Diatomaceous Earth For Dogs

hi, i’m rose with zappbug and in this videowe’re going to cover the use of diatomaceous earth to get rid of bed bugs. diatomaceousearth is a chalky substance made of fossilized sea creatures called diatoms whose bodieswere primarily silicon dioxide. it’s nontoxic and one of the safest ways we know of to killbed bugs. when handling diatomaceous earth there’sa couple safety tips to keep in mind. as with

Diatomaceous Earth For Dogs, any substances be cautious when using it aroundpets or small children. diatomaceous earth is non-toxic when ingested, and it’s actuallyused for deworming pets, but even so i don’t recommend eating it. prolonged contact withyour skin will dry it out but it’s no big deal. if you experience that you can justuse some moisturizer, and maybe talk to a

doctor if you have any preexisting skin conditionsyou feel could get aggravated. the most important safety tip we have is thatyou don’t want to breathe any in. always be cautious and use a dust mask when spreadingit. also, make sure you’re buying pet or food grade diatomaceous earth, not pool grade.this is a crucial difference: pool grade has much smaller particles and is a lot more hazardousif breathed in. i’ve also heard of insecticide diatomaceous earth that comes premixed withpesticides, but i haven’t seen any brands actually selling that, so keep an eye outand avoid any that’s labelled as such. as you can see, diatomaceous earth is a finepowder, similar to flour. diatomaceous earth kills bed bugs by acting as a desiccant, whichmeans that it dries out what it comes into

contact with. you’ll be using diatomaceousearth as a barrier in areas you know bed bugs move around in. when they crawl through itdiatomaceous earth disrupts their waxy shell and causes their eventual death by dehydration.this process is not instantaneous, so keep in mind that after using diatomaceous earthit takes approximately seven to seventeen days for bed bugs to die. the total lengthof time it will take varies depending on three things: what stage in the molting cycle thebed bug is in, how much of the de they’re exposed to and for how long. so don’t panic– if you’ve spread diatomaceous earth and are still seeing bed bug activity fora couple days that doesn’t mean it’s not working.the diatomaceous earth we’re going to be

using today is the thomas labs three poundjar of pet grade. we really like this version because it’s pretty cheap, comes with enoughto get the job done but not too much, and also the easily re-sealable container. i boughtthis on amazon and you can find a variety of different sizes and brands. we also havea link here and in the description if you’re interested.the brand itself doesn’t matter. as long as they’re pet or food grade they’re allgoing to be pretty comparable, and if you need more than three pounds there are largersizes that are cheaper by weight. bed bugs often travel through the walls ofdwellings. we see this really often in apartment buildings -- it’s one of the main ways thatthey spread from unit to unit. to prevent

them from surviving in your walls you’regoing to want to put some diatomaceous earth in your electrical outlets. first, just asafety reminder, make sure that you are wearing a mask before you spread any diatomaceousearth so you’re not breathing it in. next, i recommend turning off the breakerfor the room that you’re working in, just to be on the safe side. whenever you’reworking near electrical systems it’s always best to be extra cautious.now that the breaker is off we can get started. all we need is our diatomaceous earth, a screwdriverto take the switch plate off, and a plastic spoon and duster to help us spread it. first,let’s take the plate off. now you’ll just want to spread a thin layerof diatomaceous earth throughout the outlet

gap. depending on the size of the outlet youcan use either a plastic spoon or a duster. for this outlet i’m using a duster. i boughtthis on amazon and have a link in the description below if you’re interested. i’ve alreadyfilled this with diatomaceous earth so all i need to do is put my mask on, put the nozzleback in the outlet here, and press down. before we put the face plate back on we’regoing to want to put a little diatomaceous earth on it as well.we don’t need to go overboard here, but we want as much coverage as possible to makesure that we’re covering all our bases. you’re going to want to do this with all the outlets in yourhouse just so that you know you’re covered. another great way to use diatomaceous earthis to place it around the edges of your room.

we want to do this for the same reason thatwe spread diatomaceous earth in our wall outlets: to prevent bed bugs from crawling throughour walls and spreading even further. here you can see the seam in between the walland the floor where it’s possible for bed bugs to crawl and hide. ideally we would wantthis seam to be calked closed, but that’s not always an option aesthetically or practically,especially if you’re in a rental unit. so our best bet is putting down enough diatomaceousearth that the bugs either don’t want to crawl through it, or if they do crawl throughit they’ll be exposed to it and die. this is a really simple process and no realtools are required beyond some kind of spatula or any other flat edged object that you canuse to push the diatomaceous earth into the

crack. i’ve got my handy bucket of diatomaceousearth here and i’m just going to use a little plastic cup to scoop out some and place itdown along the crack. you can use anything to scoop here, even spoons or measuring cupsif that’s easy for you, the only thing that’s important is getting enough down. now, i’mgoing to use this spatula to push the dust back into the crack. it’s that easy.if the crack is wide enough you can use a duster like we have here to push diatomaceousearth deep into the crevice. this one isn’t, but it’s the same principle.one of the best uses for diatomaceous earth is creating what we call a safe zone in yourbedroom. the principle behind this is using a much thicker layer of de than we’ve usedin our outlets and along the edges of our

walls. we really want to get a nice, thickline here because we want to try and prevent bed bugs from approaching our bed while wesleep. we’re their primary source of food, so they’re naturally drawn to the bed aboveall other locations. but if the line is thick enough they won’t crawl through it at all.so we’re going to create a diatomaceous earth perimeter around our bed to establisha safe, bed bug free zone and get a full night’s sleep. now, you may still get a couple bitesif there are bugs already inside the perimeter when you place it down, or if a couple bugsviolate the perimeter anyway. but this will definitely severely reduce or eliminate thenumber of bites you’re getting. also, keep in mind that bed bug bites can take a coupledays to show up, so seeing bites after you

create this perimeter doesn’t mean it isn’tworking. all we need to do this is, as always, ourdust mask, and any kind of scoop for the diatomaceous earth. a couple quick words about the dustmask before we spread this down. it may seem counterintuitive to you that we’re wearinga mask to spread it, but then you’ll be sleeping right by it after it’s down. thereason for this is because diatomaceous earth is nontoxic when it’s not being breathedin, and as long as there’s nothing that will disturb this dust you’re going to betotally fine. i wouldn’t recommend putting it in front of a heating vent or air conditioneror something else that’s going to disturb it.

now i’m going to create my barrier. as youcan see i’m doing a much thicker amount than i did in the outlets or along the edgesof the walls because i’m not trying to kill them as much as prevent them from coming nearme. but that’s all you need to do. now we’re done and you’ve successfullycreated a safe zone around your bed. remember that this step alone isn’t enough to killbed bugs; you’ll want to follow the rest of our 8-step guide or use one of the zappbugproducts to heat treat your belongings. once you’ve finished treating your house youcan vacuum up the barrier you’ve created; for more detailed instructions on that pleasesee step one – creating a safe zone.

next we’ll be moving on to step five: sealingcracks and crevices. please click here or

check out the link in the description. youcan also look at our full 8-step approach on our website, where we include additionalinformation as well as links to all our videos. thanks for watching!