Harris Diatomaceous Earth Food Grade, 4lb with Powder Duster Included in The Bag
$14.60
- Description
- Additional information
- Reviews (10)
Description
HARRIS Diatomaceous Earth Food Grade, 4lb w/Free
Additional information
| Asin | B072J8Z28F |
|---|---|
| Dimensions | 12 x 9 x 6 inches |
| Weight | 4.2 pounds |
| Manufacturer | Harris |
Sir Voltron –
AnthonyandJessica –
On one hand, I wish I had this a few years ago when I was desperately trying to apply diatomaceous earth in a targeted way instead of use a basic sieve to “dust” it everywhere. I was dealing with a flea infestation & was using DE as an added layer of attack. I admit total cluelessless to the idea of an applicator– until I moved into an apartment with the start of an ant problem. I needed something that would do exactly what this applicator promised and I wanted high quality DE. Ultimately this product worked.
BUT– the applicator is really fussy. It clogged constantly– literally every other squirt of the applicator, the nozzle clogged. AND the applicator arrived inside the bag. So it had to be fished out…without causing a mess. And while I appreciate that it was shrink wrapped purportedly to prevent the applicator arriving caked with DE, the shrink wrap was open and the applicator was deluged in DE.
If you can deal with those kerfuffles– just be sure to wear a mask & probably goggles if you’re doing an extensive application. Even though the applicator gets the stuff in one area– it will still aerate. Still– it helped me deal with the ants.
Emily –
Update: This stuff works, and works well. No more bites. As I said previously I think it works so well because it literally goes everywhere. I recommend it to anyone fighting any sort of bugs. I actually leave it on my box spring, which is also covered by a sheet as a constant deterrent. I also learned I can sprinkle it in with my chicken’s dust bath and the areas around the property they like to hang out and it will help keep the buggers off of them. I’ve not seen one single flea, bug, mite, etc on any of them and they free range.
When I was reading the reviews I just assumed people weren’t being careful with it when they said it was messy, but I was wrong. I still wore a mask like many suggested and boy am I glad I did.
We haven’t seen any fleas on the dogs or cats, didn’t see any in our bed. But we were sure they were on the couch and recliner because we both woke up with bites after sleeping in the living room. Anyways, I treated our bed first (using the duster) and could instantly see the cloud of dust forming in the air and thought oh, that’s what they meant by messy. Sure enough, it took a good 30 minutes for the dust to settle from the air and my dark hardwood floors and furniture looked light brown. The dust gets EVERYWHERE. Because of this, I’ll believe the other reviews saying it kills everything, as it should because it literally gets everywhere. The next day I treated the couch and recliner and tried to be careful about how I sprayed it. The dining room table and chairs were covered, the kitchen counters, and everything in the living room. So I spent hours just cleaning all the dust up. Even after using my tineco, then sweeping and handwashing my floors with a bowl of soapy water and a rag, dust was still settling and I had to clean the floors a 3rd time.
I don’t know if this worked as far as killing whatever was biting us yet but after cleaning almost my entire house because of the dust, it better have been worth the hassle. I guess all the cleaning kept me busy enough to wait 5 hours before sweeping up the couch and recliner. I did not stick the hose in between the cussions, as some reviews said to leave some in there to help to continue to kill the bugs. Will update my review as to whether or not it killed everything in a few days.
CUBengal92 –
I am so glad that I purchased this with the powder duster. It is a great help in distributing the powder around the exterior of my home and on my vegetables and herbs. I have already seen a reduction in insects in my garden. I also love that it is safe for pets because I keep a lot of dogs and don’t want anything in my yard to harm the dogs. I will update this in a month regarding further results.
Sophia –
I hope this review helps someone. I’ve been trying to get rid of fruit flies / gnats on my indoor plants. I have had them outside and started bringing them indoor.
Since then, I’ve tried sprays (both chemical and natural types) but found this product to be the most helpful and safer.
I used a small plastic spoon to cover the top soil of each of my plants (I covered every inch of soil with the powder. Plastic spoon worked better than the tool it came with) and did not water my plants for two weeks – some plants already had moist soil so I left them untouched a little longer.
