Quote:
Originally Posted by momoese
Unless the neighbors deal with the issue on their side you will no doubt see fleas again if you have stray cat dropping eggs in your yard. I'd have a chat with them and see if anything can be done.
From what I can find on the internet Borax is more "toxic" than DE. You can not eat borax. Labeling is now required according to this article.
A quick search yields lots of safety warnings about Borax.
Enviroblog: Borax: Not the green alternative it's cracked up to be Archives
I have found this page to be very informative about DE
Diatomaceous Earth - Food Grade Diatomaceous Earth Health Benefits
And please to anyone reading this please note that I am talking about Food Grade DE, not the pool filter stuff you'll find at big box stores. |
I'm not a toxicologist, but from my brief scan of Wikipedia (despite claims of some pseudo-experts, actually a very good source of information in most cases), neither borax nor DE are very toxic. I wouldn't be worried about using either in my yard or house (and I have). I would be careful about breathing fine particles of both. Mitchel, don't trust everything you read on the internet (including this
): according to Wikipedia, the efficacy of DE in animal food to combat parasites is questionable, based on scientific studies. If you have pets, be careful about using either in a place where they can breath or eat them. For your plants, be careful about using Borax around them or you'll end up with Boron toxicity from elevated levels of it. In short, there's almost always trade offs: nematodes -- no toxicity but could attack beneficial insects; borax -- boron toxicity; diatomaceous earth -- no chemical toxicity, but potential lung damage to you and your pets.