Cool Tools for Pet Pests

There are LOTS of products to protect your dogs, cats, ferrets, mice, rats etc., and if you give me a minute I'll sell you all of them at http://www.gonatures.com but today I'm out to save you some money, get you much closer to your pet, and eliminate the need for my own Flea & Tick products. Here's a few tips you can easily use to deal with Ticks, Fleas and other small insect parasites that, literally, LIVE to hitch a ride on your little loved ones.

Eucalyptus: I've had 2 separate successful incidents of eliminating a flea infestation in my home using this common tree. By Infestation I mean fleas jumping on my bare feet while just walking through a room. It got that bad because we did NOT want to use an insecticide at all, let alone INSIDE our house! I did a lot of research on natural methods of dealing with fleas and ticks. Most were a bust, but we did find a write-up in Jethro Kloss' "Back to Eden" that suggested using Eucalyptus.

Here's what we did: There happened to be a grove of Eucalyptus trees just across the road from our house. We went over there and picked up a bunch of fallen branches and cut a few down too. We took them all across the street, took all the leaves off and spread them all over the house. About 48 hours later, there wasn't a flea or tick to be found, not even on Disco (the cat) or Toke (The dog). As it turns out, most insects, including fleas and ticks, are not particularly fond of the scent. They simply left on their own. We were delighted that we didn't have to harm anything, including the pests we wanted to be rid of, while solving a real problem with no cost what so ever.

Years later I had the same problem with a roommates' Cat. My roommate insisted her name was "Sly" but I called her "The Evil One"! That's a story for another day, however. This time there were no Eucalyptus trees to be found and we didn't have the luxury of raiding a nearby grove. So I tried the next best thing. I learned that it was the scent that the nasty little buggers didn't like, so I went to "the Body Shoppe" at the Mall and got some Eucalyptus oil and put it in a spray bottle with a bunch of warm water and walked through the house spraying every carpet and rug I could find. Furniture too! Sure enough, about 48 hours later, we were free of fleas and ticks.

Love that Jethro Kloss! He also suggested making a shampoo for furry animals that includes good concentrations of Pennyroyal. It's as effective as any current meds available today but it's a lot more labor intensive. You have to shampoo your pets regularly, about every 5-7 days in some cases. The labor comes in when you have to negotiate with a cat to give them a shampoo ONCE let alone every 5 days. The Dogs had fun with the whole operation, though. When they got out of the tub naturally they would run through the house shaking the water off their coats (Pennyroyal and all) all over the house. Immunizing the rugs and furniture in the process. How thoughtful!

Lastly, and this one works for Ticks much better than fleas, you can pick up some "Brewer's Yeast" or "Nutritional Yeast" in the bulk section of most grocery stores these days and certainly at any natural food store. Just sprinkle a little bit on your dog or cat's food every so often. When a tick bites your loved one they don't like the taste and start looking for another host to hitch a ride on. Don't over do the yeast sprinkling even though you dogs and cats love the taste. It gave Disco and Toke the runs because I started out thinking I had to use a heavy concentration. Just a little will do the trick and you'll save yourself the nasty chore of cleaning up runny,,, um,,, well, you get my meaning!

As an aside: A little Brewer's Yeast and soy sauce on your popcorn and/or your baked potatoes is a real delight at my house and it DOESN'T give us the runs. Since you already have some in the house now anyway…..

So if you don't want to go to all the trouble of using these "Back to Nature" tricks, we have a variety of solutions for your pets that are also natural, but we do all the work FOR you. Stop by and see what we have for you and your funny furry freaky friends at
http://www.gonatures.com
Much Love, Gregory

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How Safe Is Your Flea and Tick Killer?

by GARY LE MON



Laboratory studies of ingredients in seven popular flea and tick control products reveal adverse health effects in all animals tested. The effects of these well known and aggressively marketed products range from convulsions, body tremors and labored breathing to thyroid cancer, brain lesions, and liver and lung tumors. Yet TV commercials with trusty looking veterinarians pitch only the happy side of these products.