The key is to keep the Diatomaceous Earth powder and soil dry so that the powder can dry up the little gnats.
When it was time to water my plants I noticed the powder got messy but I did not mind it in terms of safety since this is food grade. You can easily clean up the powder with a wet cloth or vacuum.
But I found covering / layering the powder with another layer of fine rocks/ pebbles (I bought white pebbles of small size) ; then, I watered the plants which reduced the messiness of powder getting wet. I have been doing this “treatment” and it has helped reduce the fruit flies. Most importantly I feel this is safer and haven’t had to use chemical pesticides in the house. Hope this helps!
C. Lowry –
I was at the end of the rope on what to do about our flea infestation. My cat is an indoor/outdoor cat is constantly coming into contact with neighboring cats – that coupled with the unusual heat we’ve had this summer – seems to have exacerbated our flea problem. I’ve used the awful and toxic flea bombs – on several occasions, have used the expensive flea sprays, used a variety of medication on my cat, and have given my cat several baths – which if you knew my cat – you would know how dangerous that in itself is – because he hates water.
After extensive research I came across this product, and what first grabbed my attention was the fact that the "food grade" is not toxic to humans or pets. I have a child in my home and was fearful of introducing anymore chemicals into the home; I also was fearful of putting more toxic chemicals on my cat.
I treated my entire home with this stuff, along with my yard and the exterior of my home (window sills, entry ways). Now…..this stuff is really – really messy. I wasn’t sure that I could handle white powder being everywhere but I was desperate to see if this product was effective at killing fleas – as it claimed to be.
I sprinkled this product in the interior of my entire home, and didn’t touch the product at all and let it sit overnight. (Around 17 hours)
When I got up the next morning, I put a pair of white socks on so that I could see whether or not any fleas jumped on me. At first I was horrified as I literally had hundreds of fleas on my socks. I was discouraged as I first thought that this product was ineffective – not realizing the fleas were actually scrambling to stay alive. Prior to using this product – I had never seen that many fleas in my home. Seeing that many fleas made me realize just how effectice the product was as it drew the fleas out of the carpet as they were trying to get away from the product.
I vacuumed up the product – vacuuming my entire home – and didn’t see anymore fleas. Later that evening I vacuumed again – even the hardwood floors – and have only seen a total of two fleas. I understand that I need to vacuum – vacuum – vacuum.
I still haven’t let my cat back inside as I have to treat him again. At present I mix this product with his cat food to help treat him from the inside – I also rubbed some of this product into his coat.
This product has been extremely effective – I’m embarrassed to admit that I don’t usually write reviews – especially not this long. But because of how impressed I am with this product and how effective it really is, I wanted to share this information in the event it helps someone else.
Mark Shindler –
The powder duster is packed in the bag with the product. One must dig around in the power to find it. It’s covered in plastic but the dust is both on the inside and outside of the packing. Retrieving it and cleaning things off creates a bit of a mess and wasted product. The tube is difficult to extract from inside the billows.
The undamaged seal on the top of the bag is a poor design and will not seal closed. More than likely I’m going to have to transfer the contents to another container.
Contents weigh 3.8 lbs after powder duster is removed from the bag
Amazon Customer –
This should be everyone’s daily vitamin. It is excellent to drink with LOTS of water. I’ve researched quite a bit about it – DE has helped so many people with so many health problems, aches and pains especially. I originally got it for my garden to rid it of water bugs, ants and spiders and it worked instantly and it comes with a spray bottle that puffs it into the air to spread it as a mist. You must wear a mask and protect your eyes. They are all gone. Instant results. It is made of the oldest life form on earth- ground into a flour like powder and it cuts their body and they dehydrate. This fine ground coral and shells also cleanse our system because it safely scrapes everything that has built up (which I believe cause all our health issues).
For outdoor use- I also mix it with mint oil and water for mice. They are so resistant to every natural remedy.
Then I started to read DE’s health benifits and I started missing it with water and fresh lemon juice and I am on day six. It gives you energy and cleanses your entire system. Clears (heals)your skin, nails, and hair, fades aging spits and makes you look and feel younger.
