Phoebe's Diatomaceous Earth Page

Hello.

If this is our first meeting, my name is Phoebe and I'd like to tell you why I think diatomaceous earth is such a good thing. If we've met before, it is good to see you again.

My calves used to eat dirt. Some specialists say it could be just a curious stage where they are learning to forage so they pick at everything, including soil. It has also been suggested that it could be a response to a nutrient deficiency. However, scientists don't have a definite reason.

What I know is that eating dirt can make the calves VERY ill – the dirt itself contains bacteria, viruses, and parasites but they might also end up eating some manure. Eating dirt can cause scours, upset stomachs and coccidiosis. Coccidiosis can cause very bad scours, weight loss, and worse. And the cost to make the calves better can be very high.

Our farm started using diatomaceous earth (I usualy just call it DE) three years ago and my calves don't eat dirt anymore. And, they don't get sick. Though scientists haven't proven that DE is the reason, I know that I am much happier since my calves started getting DE, and so is everyone else, especially the calves.

Just click on the question to go to the answer.

Click on the small picture of me to come back here.

What is diatomaceous earth?

Diatomaceous earth is the fossilized shells of microscopic water-dwelling organisms known as diatoms. Diatoms are the hay of oceans and lakes. Just as hay is the staple food of many earth animals, diatoms are the staple of water grazers.

These tiny, one-celled plants use soluble silica (sand) from their environment to make their cell walls, which become their shells when they die (magnified 2000 times in the picture at the right). When these organisms die, the shells pile up on the bottom to form thick beds of sediment.

It has been estimated that 1 cubic centimetre of this sediment may contain as many as 24,000,000 shells (or 400,000,000 in 1 cubic inch). These beds, called diatomite or diatomaceous earth, are then mined from underwater sources or from ancient dried lake bottoms.

Are all DEs the same?

NO!

Once DE is mined, it can be milled or processed in many ways. Much DE is heated to a very high temperature (about 1000°C or 1800°F) and used for filtering but it is also used as a filler and can end up in paints, cosmetics, drugs, chemical insecticides, and other things. Today, only a small fraction of DE is used on farms.

All DE should have a label that tells you if it has been calcined and how much crystalline silica it contains.

DE is said to be calcined if it has been heated to the high temperatures I mentioned earlier. This makes the DE great for filters but it is NOT good for us. When the calves eat the DE, they breathe some of it in (you'll know they are eating it because their noses get white, just like in the picture at the right). You will probably breathe some in as well, when you feed it out. The calcined DE can hurt our lungs, and yours too.

Crystalline silica is really just sand and 80% of the world's crust is made up of sand. However, crystalline silica comes in many different shapes, sizes, and forms. Because of the shape of the crystalline silica in DE, it can also damage lungs. The International Agency for Research on Cancer has classed any DE with more than 1% crystalline silica as a Class 1 carcinogen.

So, please read the labels carefully.

The kind of DE you want is referred to as natural DE because it has NOT been calcined or altered in any other chemical way. Natural DE is classified as amorphous silica. You only want to buy natural DE that has less than 1% crystalline silica.

(I know there are a lot of new words here. Diatomaceous earth is bad enough, for goodness sake, and now all these others.)

Just remember this: you only want amorphous silica that has less than 1% crystalline silica.
Amorphous silica is safe for animals.

And check to ensure that the DE is Codex Food Grade. This doesn't mean that it has been approved for humans to eat but does indicate a level of purity that I would be happier with.

Is that all I need to know before I buy DE?

No.

There are several other important things that you need to consider before you buy DE. They include:

Source

Remember I said that DE is the shells of one-celled water creatures called diatoms? That means that some of these lived in salt water and some in fresh water. DE from a fresh water source is better for us.

Purity

No two diatomaceous earth products are the same. Just like the soils in different parts of the world can be vastly different, the waters can be also. Sometimes the DE is pure but sometimes it can be mixed up with clays or other substances. Please just feed us the pure DE - the other stuff can contain things that aren't good for us.

Pure DE is white. However, just because it is white doesn't mean it is pure amorphous silica. Look for something that is at least 99% amorphous silica (and, as I mentioned before, never more than 1% crystalline silica).

Trace Minerals and Heavy Metals

Because the diatoms lived all over the world, what they used for food and shell-building varied widely. Though DE is mostly made from silica (known by chemists as silicon dioxide), it is extremely rare to find silica all by itself. Usually, the silica will contain other oxides, trace minerals and sometimes it will even have heavy metals in it. When the diatom made its shell, these other things went into the shell as well and so they end up in the DE you feed us. All mammals need certain amounts of trace minerals to be healthy and heavy metals are bad for everyone.

So, if the DE has the right kinds and amounts of trace minerals, it can be very good for us. But if the DE has heavy metals, that isn't good. Some scientists believe that those heavy metals can get in our meat (and in Ritah's milk) and they can end up in you.

pH

The pH is also important. pH is a measure of the acidity or alkalinity of a substance. Fresh, pure water has a pH of 7 - it is said to be neutral. A pH less than 7 indicates acidity while a pH greater than 7 indicates alkalinity. It is better if the DE is alkaline. This is difficult to explain easily but ask a veterinarian, I am sure that he or she will be able to help.

Texture and Size

The DE should be as smooth as cornstarch – this is why people sometimes refer to DE as fossil flour or fossil shell flour.

The size of the particle and the absorbability of the DE are also important pieces of the puzzle.

At the end of the day . . .

How can you possibly figure out which is the best DE? Well, you can look and learn for a very long time, and probably make some mistakes along the way.