Which flea and tick pesticide are you using on your dog and/or cat? If your favorite treatment contains the active ingredient Fipronil, Imidacloprid, Methoprene, Permethrin, Pyriproxyfen or the inert ingredient Butyldydroxytoluene, Butylhydroxanisole, Carbitol, Ethanol, or Polyvinlpyrrplidone, you need to know about the not-so-happy side of these products as well.

If you think your veterinarian or local pet store would never sell you such a sinister poison, think again.

Advantage (Bayer
Corporation), Adams Spot-On Flea & Tick Control (Farnam Pet Products), BioSpot Flea & Tick Control (Farnam Pet Products), Defend EXspot Treatment (Schering-Plough Animal Health), Frontline Top Spot (Merial Limited), Frontline Plus (Merial Limited), and Zodiac FleaTrol Spot On (Wellmark International) - all contain one or more of the aforementioned active or inert ingredients.
Toxicology and morbidity findings from these pesticide products were gathered over a decade of laboratory testing by the United States Environmental Protection Agency; Occupational Safety & Health Administration, U.S. Department of Labor; Extension Toxicology Network; Journal of Pesticide Reform; Pesticide Action Network North America and other sources, with additional information supplied by Material Safety Data Sheets.

Most testing was performed for the benefit of new product manufacturers in order to qualify for
EPA registration. Scientists overdose laboratory animals to determine how much of the product will kill 50% of the test population. Information is then extrapolated and assumptions made that may apply to domestic animals and human beings.
According to laboratory tests, Fipronil (Frontline Top Spot and Frontline Plus) is a neurotoxin and suspected human cancer agent. Fipronil can cause liver toxicity, thyroid cancer, kidney damage, raised cholesterol, lack of coordination, labored breathing, miscarriages and stunted offspring.

Laboratory testing of Imidacloprid (Advantage) on mice, dogs and rats shows this insecticide to be neurotoxic to laboratory animals, also causing a breakdown of coordination, labored breathing, lesions of the thyroid, reduced birth weight, and increased birth defects.

The synthetic broad spectrum pyrethroid insecticide Permethrin (Adams Spot-on Flea & Tick Control; BioSpot Flea & Tick Control; and Defend EXspot Treatment) shows indications of being an endocrine disrupter and the cause of lung cancer and liver tumors in laboratory animals.

Methoprene and Pyriproxyfen (Zodiac FleaTrol Spot On; and BioSpot Flea & Tick Control) are known as insect growth regulators (IGR), both of which restrict the growth of fleas to the juvenile stage where reproduction is not possible. Laboratory testing reveals that Methoprene causes enlarged livers and degeneration of the kidneys.

Unfortunately, few people actually read EPA test results. Fewer still want to hear about the many laboratory test subjects (unwanted dogs and cats) killed during and after the studies in order to determine damage to specific systems and organs. But it only takes a few people with straightforward thinking to bring about change. Are you ready to stop this insanity? There are effective alternatives, as you know.

Today there are totally natural flea and tick remedies - completely harmless to kids, pets and the environment - made from pure botanical essential oils. Some natural products work fairly well, some don't, and some work much better than the toxic stuff!

The mode of action - the way these natural remedies kill fleas and ticks - is to disrupt the insect's ability to function by blocking a substance called octopamine. In nature, certain plants have developed a natural defense against bugs. These "octopamine blockers" in plants are extracted as oils and used as active ingredients. Octopamine is to an insect what adrenalin is to a human. When blocked from the system, the insect quickly dies. No muss, no fuss. Nobody gets hurt but the bug.

Please begin today to stop supporting the heartless laboratory testing of innocent animals, the insidious cover-up and rush to market of big business, and the unwitting harm we may be doing to our children, our pets, and our planet.

http://www.Natural-Wonder-Pets.com/natural-flea-control.html - Gary Le Mon's day job is in the insured financial services industry, but his evenings and weekends are spent crusading for animal rights, contributing to dog and cat rescue efforts, and making the Earth a greener, friendlier place to live.

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A very scary account of what happened to the cat in the above picture:

http://www.hartzvictims.org/2008/10/12/hartz-flea-and-tick-collar-almost-killed-my-cat/

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