I no longer have back pain! This earth is a miracle ! It has saved people from surgeries and somehow activates our cells to heal. It is a negative ion that attracts all the junk built up in our bodies and actually cleanses your entire body. Rids parisites too. Do your own research and be amazed. I couldn’t find anything bad about it except make sure you get food grade earth not pool grade! pool grade is made differently for the pool and of course would be deadly. To inhale it causes irritation and not good. So wear a mask for spraying but once ithe DE most clears and settles it is safe to come into contact with it or so I read. It’s the cloud of powder that isn’t good to breath but spooning it into your drink isn’t causing dust so it’s safe. Wear gloves when taking from the bag. It will irritate your hands.
Safe for kids and pregnant women- I read this numeral times in my research and even read it helped a boy with behavioral issues. He just started to behave all on his own. His mother was amazed and didn’t do anything differently.
While it is detoxing your body you may feel sick, like a day of feeling sick to your stomach. I felt this quite a few days and this means the earth is cleansing in a needed area. I also had a few headaches. But nothing serious and you can cut back on the dose but it passes and then you just feel GOOD again more and more energy each day.
I read it helps with weight loss because it cleanses the intestines and the fat cells so it’s easier to burn the fat because. It’s no longer stored. I feel trimmer and lost 5 pounds in 6 days. I also didn’t eat much a few of those days- I stuck to soup and fiber filled foods. Drink plenty of water. Start with half a teaspoon the first three days and then a teaspoon for a week and then you can add a second teaspoon. Whatever your body doesn’t need it just passes through your system so you can’t od on it- ha. Take it in the morning on an empty stomach. It makes you feel full and mix it with 12 oz of water and drink a full glass of water after. Lots of water throughout the day.
I add some DE to my shampoo for dandruff and add some to my Sappho bamboo charcoal soap when I wash my face. That soap is awesome. Amazing difference! It will also kill lice if you rub it dry into dry scalp. Bedbugs too.
I took the time to write all this to inspire you to try this awesome life changing miricle. It will heal your body in so many ways you will want everyone you know and love to take it. I was not asked to write any of this and I bought it by chance and it’s a must. It’s a wow. It’s your answer to everything. I send you love and positive energy as well as this power to heal yourself.
Man Wah Ma –
We have a fleas problem at home. We started to apply diatomaceous earth powder and boric acid to our carpet area since beginning of September and right now the problem seems to be under control (we rarely get stung by fleas now. Diatomaceous earth works great in killing fleas. I found death fleas from both the carpet area and tiles area where we left diatomaceous earth.
Because of the mechanical nature of the killing action, there are only a certain number of fleas that it can kill in a day; if the fleas infestation is so bad that more adult fleas pop up than what DE in our home can kill daily, our fleas problem will get worse instead of getting better. DE (and boric acid as well) should be used to contain small to medium size fleas infestation. In a truly massive outbreak, daily vacuuming to remove as many fleas, larvae, and eggs as possible is going to be more helpful than DE until the fleas population is under control. Since we have a dust separator and it deposit the dust into a bucket, I verified that DE kill fleas of all size in both tiles and carpet area. I was mighty please that I found 7 dead fleas when I vacuum out the DE in the Master bathroom (a room that I thought was clear of fleas. How wrong can I get?)
The best recommendation for DE usage I read involve 1) apply DE on carpet and then vacuum out DE from the carpet 12 to 48 hours after the initial application (for tiles surface, just spread DE on it and vacuum it out with the same schedule as carpet area). 2) Then vacuum the house daily 3) Apply DE again 7 days after the initial application. Repeat the cycle 4-5 times. In our case, since we don’t see adult fleas much (but still a lot baby fleas), we modify the plan and left DE in the carpet (boric acid was vacuumed out a few days after application) until an area with active baby fleas population (my feet will tell me where the active baby fleas are). If I feel active baby fleas in the carpet, I would vacuum out the DE and go through vacuum twice a day routine on the infested area for 2-3 days and then apply the DE again. My hope is that the vacuuming will control the infestation to the point that DE in my carpet can kill the new fleas fast enough. And we will left the DE in the carpet for the next 6-9 months at least. So far the plan seems to work well (we are in day 17 now), I only vacuum selected part of the house every day and the fleas is still under control.
