Natural flea repellent for animals

One huge difference I am finding is the amount of fleas and ticks that accumulated on our pets since we moved from Colorado to Oklahoma. I didn't know that much about the little boogers cause in Colorado we just had a short season where they would survive (like a month cause that state is frozen!) ...here it's like they thrive!

So I decided to find a repellant that isn't as pricy as frontline (which I love but...come on it's just so expensive, esp for five dogs, and I don't know how toxic it truly is)

I searched around and saw that if you take two cups of fresh rosemary and boil it, cool it down with half gallon of water and strain off the leaves, you can use that.

In addition there was stuff with lemons, vinegar, and oil that I thought would work best.

After putting it on the dogs...the fleas did NOT like this mixture. But you have to apply it twice a day for it to be somewhat effective. Since my dogs run and play everywhere, it is hard to keep them coated with the mixture. This mixture did not work well on ticks. It did not effect them whatsoever. Back to the drawing board, eh?