Fleas.

Newsgroups: alt.folklore.herbs
Subject: Re: Flea bites
From: wolflishus.aol.com (Wolflishus)
Date: 14 Aug 1995 13:28:03 -0400

> My ten year old daughter is covered with flea bites from our pet cat. No one else in the family is affected like she is. The cat is an indoor pet and we use an herbal flea collar on him, but there has got to be something herbal we can do to help her ward off the bugers short of putting a flea collar on her!

A suggestion from a happy user and owner of 3 dogs and a hamster:

Cedar chips, blocks, or oil. You can get the oil spray to put on rugs or bedding (even on the cat, if you're VERY careful!), and chips to put in the animals pillows. I am a vet tech, and I've found that all of the poisons on the market are not as effective as the cedar oil. It won't kill them necessarily, but they will pack their little bags and catch the next bus out! So, if you can fill the house with cedar, your house will smell great, and your flea problem will be greatly minimized.

From: fenvala.aol.com (FENVALA)

For fleas, treat the Typhoid Moggy that brings them in: your cat. Every day she should have a level tablespoon of brewer's yeast powder that has been endowed with garlic oil or powder. A commercial powder can be found in most feed stores. Most cats just love this; ours thinks it tastes like cheese so we make a ball of it with some actual cheddar (just a teence!) occasionally for an extra special treat. Otherwise just sprinkle it on her food; the fleas will soon loose interest as her blood will have lost its good taste.

Your daughter could well do the same thing; brewer's yeast and garlic are certainly harmless enough for human beings and I can remember being fed brewer's cake yeast as a kid to take care of spots. Taste takes a bit of getting used to, but it can be disguised in (not cooked in however; yeasts and garlic's good stuff 'die' under extreme heat...) human foods as well. And in my world, all sane humans should have their daily clove of real (not in pills!!!) garlic. Start her on this 'habit' and you will start a trend in health that will last her a lifetime. Hope this helps! ;-)