Recently, there were more than 28,000 sites, on just one search engine, on the internet related to pesticide poisoning from flea products. No matter what the reasons were, the poisoning happened because the products were available, and a reasonably logical person thought them safe for use. We readily accept whatever we are used to seeing. Harmful flea products are in the mainstream of our lives. Just go to any big food store, home improvement store, drug store, pet food store, and yes, even the Walmart, and you can find an arsenal for combating fleas.

Until 1990, I used everything available for flea control. After many bad experiences, I realized that I was declaring chemical warfare on my pets, my home, my yard, the environment, and on myself as well. Knowing that this had to stop, if I were going survive, I set out to find a pesticide-free way to keep fleas off my cats. My first step was to eliminate everything that had not worked for me in my war against fleas. So, I had to forget all the flea products that I knew about. Living in Florida, meant combing off the fleas every hour if the cats went out on the screened porch, but I did it, in addition to wearing out a good vacuum cleaner. After a couple of years of trial and error, I developed a simple, cheap, and safe method that is so effective that the cats seem to be “invisible to fleas”. Not only am I happy to be able to keep fleas off my cats, but I feel good about giving up my life of crime against the environment.

There are many sites on the internet where you can find out all the names of the harmful chemicals used in flea products. Anti-pesticide groups offer a lot of valuable information, as does the NRDC (National Resource Defense Council) and the CDC (Center for Disease Control). Even some animal rescue organizations post warning against certain products. Personally, I think that the terms KEEP OUT OF THE REACH OF CHILDREN and WASH YOUR HANDS AFTER HANDLING should give us the clues we need. Plain and simple, do not use these products, there is something unsafe about them. Trust me, the manufacturer is not just adding this information to make the label larger. There had to be a law somewhere that forced them to put these warnings on. Restrictions of this sort don’t surface until harm has been done, and until a lot of action has been taken by environmental groups. Your best course of action is to do the research yourself.

Visit the NRDC flea product information sites and some Anti-pesticide group sites. They can be real eye openers. While you are looking at their sites, I hope you will take a few minutes to visit the KEEP FLEAS OFF site at: http://www.liquorman.net/keepfleasoff/

I suggest that you download information concerning the flea poisons, and use it as a guide to help protect your environment. After all, we are not just what we eat, but what we absorb through our skins and what we breathe into our lungs. Once a substance gets into your bloodstream, it has access to every cell that you own. One of the few powers, that you still have, is the power to control the environment in your home, USE IT!

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