Maintaining a thin layer of DE on tile surface is not an easy task. In a busy room like the kitchen where a lot of people walking in and out, DE tends to get pushed to the grout line and stay there. By the end of the day, we are back to smooth tiles surface with most if not all the DE are in the grout line. Our solution is to swipe up all the DE with broom and pan and re-apply DE at night. The average time it take DE to kill a fleas is between 4-6 hours. So for the ‘DE on tile surface’ plan to work, we need to find a window of 8-10 hours that the kitchen is off limit to everyone after we reapply the DE daily.
For the garage area, we wash the floor with 5:1 diluted bleach solution weekly since DE in the garage is a no go. I am concern that the filter in my car will get destroyed if it suck up some DE on the garage floor
We also bought some Victor fleas trap(M230A, 8 of them) and deployed the traps to each room . We started with 3 and like it so much that we get the rest and put them to use in different parts of our house. And it is very helpful to have the fleas trap as our last line of defense. We caught a few fleas in rooms that we thought is clear with the DE. The operating cost of these trap are very low (about 10 cents a day including the cost of burned light bulb and electricity). For easing our mind, these fleas trap is a great investment.
Steam cleaner (the one with steam over 220 F) can be helpful to kill fleas in small area or furnitures. I used to have a McCullogh MC1375 for a while and in the process of switching to a Dupray neat steam (advertised to deliver 275F steam). It will be very useful to clear the stubborn small fleas infested carpet area, chair, sofa, bed with steam cleaner. Much faster than DE or salt/baking soda but more labor intensive so steam cleaning only work for small area.
Since fleas operates 24×7 in reproducing and biting us, we can never hope to out work them. The best hope, I think, is to make our home so hostile to the entire cycle of the fleas life to get rid of them. Boric acid, DE, and heated fleas trap all work 24×7. And hopefully we can defect these pest with these tools over time. After the past 17 days, our tiles area are reasonably clear of fleas activities (DE is on the tile throughout). Some carpet area still have baby fleas activities and I am vacuuming those area daily. Garage seem to be clear of fleas at this point. Cars still need work.
DE is very messy to handle and easily blow out my home vacuum cleaner. we use a shop vac to vacuum out the DE when needed (Rigid 6.5 HP sold in Homedepot) and a dust separator (also sold in HD). Once I vacuum out the DE and boric acid from the carpet, I start to use my Dyson V11 for the daily vacuuming. And the filter in dyson V11 has to be cleaned using the blowing function of the Rigid shop vac 7-8 times already (the shop vac pick up most of the DE. DE buried deep in the carpet will cause problem for our V11) and 3 new V11 filter in the last 17 days. I can’t imagine a way to handle DE without a shop vac and constantly cleaning filter.
PS: update this review on 9/27/20 (about 3 weeks after initial application of DE). We still have a couple areas in our home (a small carpet area in dinning room and a small carpet area in family room) that still have some fleas activities. DE kill fleas slowly (take average 4-6 hours ) and it seem to be more effective in killing larger flea than small one. That mean I notice some stinking bite from the small male fleas occasionally from those small infested area). For now I just try to avoid these area and wait until the DE kill the small male fleas. Since we applied DE and boric acid in our house starting 9/3/20, we saw progressively less fleas activities in our house, I am hopeful that we will ultimately clear these 2 small area and our car of fleas . I cleaned the filter in the shop vac for the first time a couple days ago, and it is ugly. DE and boric acid stuck in the filter and I have to wash the shop vac filter. Be prepare to do a lot of filter cleaning on both your regular vacuum and shop vac when you use DE. One thing I really like about DE is that we have not sprayed any insecticide in our home since 9/3 and still have the fleas under control (not eliminated yet). Victor fleas trap is my last defense in car DE fail to kill some fleas.. I am hopeful that we can eliminate fleas in another 4-6 weeks.
