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essential oils
for pest control
By Frances Fitzgerald Cleveland
It is important to protect yourself, your home and your dog
from fleas, ticks and mosquitoes. These little pests can cause
you and your dog a great deal of discomfort and, in the case of
ticks, can carry potentially dangerous diseases.
Many people search for that all-natural remedy to use on their
dog so they can protect them from insects and their dangers
and also protect them from the damaging chemicals found in
spot-on products. Over the years, my clients have called to ask
if I make an all-natural fly spray for dogs - one that will repel
ticks, fleas and mosquitoes. My answer has always been no.
Creating an all-natural fly remedy is very challenging and I can’t
ensure that people will use the product as directed. My closing
comment to these inquiries has always been, “If I find something
out there that I like, I will let you know.”
So far, I haven’t found a product I can fully endorse and some
of the “natural” products I discovered on the market really raise
some concerns. One product promised to kill fleas on contact and
listed its ingredients as “Dioctyl Sodium Sulfosuccinate…2.1%,
Undecylenic Acid…0.5%, Other Ingredients…97.4%.” What are
those 97.4% “Other Ingredients”? How can we know if they are
potentially damaging or toxic?
Another product contained cinnamon oil. It didn’t say whether
it was cinnamon leaf or cinnamon bark oil. It is important
20 May/June 2012 | Dogs Naturally Magazine