Would anyone recommend this product for flea and tick prevention?
http://www.onlynaturalpet.com/products/Only-Natural-Pet-Herbal-Defense-Oil-Blend/999193.aspx

Mom and I are deciding if we should use the cedarwood/lavender and rose geranium or just that.
Also, does lemon juice work too?

I'm sure that product would work well enough if you want something ready-made. But then you pay a lot more for it when you could buy 2 individual essential oils for much cheaper.

My three top picks for flea repelling oils are either Cedarwood, Lavender, or Tea Tree Oil. I personally don't like the smell of Tea Tree Oil so I don't ever shop for it but it's another alternative if you're pricing out different oils.

Never heard of lemon juice being used for flea/tick repellant purposes.

I love the smell of Tea Tree Oil use to heat it up in a water and oil steamer when ever I got a cold or sinus infection. Come to think of it I never had fleas either.

Which brands do you buy? I picked a four ounce bottle for the cedarwood oil and two two-ounce bottles of rose geranium, and it came out to almost $20 before shipping costs. I guess that's cheaper than $16 for the two ounce bottle of that pre-made stuff. haha
I don't like the way tea tree oil smells either, but I do like lavender.

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I love the smell of Tea Tree Oil use to heat it up in a water and oil steamer when ever I got a cold or sinus infection. Come to think of it I never had fleas either.

Well that's good

I'm not brand loyal when it comes to my oils. I just buy whatever I can find cheapest (which is usually at Amazon), I think I bought a 2 oz bottle of Cedarwood oil for around $8 and a 1 oz bottle of Rose Geranium oil for about $4-$5 and got free shipping at Amazon since I'd ordered some other stuff too. I bought my oils in the summer of 2010 and I still haven't run out yet.

Wow That's a long time!

I'm having a really hard time finding rose geranium oil from a seller that has good ratings, or any ratings at all, or with an eye dropper in the bottle.

Here4thePics wrote:

I love the smell of Tea Tree Oil use to heat it up in a water and oil steamer when ever I got a cold or sinus infection. Come to think of it I never had fleas either.

LMFAO! I use tea tree oil shampoo and I don't think I've ever had fleas either! You crack me up!

dahowlers wrote:

I'm having a really hard time finding rose geranium oil from a seller that has good ratings, or any ratings at all, or with an eye dropper in the bottle.

I don't recall what seller I ordered from through Amazon, but mine doesn't have a dropper and I don't think I paid any attention to seller ratings either. I find it easy to just tilt the bottle and let a single drop spill out onto the collar then just rub it in. Of course always wash your hands if you get it on you to avoid any potential skin irritation.

Okay, now I just need to buy some books to avoid shipping haha

I can't find rose geranium oil that is included in the shipping thing that's at least an oz :[

I misspoke earlier, my Rose Geranium oil is a half ounce bottle. Doesn't matter what size you get or where you get it though.

Is it better to use natural oils on the collar rather than something commercial like frontline?

I wouldn't use the word "better". I prefer using oils instead of chemical products because I don't like giving my dogs a dose of poison every month. However one must use whatever works to achieve the results they desire.

hmm, makes sense, the oils probably smell better too! how often and how much do you have to apply?

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how often and how much do you have to apply?

yes, I'm interested in this. Utah doesn't have much of a tick or flea problem so we didn't worry about it last year, but this year we plan on getting deeper into the backwoods so we want to be extra prepared.

Since I've posted on this subject many times before, forgive me if I copy and paste a previous post so I don't have to type it all out again.

It contains more than you're asking for, but I posted the following in another thread back in 2010:

Huskyluv wrote:

Yes, we had a really bad flea and tick year both in FL and SC. Glory and Faith both picked up fleas and Faith also picked up a lot of ticks too. I was fed up with it so I did some research on natural alternatives and came up with my own combo for flea/tick repellent. I have been off chemical flea/tick prevention for the heaviest portion of flea/tick season this summer. I started this in June of this year and have been pest free since day one and we have gone 5 months without a single flea or tick. What's even more impressive is that before the switch my chi girls had gotten fleas and Faith was picking up ticks at least once a week if not more.


Some people do make a mix but I don't. I did a lot of research on the different oils and supplements that help repel fleas and ticks and picked and chose what products I wanted to use. I figured it would be a work in progress and might need tweaking but I tried it out and have seen great results so far.

