One of my rituals for each new year is to choose a word to influence me for the year. My word for 2011 is EXPERIMENT. To support my EXPERIMENTAL focus, I commit to post the results of a new experiment each Sunday of this year.
I share my home with a dog named Blossom. She’s a great dog and I do my best to take the great care of her. It’s HOT here though, and that means it’s flea-season.
Thankfully, she’s not infested, but last week I realized a small part of my home was. Since I didn’t want to fill my home with poisons, I went in search of home remedies that would kill fleas and little else. I tried several approaches. Here’s what worked:
I took a small cookie sheet and filled it with dish detergent and water; placed it on the floor under my desk (where I’d noticed the infestation) and placed a lit (small) candle in the middle of the water. Within two hours, the water in that cookie sheet was the eternal resting place to at least a hundred (a tried counting, really I did) fleas. This all happened between 8-10pm. From what I understand, the candle light attracted the fleas. So they jumped toward it. Then they fell. And fleas can’t swim ~ who knew?! After dumping out the watery grave, I sprayed the area with a mixture of vinegar, tea tree and lemon oil (to kills eggs).
As suggested, I repeated this two nights later and will do it again every other week during flea season.
So now I can sit at my desk without seeing or feeling those little critters AND my workstation smells great!
THIS is an experiment I wouldn’t have believed if I hadn’t seen it work for myself.
What home remedy experiments are you willing to share?
Lisa’s Cheap Therapy blog 
That is TRIPPY, Lisa. My parents have an indoor-outdoor dog that seems to attract mass quantities of the buggers. I shall pass this along.
cheap baby shampoo rubbed on most stains before laundering will remove them.
And your “trick” is one I will try. Where do you find tea tree?
I can’t think of any home remedy stuff at the moment, but I DO want to tell you that the best flea stuff I ever found for cats and dogs is “Revolution”. It’s better than Frontline. It has really, really worked for me and my animals.
Oh, I just remembered a cleaning tip from “Flylady” that really worked for me better than anything else — scrubbing my old porcelain bathtub with a paste of clorox and baking soda. (I’m sad to say that I don’t leave my kitchen sink sparkling clean every night as she has advised, but at least my tub looks clean occasionally!)
Jennifer, TRIPPY INDEED! hope it works for your parents, too~
Judi, thanks for the baby shampoo tip!
ps… i get my tea tree oil from a Cheap Therapy customer who ‘in the biz’ , but you can find it at any ‘big box store’, health food store or major drug store pharmacy counter.
ML, THANKS for the tip about ‘Revolution’ anddddddddddd the scrubbing compound. i’ll try BOTH!
i SO appreciate, ya’ll…