Lavendar and fleas...

I will unabashedly admit it.  We have fleas... well our cats do.
It is hard, kind of embarrassing, but the first step I guess is admitting you have a problem.

We found out a few months ago and initially, we used Advantage on our cats.  Sadly, the medicine made our cats sick, so we began researching more natural remedies. 

Every day, we flea comb our cats.  Every day we vacuum.  We have a dehumidifier running to make the air less desirable for the fleas, and we have sprinkled Diatomaceous earth in all of the crevices of our house.  Side note, Diatomaceous earth is really kind of cool.  It is tiny rocks that cut the bugs.  I often sprinkle it around my lettuce patch to rid it of slugs.  I hate slugs.

Our latest adventure involves making our house so undesirable for fleas that they choose to live elseware... or die. I vote for them dieing.   Interesting fact: it was actually the fleas on the rats that spread the plague...Our pediatrician assured us we did not need to worry about that any more.  Fleas are a nuisance, not a health risk.
 

It turns out fleas dislike lavender.  This is good, because I love lavender!  And Lavender is in season!  I gathered a whole basket full of the flowers and we have been finding various ways of creating... talismans if you will.

 Our first order of business was to collect all of the dried bundles of lavender that I in the house and make sachets. To get the flowers off of the stems, bundle the flowers together and rub them between your hands like you were making a snake out of play-dough.  The flowers fall right off into your big bowl.  I used organza bags often found by the wedding isle.  They are really inexpensive and kind of pretty.  My guess is that lavender sachets will wind up in the Christmas boxes I send out.

The second thing was to tie little bouquets of flowers on an old wreath I had.  I tend to change what is tied to it depending on the season.  I think it is kind of pretty.

The last thing my husband and I did was to make Lavender wands.  There are a million tutorials on the web, so I won't bother you with a how to, but we learned a few things.  The thicker the ribbon, the faster the weaving goes.  Transparent ribbon is harder to work with than solid ribbon.  Use an odd number of pairs or trios of stems.  My favorite number of stems to work with is 21 (7 sets of 3.) 

Our house smells heavenly now, but I can't fight the feeling that we are doing a little voodoo, some witchcraft and a little prayer to get rid of these pests.

Whatever works.