How to Keep Fleas Out of Your Yard

Spring is coming and that means scratching and itching for your dogs and cats. The adult fleas that laid eggs in your yard last year are hatching out and ready to suck the blood out of your loved one.

Last year any fleas that survived laid eggs in your yard and grew into cocoon covered pupae. These little balls of joy hung out in your yard overwinter. When the weather warmed up enough, they popped out of their cocoon as they feel the vibration of your pet coming, and sense them breathing out carbon dioxide.

If you aren’t careful it’s all downhill from there and your home is hopping with fleas, and your pet slowly goes crazy.

The female fleas can produce 40-50 eggs per day and average of 1,350 eggs over a 50 day period.

The best option. Prevent your pet from encountering fleas, and it all starts in your yard. Ideally you can work to keep stray pets out of your yard to reduce fleas.

If not, it is time to create a flea repelling moat!

Can Insects Smell Your Pets?

Even though they don’t have conventional noses, insects have adapted to smell odors in nearly every imaginable niche.

Mosquitoes find us by tracking our carbon dioxide and body odors with their antennae, bees are drawn to flowers the same way, whereas ticks detect an approaching host using receptors on their forelegs to smell our carbon dioxide as we breath out.

Fleas have a strong sense of smell that can detect changes in carbon dioxide in the air, which often means there's a host nearby. Fleas will move toward the source of the carbon dioxide, as it usually signals a host. They then use their powerful legs to jump onto us or our pets. A flea can jump about 150 times its height, about 12 inches.

Repel Fleas With Garden Plants

Plant essential oils (EOs) specially their monoterpen components; exhibit a variety of biological activities against a wide spectrum of insect pests.

They can adversely affect the growth and reproduction rate, behavior trait of insect pests and act as contact insecticide, fumigant, repellent and antifeedent agent.

Many of these have been shown to do better than DEET and permethrin at repelling fleas.

I would suggest making a circle of flea repelling plants around your home to increase your level of defense. The plants below have been proven by scientists to repel or even kill fleas.

You can also either make or purchase essential oils of these and place them on yourself or around your home. This may also mask the carbon dioxide which attracts fleas to you.

Take care not to put them on your pet as pets can be sensitive to oils and could also ingest them while cleaning themselves.

Thyme and Common Myrtle

Thyme essential oil provides one of the highest repellency to fleas followed by myrtle. Thyme and myrtle oils showed high repellent activities and among the total detected terpenes, thymol (36.26%) and α-pinene (32.5%) were the major components of those oils respectively.

The benefit of growing thyme is you can pick it fresh for your latest Italian recipe. Thyme can also be used to soothe a cough, and to fight bacteria and inflammation.

Cinnamon and Mint

The major components (trans-cinnamaldehyde and thymol) identified from cinnamon and cuban or mexican mint esssential oils had repellency of 90–97% against cat fleas. It was mostly the leaves. Sage, a plant related to mint is also known to repel fleas. Cinnamon is known to be more effective as killing fleas than cloves (below). But for people cinnamon can help regulate blood sugar levels and lower cholesterol.

Cypress

Cypress trees are effective repellents, both the leaves and the woodshavings. So if you have to trim up your cypress, leave the bark and wood in your garden. You can also use the mulch in your garden to repel the fleas.

Cloves

Cloves aren’t just for making a tasty pumpkin pie anymore. In one study clove oil killed 100% of fleas within one hour! Cloves are also good at repelling other pests such as cockroaches and mice.

Yarrow

Yarrow is known to repel fleas but not as well as the other plants above. Many birds actually add it to their nest to keep fleas away.

The nice think about yarrow is that its easy to grow and it is known for its healing properties.

Please note yarrow is toxic for dogs and cats to eat. I grow yarrow but my dog has not yet tried it. But it is known to be good for stopping the flow of blood from a wound if used as a poultice.

Ginger

Ginger is used in every household as a spice; it also has anti-vomiting, anti-emetic, anti-flatulent, anti-nausea, and analgesic effects.

You may know that drinking giner tea can help our upset stomach, but it also have chemicals that can kill of pests like fleas. Zingiberene, shogaol, and gingerol are the active components of ginger that give it its potent biocidal qualities.

These active constituents interfere with some insect metabolic procedures, such as chitin synthesis, respiratory systems, central nervous systems, ATP synthesis, protein synthesis, impaired sexual communication, and antifeedant.