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Natural Flea Control For Your Pet: The Nematodes

Natural Flea Control For Your Pet: The Nematodes

Now when you see your pet scratching and grooming too much, you are sure that it has a flea infection. Once you make yourself sure that it has a flea infection, you will automatically panic as you know how fleas reproduce and re-infest on your pet’s skin more and more.

Moreover, fleas tend to jump on you and your family too. A serious flea infiltration at your household could be the third ruthless step. Nematodes (Nemathelminthes) or simply known as roundworms can help you to get rid of your flea problems totally. Go through the article to find out what does a nematode does?

The Guidelines in this Page:

  • What are Nematodes?
  • Why and how a Nematode can be Useful?
  • How to Use Nematodes on Fleas?
  • Where do you Store Nematodes?
  • Finally

What are Nematodes?

Nematodes are normally known as roundworms. They are worms that come under the phylum Nematoda in zoology. There are more than 15,000 species of nematodes that are found from terrestrial to nautical atmospheres. Nematodes exist as free-living creatures as well as parasites of plants and animals in land and aquatic surroundings.

Watch this video for more information:

Their characteristics:

Harries Diatomaceous Earth

These are microscopic yet long worms having un-segmented even body surfaces. Though being microscopic, hence not to be seen in naked eyes they cause great harm to insect larvae. They are not harmful to humans, pets and live in soils. By destroying insect larvae they acquire the name being beneficial nematodes which gives you a perfect solution to get rid of fleas at the larva stage from your yard and garden.

You don’t need to use toxic chemicals for flea infestation too. These beneficial nematodes kill flea larvae by entering into their bodies through the mouth, anus, and respiratory openings or directly through the body wall and they eject a poisonous bacterium from their gut which kills the larvae. They feed on the host tissue for their own nutrition.

They are harmful to adult fleas too. They enter through the exoskeleton of adult fleas and within 48 hours the adult fleas die. If you spread an ample amount of nematodes at your outdoors, the chances of flea infiltration decline. Flea larvae don’t transform into adult fleas because before that they are killed and eaten as nutrients to the nematodes.

You will not find matured fleas jumping on to your pet as they die within 48 hours of exoskeleton insertion. Your pet can roam easily outside the house without fleas annoying it. The harmful bacterium in which the nematodes eject from their guts (A cavity from pharynx or throat from where they pull their food and crush it, to the anus of a nematode) is not injurious to either humans or pets.

Are they parasites?

We have mentioned earlier that some nematodes are free-living creatures and some are parasites. Nematodes that kill adult fleas and flea larvae are in fact parasites. Fleas here become hosts to these parasites which live on their nutrients. Fleas are microscopic insects and imagine the size of nematodes that makes them their hosts and live on them.

Are they harmful?

Nematodes are harmful to their hosts i.e. the fleas. Fleas are harmful to you and your pets. But nematodes are not harmful to you and your pets. They are also not harmful to other beneficial insects like ladybugs and earthworms. They are nature’s own created flea removers for you, your family and your pets.

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Why and how a Nematode can be Useful?

Living in the soil all over the world, nematodes are beneficial to us, as they kill harmful insects at their soil-borne stages. Flea larvae outside your house at the garden, yard, garage, and other bushy areas are abolished by these useful nematodes. Nematodes destroy more than 200 kinds of pests that mature in the ground like weevils, Japanese beetles, cutworms, borers, and fungus gnats, even before they reach their adult stages.

Steinernema feltiae, Steinernema carpocapsae, Heterorhabditis bacteriophora are the three species of beneficial nematodes who eat fleas.

How do they work?

When nematodes are sprinkled over the soil they find the taste of the pray, find them and kill them. They can even locate their prey once they touch the ground by the pray’s warm body temperature. Once they locate them, they get inside them, eject harmful bacteria from their gut and kill them. Results are seen within 24 hours.

Why they are successful?

As perfect flea killers, nematodes are successful because you can buy them from the market at a very cheap rate and you get to spread them on the ground simply by mixing with water and using a sprayer. Most of the products come with an in-built sprayer.

How to Use Nematodes on Fleas?

The main question which comes in our minds is “If I can’t see nematodes, how do I know whether they work or not?” The answer lies in this section of the page. Go through it carefully.

The best ways to apply nematodes:

Even if your pet stays inside your house with you, this is a complete outdoor treatment method, because nematodes live in soils. Fleas come from outdoors to your indoor. Nematodes kill fleas outside your house restricting them to enter your house. Nematodes survive on soggy, moisture and cloudy environment and can even die in blaring sunlight and dry heat.

It is always advisable to apply nematodes between dusk and dawn. Adequate water should be mixed with nematodes at a correct ratio (which is mentioned on the pack). A correct ratio promises quick and better treatment. Pour the mixture in a water-can or use a sprayer to spray the solution on the ground, throughout your outdoors.

Watch this video to get a clearer picture of the application:

After application:

When nematodes do their job of killing the fleas at your outdoors they find no hosts further. They die and their bodies decay naturally and mix with the soil. They are microscopic organisms and you won’t find any signs of them.

Where do you Store Nematodes?

When the delivery boy hands over the packet to you, it is always advisable to apply ASAP. But you have to keep in mind that harsh sunny and warm atmosphere is not ideal for the nematodes. You may have to wait until the sun goes down. In that case, you can keep them in the fridge.

It is better to cover the packet with an aluminum foil as it will provide them a shelter from the light source of the fridge which turns on every time someone opens the fridge. Nematodes can survive in your fridge for up to 14 days. But keep in mind that the 14 days don’t start from the day the packet arrives at your home. They might have been stored in refrigerator vehicles or cold containers during the transit.

If you get dead nematodes delivered at your home:

Nematodes don’t have any smell. But once you open the pack and if you sniff a pungent odor like rotten fish, well the nematodes are dead. They don’t live long without a host. You should keep in mind that though they are beneficial to you, in the end, they are parasites.

Nowadays we physically hardly go to a shop to buy things. Online orders are more convenient for us. Once you realize the online store has delivered dead nematodes that are useless to your cause, ask for a money refund. Choosing the best retailer is the keyword here.

Finally

Nematodes are the natural best flea killers. Nature has provided us this particular flea eradication system. This is our best recommendation. Not only the fleas, but nematodes also get rid of various kinds of irritant insects from our surroundings too and after they’re done with their job they simply vanish. To keep you, your family and most importantly your pets away from fleas, the application of nematodes on outdoors is an easy and effective solution.

Skip the research and talk to the exterminator to kill Fleas

Click here and access our exterminator search tool- instantly get free quotes from the authentic house of exterminators in your local area.

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