Diatomaceous Earth: How to Use Them And Where To Buy Them

I wrote about Diatomaceous Earth awhile back. I received a lot of questions on this. Let me remind you that Diatomaceous Earth is an effective, natural, cheap way to take care of your home, animal's health, and garden. However, be sure to check with your country and regional requirements on the safety of DE.

Here's what we're looking at in this hub:

• How to use it on animals?
• How much to feed them for deworming?
• What are the many other uses for it, other than pesticide, insecticide, and digestive aids?
• What is the best way to apply DE to plants, household, furniture, and animals?
• Where do I buy them? I live in (insert country here).

The surprising part about this is: Diatomaceous Earth is relatively well-known amongst gardeners, farmers, pool caretakers, and botanists. They are less known with the rest of the world. With the fact that we're looking to acquire food grade DE , along with types of business we could find the product at, let's move on here.

Please note that most USA stores do not ship DE to Texas or California. Some store varies.

USA only

1. Earthworks Health. E arthworks Health is where to buy Food Grade Diatomaceous Earth repackaged with permission by Perma-Guard. DE is totally organic and safe. Ours is taken only from fresh water deposits and is the purest form available. Their check-out cart shows only USA orders.

International

1. Wolf Creek Ranch. I can personally vouch for this company. I expected their shipping to come in much later according to estimated shipping time, but it arrived within a week. They are true to their word on their product. They have a variety of packaging sizes and types - jugs, ziploc bags, ranging from 12 oz to 500 lbs. They ship within USA and outside, depending on the product. They also have far more information on what DE is, how to use them, and how they are mined.
2. Golden Harvests Supply. I used their check-out cart to see where they would ship to. Their billing information included any country. I would advise you to contact them to be absolutely sure. They're based in Indiana, USA.
3. Perma-Guard. They're the biggest company in dealing with Diatomaceous Earth. Their site claims freshwater food grade Diatomaceous Earth. They have distributors inside and outside of USA in the specified country's retail stores. Call for retail store information. Take a look at their international distribution information here. According to search engines, their products can also be found off of ebay.
4. Garden Harvest. Purely an Australian company that deals with anything organic for gardening, pet health, livestock health, and more. Yes, they have Diatomaceous products and added this nugget: "Note: This is untreated, unheated agricultural diatomaceous earth not the diatomaceous earth used in swimming pool filters, which is dangerous and has no pest control properties."

There are many ways to use Diatomaceous Earth: Feeding, spraying, sprinkling, vacuuming, immersing in water bowls, and more.

My preferred methods:

• I spray and mix DE in with dog and cat food, along with mixing it into the water bowl. No more than 2 cups total sprinkled in about 6 food bowls. I have many animals, so this is why I put in that specific amount.
• After bathing my animals, I dry rub DE into their fur. I prefer dry rub because wet spray leaves them greasy. I never bathe more than once a month, but do dry rub daily until fleas and ticks cycles have completely vanished.
• I wet spray the entire yard in the summer to drive out the parasites.
• Furniture also holds a lot of parasites the animals bring in. Considering we want to break the cycle, we also include the furniture in DE cleansing. This means I dry sprinkle all furniture and flooring daily, leave them in for more than 20 minutes, then vacuum/clean them up. Usually, this ritual never lasts more than a week depending on the cycle and if we've completely rid the house of parasites.
• For human digestion aid, less than a tablespoon of Diatomaceous Earth in 2 cups of water.
• Dry sprinkle and wet spray works great on plants. The soil really enjoys Diatomaceous Earth (wet) and the plants are healthier after harmful bugs are killed off of them (dry).

Please note! Do not inhale the dust. The sharp edges of dry Diatomaceous Earth can be very dangerous for your eyes, esophagus, lungs, throat, and nasal. Also be aware that this affects animals, too, so do gentle rubbing that does not set off dust. Keep animals and children out of the house when doing dry sprinkle. This is usually why wet is recommended.

Other techniques and methods for use can be found on the websites linked above, most notably Wolf Creek Ranch and Earthworks Health.

DE is so versatile. Here are the many other things that it can be used for.

• Toothpaste.
• Helps with composting moisture.
• Reduces moisture in humid areas (kennels, etc).
• Deodorizes and absorbs (kitty litter, air odor, manure, etc).
• Applied to ponds, livestock water, etc prevents algae.
• Regular applications of DE kills fire ants.
• Shinier coats, improved health, in animals fed with DE.
• Controls fly population.
• Protects against humidity damage in storage.
• Decreases mastication and scours.
• Detoxes ecoli and other viruses.
• Anti-fungal properties for garden growth.
• Cost-effective.
• Lowers blood pressure in humans.
• Lowers cholesterol.
• Natural weight loss aid.
• Healthier hair, nails, teeth, and gums.
• Fades age spots.
• Repairs lung tissues and reduces inflammation.
• Regulates and normalizes bowels.
• Reduces back pain.
• Decreases vertigo, tinnitus, and dizziness.
• Helps diabetes.
• Improves elasticity of the joints.
• Increases milk production in dairy cattle.
• Improves hoof conditions.
• Prevents fly larvae.
• Can be used as facial mask and cleanser.
• Assists with foot and garbage cans odor.
• Kills MANY pests.  Mites, bed bugs, fleas, lice, etc by dehydrating their shells and more.