Diatomaceous earth internally supposedly kills worms, 1 capsule a day.....

Anyone else hear about this?
A Georgia company sells it i capsules for that purpose...

I heard about it and tried it twice on my cats for worms. The first time I think it worked. The second time the little worms kept coming out despite feedings every day for 25 days. They were round worms, and I had to go to the store and get the over the counter wormer to get it to stop. I've heard that it is great for farm animals, but I haven't tried it for that.

Diatomaceous Earth does work, no question about that. Just use some common sense when handling it. There is a lot of info on the Internet about it's properties, benefits and uses. Be sure to only use Food Grade for yourself, home, pets/livestock and garden. Don't eat DE that has bentonite clay in it. Once you start using it and learning about it, you'll wonder how you could have ever done without it.

As far as the capsule part, it is just that someone caught on that it works and thought, maybe for convience or whatever, someone would buy it. Capsuling just increased the retail cost, you'd do and get much better buying in bulk and taking or administering it by the spoonful. The usual dosage for a human adult is 1/2 to 2 tablespoons per day, that would be a lot of gelatin capsules to equal and a lot of gelatin in your stomach. If you don't drink an adequate amount of water, like - half your body weight in fluid ounces (what everyone should be drinking daily), you'll be constipated.

Diatomaceous earth works in DRY environments, such as killing fleas in your carpet. It does NOT work internally, as the inside of your gut is wet.

Alice Kaspar wrote:Diatomaceous earth works in DRY environments, such as killing fleas in your carpet. It does NOT work internally, as the inside of your gut is wet.

Alice - I'm sorry, that you believe that. I don't know how you're are arriving at that conclusion. DE has mechanical qualities that would not matter whether dry or wet. It has the hardness equal or greater to that of a diamond and the microscopic edges are razor-sharp, even tho' our sensory facilities think, that it's just a fine powder that makes us cough. It's honey-comb structure traps and collects pathogens and cholesterol and sweeps it out of the body. You are missing many great benefits, by your erroneous thinking. And, that is your right and I'm not one to want to have you change it. But, I've witnessed many improvements in myself, my plants, my animals and my patient/clients well-being, by their simple utilization of DE. I even use it, in my worm bin and it's effective there, too. That's a lot to discount and still claim that DE doesn't work in wet envirnoments. If, as you say, it doesn't/can't work, what is causing these positive changes?

I attended a sheep/goat workshop in southern Missouri, presented by a parasite researcher. She said that the studies and her experience consulting with problem herds shows that it does NOT work. One of the most devastated herds she helped remediate was owned and operated by a DE distributor.

I'll look back in my notes for more detail.

Thank you for polite discussion!

Edited to add: I found a Journal article from the University of Arizona, and the research was done double blind and reversal. It didn't have an effect on worms or growth.
http://www.jstor.org/ This is the home page. You have to register to access the articles.

I'm not trying to convince anyone who is currently using it to stop. Just trying to same folks who are looking at it from throwing their money away on unsubstantiated claims. Even Mr. Wheaton says it works fine on fleas, etc., but in the dry state, not when wet.

Just in case anyone's still interested. I went to the University of Arizona and the University of Clemson sites. Both say that "unofficial studies suggest" that DE is effective against internal parasites. They do not say WHICH internal parasites. I would guess it matters what type of parasite it is. Most people agree that DE does not harm true worms, but it will kill on contact anything with an exoskeleton. It doesn't seem to matter quite as much whether the DE is wet or dry as it does what your target pest is. Anyone got a microscope?

Sonja Ragland wrote:Just in case anyone's still interested. I went to the University of Arizona and the University of Clemson sites. Both say that "unofficial studies suggest" that DE is effective against internal parasites. They do not say WHICH internal parasites. I would guess it matters what type of parasite it is. Most people agree that DE does not harm true worms, but it will kill on contact anything with an exoskeleton. It doesn't seem to matter quite as much whether the DE is wet or dry as it does what your target pest is. Anyone got a microscope?  

" will kill on contact anything with an exoskeleton"  -- I just wanted to adjust the info a bit, DE does not kill on contact, its more accurate to say that it - kills via contact- most of the control effects is in the poop, by scratching and cutting the eggs and larva, some in internal by means of scratching and cutting the parasites body and internal systems (of the parasite, not the host) its a VERY slow control for ticks and fleas, has almost no effect on adults, as it just gets into their joints and they can clean it off but the eggs and larvae can't... we used it to control body lice on goats, birds and pigs, animal and premise/bedding areas.. it worked great, for fleas and ticks we use orange oil, that stuff kills on contact !