PPS: update 10/4/20. As it turns out DE is very good in killing the female fleas which is bigger in size but it is much slower in killing the Smaller male fleas. we had 4 small area in our house and my car ( around 3×5 ft or so on an average) still have fleas. I noticed that I will get bitten once in a while if I stay in these in these small infested area. Obviously the most important one to kill are the female fleas since it break the cycle of more fleas. But these small male fleas can live a lot longer than the 4 to 6 hours average. So I vacuumed out the DE and applied 50/50 very fine salt (pop corn salt, prepared by using food processor and regular salt) to those area and let it stay in the carpet for 2 days and it seem to help 3 out of the 4 area. As of now, I have DE on all the carpet and just waiting for it to kill the Rest of the fleas (may be another couple weeks?). In the tiles area, keeping a layer of DE in our busy kitchen is an impossible task. So I just vacuumed the til floo o remove those fleas.
Given our experience so far, if we were to have fleas again, I would 1) apply a combination of boric acid/fine salt/baking soda for the carpet area and mop the tiles floor with bleach daily for busy area (And use DE for less traffic tiles area) to start. 2) Let the mixture stay in the carpet 2-3 days and then Vacuum them out and apply DE to the carpet area and less used tiles area. Use lighted fleas trap as on those infested area as a safe guard. 3) Vacuum busy tiles area with any sign of fleas. And for the carpet, steam cleaning the area with fleas activities (no need to vacuum out the DE. DE will still work after it dried) with a qualified steamer can clear a small area of fleas much faster than waiting for DE magic to work (an hour or less work for small area compare to waiting for a few weeks). This approach should clear the fleas problem a lot faster than the 4-6 weeks or longer needed by using DE exclusively.
DE is excellent as a watch guard waiting for adult fleas to emerge. But the killing action take a lot of waiting Time for the fleas to go from egg-> larvae-> Pupae -> adult. And it take even longer for the really small male fleas. It is best to avoid those area with fleas activity (even the area is covered by DE already since it take a while to kill the male fleas). It make no sense to let those fleas bit us if we can help it. My wife has a rain boot on walking around the house and it help her avoid getting bitten. I hope my experience is helpful for other who has fleas. I learn a lot and I am convinced that a lot of online article about fleas were written by authors who have never had a fleas problem. Some of the advise I read were ridiculous and impractical now that I have experienced the problem first hand. Steam cleaner, essential oil, fleas light, boric acid etc all can help but DE seems to be the one that can finish the job to clean up a fleas problem (at least I am hopeful).
PPPS: update 10/10/20 Finally give up on the idea of using DE. Have a talk with an extended family member who had a fleas problem (resolved) and an exterminator and come to the realization the importance of very frequent vacuuming. DE is a mean to eliminate adult fleas in the house but in order to eradicate the problem, we need to control the egg, larvae, and pupa stage as well, vacuuming is the tool that can eliminate fleas in all these stage. So vacuuming is the star while DE (and a lot of other approach) are supporting characters. I think I loss sight of the important distinction. In our particular situation, the carpet area is about 1600-1700 sq ft. It took me 2 hour+ to vacuum up DE that covered abut 800 sq ft yesterday. With frequent vacuuming that mean I need to vacuum and then replace the DE every week for 4-8 weeks. Using the shop vac for 5+ hours every week is too taxing for me (I am 60 now). That is why I tried to use the lazy approach and only vacuum up DE in area with more fleas activities. My approach miss the point that frequent vacuuming is the single most beneficial fleas control tool. With professional exterminator, they will spray insecticide+IGR and then we vacuum for 1-2 weeks. And reapply if necessary. Vacuuming everyday using a Dyson is within my physical ability. This is the finer point that no one mentioned. DE is extremely messy and physically demanding to vacuum up.
