Why use Pest Grade DE?
• Controls fleas, roaches, silverfish, and ants around the house and where pets sleep
• Kills bed bugs
• Controls fleas on your dogs and cats
• Controls mites on your chickens
• Kills fly maggots and controls odours in manure
• Pretreat seed beds and seeds to keep them from being attacked by bugs
• Kills caterpillars, borers, and bark hiding insects, and puts a protective coating on fruit by spraying on trees
• Controls slugs and snails in the veggie garden
Note: If children under 2yrs are in the house while using DE for external use we would recommend that you use Food Grade as a precaution.
Also remember that while it may kill slugs etc. – it also kills other beneficial insects.
Application
PETS & LIVESTOCK:
Shake onto your dogs and cats coats every couple of weeks for a natural flea treatment. Sprinkle it in dog houses and bedding.
Put it out where your chickens like to take dust baths to control mites. Sprinkle it in the hen’s nest boxes and on their roosts. Every time you renew the chickens bedding re-apply the DE.
You can fill dust bags with it for cattle to rub on and sprinkle it on manure piles to kill fly maggots and control odours.
IN THE HOME:
Dust or sprinkle the dry powder around your house and where the pets sleep to control fleas, roaches, silverfish, and ants. We would recommend an old talcum powder container so you can puff it into crevices. Figure on using 1/2 lb. for every 1000 sq. feet of area.
Sprinkle it around basements and baseboards where pests hide and creep. Leave the powder down for as long as you can to ensure getting the full breeding cycle of pests i.e. adults, the young and the babies once the eggs hatch.
Dust your bed frames, under furniture cushions and your carpeting to kill bed bugs and fleas.
For bedbugs take apart the bed and dust joints and channels. Dust any hollow tubing and the interior framework as well as the mattress and all cracks in the room.
Allow a good length of time for the powder to fully kill the cycle of the pest as some parasites only feed every 5 days or so. Also at some stage eggs will hatch and begin feeding so its best to leave the DE powder down for as long as possible. So long as the pests come into contact with the DE powder they will die off.
Note: If children under 2yrs are in the house while using DE for external use we would recommend that you use Food Grade as a precaution.
IN THE GARDEN:
You can use DE as a dust in the garden around the base of plants. Like with any powder be sure to wear a dust mask if doing a large job, to prevent any possible lung irritation. DE works very effectively when dry so remember to dust plants after they are wet from a heavy dew, rain, or irrigation to insure the product sticks to the surfaces.
You can use it to pretreat seed beds and seeds to keep them from being attacked by bugs. It will also enrich the soil and will increase the soil’s water holding ability.
It may also be used as a sprayable mixture. This is the best way to treat large areas such as a lawn and can be used to reach high areas such as up in trees to kill caterpillars and to put a protective coating on fruit.
Mix 1/4 to 1/2 cup of DE in a gallon of water with a teaspoon of liquid soap, and spray it out on your lawn or plants. With this method there is no problem with dust drifting or being breathed in, and once the DE dries it will be active.
You can also mix up a thicker soup to paint on tree trunks for the control of borers and bark hiding insects. Be sure to keep the spray mixture agitated as the powder will tend to settle out and if you use too much powder the sprayer may get clogged. Spraying is a great way to treat for aphids and other pests. You should re-apply after every good rain.
Read post on controlling Vine Weevils in your flower containers.
