder works as long as it remains on your pet and it would be best to apply it outside your home, as long as it’s not windy. Follow the instructions on the flea powder package. It’s probably easier to use if you have a dog than a cat, because cats usually lick their fur. If they eat large amounts of flea powder, they can get breathing problems, so beware of this. Dogs don’t lick themselves as much as cats do, but you can’t prevent it unless you observe them 24/7, which you obviously can’t.

Does flea powder work?

Think of flea powder as an alternative to all the other available methods to get rid of fleas. In my opinion it’s not the best one, but you can try it out if all your other efforts in getting rid of a flea infestation fails. The best reason I can come up with for using flea powder is that it’s not as noisy as flea spray for pets. My dogs hate the sound of any spray and will try to get away from it as soon as they hear it. As I said before, I see flea powder as an alternative to other flea treatment products, so you can try it to see if it succeeds where other products may have failed.

5 Disadvantages of using flea powder

There are disadvantages of using powders:

1. The powder can be quite difficult to control, especially when applying it under windy conditions. Even indoors, it can make a mess on your furniture and many dogs shake themselves to get rid of it.
2. Once you do manage to get it on, your pets may try to lick it off.
3. Also, as you apply the powder, you could inhale it by a mistake.
4. It could easily rub off on furniture, blankets, curtains and beddings. There are different opinions on the amounts, but flea powder does leave some chemicals on the pet. More than flea shampoo does.
5. If you have both cats and dogs that need to be treated, this might not be the best solution for you. Cats need one type of flea powder and dogs need another. In most cases, either one can’t be used on both pets. This is important to remember.

5 Advantages of using flea powder

It’s not all bad though:

1. Flea powders are effective against fleas, ticks and other parasites.
2. Most good brands are EPA approved: safe, non toxic and effective. They kill and repel fleas/ticks on contact and prevent new infestations.
3. Flea powders for pets are easy to use and can be liberally dusted on the pet safely. You should apply it in the bathroom or in the yard. This way, if your pet tries to shake it off, you won’t get it on your furniture.
4. It can also be dusted on carpets, pet’s bedding, socks and other areas of the house to kill flea eggs and adult fleas.
5. You could apply it on window sills and around doors to repel fleas, cockroaches, bugs, flies etc.

When do you need to use it?

I try to get around every product that exists for treating and preventing fleas. You could easily skip a product like this because of the disadvantages, but you have to look at it as another alternative solution to the other flea treatment products. If there was only one product that could do it all on every pet in the world, every single time a flea was spotted, then I wouldn’t have so many visitors coming to my website looking for answers, and flea infestations wouldn’t be such a big deal. Unfortunately this isn’t the case. People experience different problems and need different products to solve them. Flea powder could be the solution that solves your flea problem.

Easy homemade flea powder for carpets

I am a big proponent of DIY pest control and love homemade products. Here is an excellent flea powder for your carpet and you can even dust it inside socks.

• 1 cup potpourri
• ½ cup baking soda or baking powder
• ½ cup cornstarch
• 12 drops each or one of the following oils: citronella, pennyroyal (do not use this if you have cats), or rosemary.

In a grinder, blend the potpourri fine until it has the consistency of coffee powder. Mix it up with baking soda/powder and cornstarch. Add essential oils. Take the mixture out on a shallow baking tray and allow it to air dry for a day. Pour the powder in an empty shaker/pepper bottle. Shake the powder out on the carpet. You will need at least 1 cup per 100 square feet. Use a brush to evenly distribute the powder all over. Let it sit for 2-4 hours. Vacuum thoroughly. This will bring up all the fleas. Make sure you discard the vacuum bag immediately. Repeat the process every few days.

Treating the yard

If you have fleas in your yard, then you should not ignore them. Have them exterminated as soon as possible or else they will end up on your pets and inside your house. For the yard, a combination of spray and flea powder is recommended. There are many good suppliers and brands of sprays and flea powders for the yard. Naturally some will work better than others. Do your research and browse my website to find out which products are best suited for your needs. It may be well worth trying some DIY steps before calling in professional exterminators.

Remember to keep pets and kids away from the yard while you are treating it. It is also polite to let neighbors know if you are spraying insecticides in the yard. In many cases, your neighbor’s yards also have fleas, which is why you could have the problem in the first place. So keep an open dialog with them because there is no point in treating your yard if fleas are going to jump right back from the neighbor’s after a few days of treatment.

If you are looking for a solution to get rid of fleas in your home, why not give flea powder a try.