I’ve been seeing a lot of questions and comments related to flea collars and wanted to make sure that people knew that Consumer Reports actually determined that flea collars are NOT effective for killing fleas.
Herbal flea collars can help repel fleas but they don’t do anything to help get rid of them AND are usually only effective on the front portion of the animal.
Chemical flea collars are toxic and a danger to your household–they work in the same fashion as the herbal collars but pose more risks.
Better options to address fleas including bathing your pet in oatmeal pet shampoo. Contrary to popular belief–you don’t need to use pesticide shampoos because if you bath an animal and leave the suds on for about 15 minutes–this will kill the fleas.
After bathing there are non-toxic flea sprays that can be used on the animal to repel adult fleas. For instance, you can make a solution of apple cider vinegar and water and spray onto the coat to help repel the pests.
BTW: Pets should not be bathed more than once a week during an infestation.
There are other options and, in most cases, I prefer to use less toxic options (which I outline in the Flea Control Secrets eBook).
The problem is that even if you address the fleas that you find on the animal, they compromise only about 5% of the total flea population!
Treating the interior and exterior areas of your environment is necessary to get the fleas under control. Once you do that, you also need to retreat every 3 to 6 weeks to keep the pests under control.
If you have not signed up for the mini-course yet–do so now so you get the big picture and learn how to get rid of fleas.
After a May 5th meeting to discuss reported adverse effects on pets associated with flea and tick products, ongoing agency actions related to the reported incidents, and additional information needs, the EPA still has not come forward with any determinations.