I use a shop vac with a dust separator and my shop vac’s filter was still mess up and loss suction quite rapidly. A lengthy cleaning bring back the filter back but it is more work that no one mentioned. For anyone who consider using DE, the daily workload is something to be considered. For now I am vacuuming out all my DE and will vacuum our carpet area like crazy. I ordered PT ultracide and apply them when it get here. hopefully it will help us eliminate our fleas problem. Our house has never has a major infestation. Just minor fleas activities non stop in various part of the house that drive us nut (the small fleas that won’t bite us but crawl all over our legs and now getting on our beds and body). DE is doing very well in killing those larger female fleas and eventually those smaller males adult fleas but the saga won’t end. We are basically at a standstill 5 weeks into our fleas journey and we are at the same spot as when we began in early September (no major infestation but problem in different small area (e.g. 3×5 ft) around the house. I am hoping the much more aggressive vacuuming and IGR will help us eliminate our flea problem in a few weeks instead of back to the same spot again. Good luck to everyone who has a fleas problem and decide to pursue with DE and vacuuming.
PPPPS: we have our house sprayed on 10/15/20 by an exterminator. After talking to the exterminator, I realize that they know about fleas and the chemical that can kill them effectively much more than I do. Our exterminator use a combination of 3 insecticide. 1 for fast knock out with no residual, one kill adult fleas in 3-4 hours with 90 days residual and finally one with combined insecticide and IGR. This is the first time I heard about residual and the importance of residual killing of fleas in eradication. Residual simply means how long can the insecticide keep killing fleas after the spray. DE has infinite residual if we keep them in the carpet but 0 residual effect once we remove it. The delima of using DE is that we cannot vacuum out the fleas egg, larvae or adult fleas when DE is in the carpet. So the ideal is to put DE down for a day or 2 max and vacuum it out. But the work involved in vacuuming out DE is very messy and physically demanding (because the shop vac are not designed to vacuum carpet) once the size of the carpet area is > 1000 sq ft to handle in one afternoon. So there is a work load issue for using DE in handling fleas. Another issue we run into is both our cars and house has fleas and we bring the fleas back and forth. Using insecticide with long residual help us resolve both problems at the same time without worrying about re-introduction of fleas into the house or car (since they will be kill within a few hours once they get drop onto the carpet treated with long residual insecticide). This is a concept that I don’t understand and DE has problem with. Once the DE is out of the carpet, new fleas introduced into the environment will be free to roam and lay eggs until the next scheduled DE round. I think that is one major reason some users reported that they cannot resolve their fleas issue with DE. Insecticide with long residual will help enormously.
With what I went through since beginning of Sept, my 2 cents is that professional exterminator is really the best bet. DE will do what it advertised. But as an individual, we lack the experience to deal with fleas and use DE correctly. In the best case, DE can be used to help take care of small to medium size infestation (my guess carpet area less than 800-100 sq ft). Once over this size, chemical is the solution if only because of the workload issue. A good exterminator is worth their weight in gold. When I called around there are exterminator who want the job with no guarantee or follow up (why would anyone hire them?). Our exterminator did the initial spray on the carpet and sideboard on all the tiles area (nothing on the tile), will come back in one week to do a second spray on the carpet area only with the fast knock out and long residual insecticide and set up glue board. And he will check back on the third week. I wish individual can share their experience in more details and it will help future users decide if DE will help them. Cost wise, DE are pretty expensive to use if you need to get the shop vac etc. our exterminator cost use $350 in Northern California and DE probably cost us about the same up to this point (multiple new dyson filters that it kills, new shop vac, new dust separator). Heated fleas trap is a good item to get and it help tremendously. Steamer help on spot cleaning. Don’t know about whether boric acid is effective or not since I cannot determine whether larvae get killed or not. Fine salt and baking soda work somewhat and it depends if you can apply them on the fleas or not. At the end, it is important to note that the soonest DE can eliminate all the fleas take 4-6 weeks but chemical (insecticide+IGR) can deal with fleas in 2-3 weeks. Times is important discussion since fleas will keep reproducing if we give them the chance. I think I come to conclusion that chemical is the better solution.
Donna Collins –
I mostly applied this directly to my chickens who had mites. It worked like a charm! No more mites. I dusted the chickens’ spots where they lay and roll around in the sand to prevent lice and mites they may pick up in the yard. It is totally natural no- pesticide way to treat my animals. I also used it on some fire ant mounds. It killed many of the ants but unfortunately does not get down to the queen. I dusted again when they moved the mound. Each time there are less worker ants. At some point the queen will die too since there are no workers left to attend her. The best part is no harsh chemicals.