First off I will say that I use essential oils and essential oils are toxic to cats, so if you have felines present in the household essential oils are NOT an option.

What I use:
Weekly - 1 drop of Cedarwood oil and 1 drop of Rose Geranium oil on the collar (and/or harness)
Daily- I alternate adding garlic and apple cider vinegar in their food. So one day I add a small amount of garlic to their food the next day I add apple cider vinegar and rotate daily.

There are other oils and alternatives that you can use besides what I choose to use. For example, food grade diatomaceous earth is a safe flea repellent that can be spread in the yard, sprinkled on the carpet and vacuumed up and even put on the dogs coat. Other flea repelling oils include tea tree oil and lavender oil. I use cedarwood oil on my dogs' collars and harnesses which is a flea repellent and occasionally I use lavender oil around the house. I don't use tea tree oil because I'm not too fond of the smell but I do have tea tree oil dog shampoo that I use intermittently. The only reason I use Cedarwood oil on their collars instead of Lavender oil as a flea repellent is because the Cedar oil is cheaper for me to get. Otherwise I would use Lavender oil since it smells so much more appealing to me.

Rose Geranium oil is a natural tick repellent that has worked amazingly well. I had my doubts about its effectiveness when Faith was picking up a ton of ticks this year. Well seeing is believing and we've not seen a single tick since the day we started using the Rose geranium oil. The huge bonus with this is the smell, I LOVE it. The dogs literally smell like roses with that stuff on their collars.

Food supplements, garlic repels fleas and mosquitoes. Every other day I put just a tiny bit of garlic in their food, less than 1/8 tsp. Garlic is toxic to dogs in very large quantities but small quantities like what I do every other day are actually good for them. Apple cider vinegar is the best, you want to use the pure, unpasteurized product with the mother in it (you can find it at most health food stores). ACV really is such an amazing product and has so many benefits. ACV is antibacterial and anti fungal; it improves the immune system, liver, bladder and kidney function; helps with itchy skin and allergies; balances digestive enzymes; normalizes the pH of the body; repels both internal and external parasites like fleas and worms; provides potassium for tissue and joint health; makes a great ear cleaning solution; reduces inflammation...the list could go on and on! Don't take my word for it, look up more info on ACV yourself. It's benefits not only work for us but our dogs too. You can mix ACV directly into your dogs food or put it in their water. If you are trying to get rid of fleas or combating skin issues you can make a 50/50 mix of ACV and water in a spray bottle and spray it on their coat or you can give them a bath in the 50/50 mix. My sibe gets 1 tablespoon of ACV every other day mixed directly with his food.

Just purchased Cedarwood, Rose Geranium, and Lavender! We have been doing ACV for quite some time, but I was curious if we should used minced garlic or garlic powder? Does it even matter?

I always do minced garlic. I don't know how effective garlic powder would be.

This is so helpful! Thank you!

I don't know how I missed this thread! My beagle is allergic to fleas and has stop responding to the pills and advantage....with the minced garlic, is this the kind you would usually cook with? Also, with the lavender oil, would putting this in a oil burner type deal help with them around the house or does it need to be put directly on stuff??

Yes, you use garlic that you would normally cook with. For the oils I don't know how effective a burner would be, but applying the oils to furniture, dog beds, etc can also help keep fleas at bay.

The rose geranium oil is amazing! I just started using it and switched Ava's collar from the one with the oil on it. We pulled 3-4 ticks off her fur that day after a really quick walk, plus I found two crawling up my arm when I sat down in the house. Now I've got a reminder set so that I get the oil reapplied every week to whatever collar she is wearing and I haven't seen any ticks at all. We went to a park for a lot of walking today and I even put some on my socks to keep the ticks at bay. I'm just amazed that one drop can do so much. I don't have issues with fleas (knock on wood), but I might add lavender in next week just so I can mix up the smells some

I'm so happy to hear your results have been so similar to mine! We had a real tick problem before switching to the oils, in fact that was what made me decide to try essential oils in the first place.

Thanks so much Val, I have the garlic, but it looks like I'm off to the store this afternoon to pick up one of everything else!
I'll let you know how it works for us!

I have two cats D: Can I really not use this stuff on my dogs' collars? Is it really THAT toxic to them?