Deworming with DE?

[chris deiss]

I mix 5% in their food and I have never had a worm problem . I also dust the coop and run with it and don't have a mite or flea problem either. I use it on my flower beds and around the house for ants and ear wigs also. I have a little girl so its a safe insecticide for me to use everywhere. Its only 11 dollars for a 40 lb bag here but I undersand its quite expensive if you don't have a local supplier.

 

[Bear Foot Farm]

Lets start with my question about what on earth does being wet have to do with sharpness of DE!!!

That's been answered once already.

Anyone who can read and understand will make their own choices.

Those who refuse to listen to science and prefer hearsay and "belief" will keep parroting the sales pitches

Near the top of the page , they tell you "DE will kill worms" inside your animals.
Further down the page, they tell you it's perfectly safe to use in compost piles because it "WON'T harm earthworms" due to the moisture

Did you look at application rates?

They didn't give rates. They said "sprinkle it on top and the worms will work it in"

Silica is a trace element used in organic gardening

LOL
Silica is the MOST COMMON element in the Earth's crust, and "elements" are NOT "organic"

Scientific studies have proven that DE is NO MORE EFFECTIVE on internal parasites than doing nothing at all.

Those studies are easy to pick apart..

And yet you've shown no evidence to disprove them

Post some studies that PROVE DE is effective on internal parasites, but do NOT come from a site trying to sell it, and your arguments will be more credible.​

 

[kla37]

Real scientific studies are extremely expensive, and DE is an inexpensive product sold by many different marketers, so there isn't really any motivation for any company to spend the big bucks to "study" it. They reserve that kind of cash to put into more expensive products that they can sell for a much higher price, just like pharmaceutical companies. Some people believe they have success with it, others don't. It's cheap, readily available, and just one of those things that people can try and then decide what they believe about it. It looks the same under magnification wet as it does dry to me.

 

[CubRed]

DE=Pixie Dust...

 

[Chris09]

If you do a search for Silica (Diatomaceous earth is 80 to 90% silica) you will find all kinds of side affects of Silica.
Here is some of the side affects/ diseases that you or your livestock can get by inhaling it.

"Silica exposure can cause autoimmune diseases such as lupus, scleroderma, and vasculitis. It can also cause silicosis, kidney disease, lung cancer, tuberculosis, and other airways diseases."

I think I will keep using Ivomec, at least I know that me and my livestock will be fine on it...

Chris

 

[Ohhhdear]

OK... this may or may not be as scientific a study as ones funded by the big corporations, but here's what I just did:

I took a cup of dry DE and put it on an aluminum pie pan. Another cup of wet DE (water soaking it through but no puddles on top) in another pie pan. A third cup of wet DE with bigger pieces of grit, small pea gravel, leaves, sticks, chicken feed, table scraps mixed in.

I dug in the garden and woods and underneath some logs and got a bunch of earthworms, garbage beetles, slugs, and assorted creepy crawlies. Didn't look for lice, fleas or mites, sorry.

Put about an equal number of each kind of insect & worm in each pie pan.

1. Dry DE killed anything soft skinned and really slowed down the hard shelled insects. The soft skins were torn open and the worm and slug guts were oozing everywhere.
2. Wet DE killed the soft skin critters but didn't slow down the hard shelled ones which just crawled out.
3. Wet DE mixed with stuff killed the soft skin critters, but it took longer because they tried to escape on the other stuff in the DE. Hard shelled critters crawled away.

Not gonna make any conclusions.

 

[ChickensAreSweet]

I give DE in the food all the time (to shoot for 1% of the feed).

I read someone's post who claimed that DE killed the worms in their flock. But if I saw worms or suspected them, I would NOT rely on it alone. I also feed pumpkin seeds almost all the time in the feed.

 

[ChickensAreSweet]

Quote:
Wow! You are great!! What a -lotta- work!!!!

 

[Organics North]

Quote:
Wow! You are great!! What a -lotta- work!!!!

x2

I always wondered.... Know I wonder no more..

ChickensAreSweet: I read someone's post who claimed that DE killed the worms in their flock. But if I saw worms or suspected them, I would NOT rely on it alone. I also feed pumpkin seeds almost all the time in the feed.

Pumpkin seeds yes! Anything else. Garlic? Hot Pepper? Cinnamon? I am thinking of trying to grow wormwood.

Chris09: If you do a search for Silica (Diatomaceous earth is 80 to 90% silica) you will find all kinds of side affects of Silica.
Here is some of the side affects/ diseases that you or your livestock can get by inhaling it.

I have had that concern too.. Supposedly the food grade stuff is amorphous silica which is not as dangerous as the baked stuff use in applications not related to livestock..
.Fine sharp silica in the lungs does scare me.. I share the concern.

ON​

 

[Ohhhdear]

Quote:
Wormwood, eh? Isn't that a key ingredient for absinthe, that violently green, mildly hallucinogenic liquour very popular in the late 1800's? Not sure raw wormwood would be all that good for poultry... I can see a dazed, dizzy hen staggering back to her coop after an evening nibbling on wormwood leaves!