Many individuals think about apple cider vinegar a cure-all for all types of illnesses. However what about fleas? No, apple cider vinegar doesn’t kill fleas. There are claims that it helps repel them, however that proof has not been discovered within the scientific literature.
Even when a flea’s palate prefers meals not soaked in vinegar, it isn’t going to cease them from consuming or shifting into a brand new place in your cat. Apple cider vinegar won’t forestall your cat from getting fleas. Learn on to study extra.
The 6 Causes Why Apple Cider Vinegar Received’t Work on Fleas
There are a number of the reason why apple cider vinegar gained’t work on fleas:
1. Apple Cider Vinegar Does Not Final Lengthy
One of many fundamental issues with the argument that apple cider vinegar repels fleas is that it evaporates fairly rapidly, and your cat will groom and lick off any residue. Even when it did repel them, it will cease working too quick. Spraying your cat with vinegar day-after-day appears tedious. Or does it must be finished each hour? This isn’t sensible.
Most fashionable veterinary flea remedies are designed to final 24/7 for a month at a time. You both place the topical drop on their shoulders or give them a pill to eat as soon as each thirty days. That is manner much less be just right for you.
2. Fleas Transfer Always to Keep away from Noxious Substances
All a flea must do is leap on and off your cat to keep away from an apple cider vinegar remedy. (That’s assuming they’re repealed by it in any respect—which is unlikely.)
You would spray your complete home with vinegar at a excessive sufficient focus to get them to leap by the doorways and home windows and out of your own home; nonetheless, it’s not more likely to be sensible or efficient.
Veterinary flea sprays exist to spray in your own home, and so they kill the fleas or their eggs. They assist handle flea infestations by killing the fleas hiding in your carpet, between the floorboards, within the corners, and beneath the sofa.
3. Fleas Stay on the Pores and skin, Not on the Fur
Spraying your cat with vinegar doesn’t take away fleas from the place they dwell. Cat fur creates a protecting barrier between the pores and skin and the outer layer of fur.
Spraying an apple cider vinegar mist over a cat would simply depart a skinny layer on the outer protecting layer of fur, and little—if any—would get right down to the fleas on the pores and skin. Most cat fur is waterproof; it wicks water away to maintain the pores and skin protected and dry, creating a wonderfully heat, protected, cosy residence for fleas to cover.
Moreover, fleas don’t eat the information of your cat’s fur; they eat far beneath it on the stage of the pores and skin. Until you’re soaking your cat to the pores and skin with vinegar, I’m not certain how it will have an effect on fleas.
Whenever you apply a topical flea remedy, half the fur between their shoulders and nestle the tip of the pipette straight onto the pores and skin. For those who drop the liquid flea remedy onto the fur, it won’t unfold throughout the pores and skin however sit on the fur till it disappears. Topical remedies should be utilized to the pores and skin—not the fur—to stay.
4. Flea Eggs Unfold and Conceal
Apple cider vinegar won’t kill flea eggs. Fleas lay eggs that roll off and unfold into the carpet and crevices of our houses. These eggs can stay dormant for months and months. And solely hatch when situations are ideally suited. As soon as they hatch although they leap proper up onto your cat.
Their skill to cover for prolonged durations of time as eggs create a relentless supply of reinfection. Fleas can lay about 30–50 eggs a day—so much.
There are veterinary flea sprays that assist deal with your own home. When sprayed on the carpet or into the corners of your own home they kill the flea eggs, decreasing the supply of fleas. Vacuuming and sweeping might help scale back the variety of eggs, however typically it doesn’t get all of the eggs. And dwell fleas can simply hop away from oncoming vacuums.
5. Weak Apple Cider Vinegar Focus
The focus—the quantity of apple cider vinegar that’s hypothetically wanted to repel fleas is unclear. Plus, preserving that hypothetical focus excessive sufficient could be a troublesome process.
Veterinary remedies keep inside a focus vary that instantly begins killing fleas throughout the first chew. Killing fleas instantly is vital as a result of they begin laying many eggs rapidly—inside 24 hours.
Because of this even when your cat doesn’t have fleas, it’s good to provide them remedies to stop them from invading and spreading their eggs in your own home, particularly in heat climate or locations the place there are loads of different cats and even canine.
6. Immunity to the Vinegar
Even with fashionable medical remedies—pesticides—fleas develop immunity to them. All it takes is a few fleas to not be killed by an insecticide earlier than a tolerant—resistant—inhabitants of fleas is established. And there are populations which might be extra proof against flea remedies than others. So, when you’ve got tried one flea product that didn’t work, attempt one other one or two.
If fleas can change into proof against pesticides, it will not take lengthy for them to get used to houses scented with vinegar. I’m certain there are populations of fleas which have developed a style for vinegar-scented pores and skin.
Would an Apple Cider Vinegar Bathtub Work?
Whereas some bathing merchandise could appear to be they’re washing away the fleas, fleas are usually not solely extraordinarily good at hiding and sticking to the fur, however they will additionally leap on and off your cat. So, as quickly as your cat is just not within the tub, they stroll again throughout the carpet and leap onto your cat. This is likely one of the the reason why bathing and even combing for fleas doesn’t work; they’re too good at hiding and leaping.
The one factor that may shield your cat is a substance that can’t be prevented, which is why flea remedies invade their meals supply—the blood of the pores and skin. So even when the flea jumps off, once they come again (and so they all the time do), they ingest the insecticide and are killed.
Conclusion
Apple cider vinegar, or any sort of vinegar, won’t help you control fleas. Whereas it appears like a simple answer to an itchy drawback, it isn’t an efficient methodology. As an alternative of making an attempt it, attain out to your vet about flea treatments for your cat.
Featured Picture Credit score: point of interest, Shutterstock