At the end of the day, however, you will probably just end up using one that has already been analyzed, tried, and tested.

Where can I get the Right Stuff?

Does diatomaceous earth have other uses?

Yes, DE is very useful in a number of ways: as an anti-caking agent, protecting stored grain, parasite control, deodorization and absorption, insect control, and as a source of minerals.

The information on this page describes the government-approved uses for DE that I know of as well as the many ways the farmers on my farm have used DE. We know of many others who have had valuable experiences and I have made a separate page of Testimonials so that you can read some of them.

Anti-caking

Both the Canadian Food Inspection Agency in Canada and the Environmental Protection Agency in the United States approve diatomaceous earth as an inert carrier and as an anti-caking agent in feeds in an amount not to exceed 2 percent (in weight) of the total diet. It can be directly mixed into any livestock feed, as long as the mixing directions are followed.

Anti-caking means that the DE prevents feed particles from clumping together, so the feed flows and mixes better, and it is easier to handle. The biggest benefit for us animals, however, is when we eat the feed. Because of the anti-caking action, the feed doesn't stick together so our digestive juices get in direct contact with more of the feed. Digestion is better and more complete, and feed utilization is higher. We feel better fed because we are, and we are healthier because we are absorbing a greater percentage of the nutritional value of the feed we eat.

Grain Storage

In Publication 812, Field Crop Protection Guide, the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture and Food recommends DE for the control of insects in stored grain. Specifically, Publication 812 lists protection of corn, wheat, and soybeans from the rusty grain beetle, Indian meal moth, and granary weevils.

Our farm is small and the land is good for pasture and some hay but we have to bring our grain in from outside. We get fed barley because we have a warmblood breeding operation and one of my farmers has found that oats are too 'hot'. We got one load in that was full of granary weevils. My farmers just climbed up to the top of the grain bin and sprinkled in (well, dumped in) DE. It took a couple of weeks but that was the end of the weevils.

Now, they sprinkle DE in with the grain as it is going into the bin and we have had no troubles since. Well, that's not entirely true. Last year a pair of starlings managed to fly up the exhaust shoot and build a nest on the top of the grain. There was no way to get it out and the auger got plugged several times as the nest got sucked down. They put a screen over the opening so that that wouldn't happen again. (The screen got on before there were eggs or babies, in case you were wondering.)

Stored grain has been protected from insect attack for centuries by adding some form of powder or dust to it. Plant ash, lime, dolomite, and certain types of soil have all been used but probably the most effective naturally occurring protective powder is diatomaceous earth.

After the Second World War, when farming became industrialized, there was a dream that science and technology could solve all farming problems. I am glad that the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture and Food has reintroduced a time-tested solution for protecting grain. Why are you humans always in such a rush to try out new things on a global scale? I think it would be a good idea to consider biblical and aboriginal advisements that suggest that you can't really measure the full impact of anything until you have tested it for seven generations. That makes sense to me. But, of course, I'm just a cow.

Internal Bugs

All of us farm animals get bugs inside us from time to time. Farmers call them parasites and parasites can cause us a lot of stress, not to mention that they interfere with how well we digest food. There is a herd of dairy goats on this farm and they gobble up DE when they get the chance. They haven't had any worms or other internal bugs since the farmers started feeding DE to them on a regular basis (two weeks on, two weeks off). However, my farmers have been very careful to provide only the amorphous silica type of DE because crystalline silica is bad for animal and human lungs alike.

Deodorization / Absorption

There is large equipment in the cow barn for removing manure and used bedding. However, the goat barn doesn't have any of this equipment. There are a lot of reasons for this difference but if you have ever had to deal with a day of poop from 10 cows compared to a day of poop from 10 goats, you would get the basic picture pretty quickly.

The cow barn gets completely mucked every day but this doesn't happen with the goat barn. My farmers use peat moss for bedding and they have found that by adding DE under the peat moss, the barn stays fresher and drier for quite a while longer.

Insect Control

My farmers had a lot of trouble with millipedes and ants in the house for a couple of years. Now, they just sprinkle DE around the house twice a year and there are no more millipedes or ants. A neighbour was having trouble with earwigs in her garden and they suggested she try sprinkling the DE around the garden. Her earwig problem went away.

They also sprinkle it around the areas where we and the goats spend a lot of time. Since they have started doing that, there have been far fewer flies, apparently because it kills the fly larvae. Other farmers have found that there are far fewer flies even if the DE is just added to feed. They think that the DE comes out with the manure – in one end, out the other, and in-between, parasites and coccidiosis bite the dust. A good deal, eh?

Our goats are very healthy. In addition to good, organic grain and hay, they are fed kelp. Ritah can tell you how healthy kelp is but one year we ran out. A couple of the older goats showed signs of lice. The farmers rubbed DE into the fur along their spines every couple of days, to see what would happen. The lice were gone in a couple of weeks. A healthy, mineral-rich diet seems to be the best way to prevent lice but when a defence was needed, DE did the trick.

The DE on my farm looks and feels like a soft powder to humans and animals and it is often referred to as fossil flour or fossil shell flour for that reason. But to an insect, LOOK OUT! – DE acts like thousands of shards of very sharp rocks. When an insect moves over the DE, it cuts through its exoskeleton and the insect dehydrates. This is how it works, whether it is around the house and garden, in our bedding, or in the grain bins. It keeps working for as long as it is present.

DE doesn't work overnight because it is a mechanical action, rather than chemical. However, it is non-toxic, totally natural, residual, and insects cannot develop an immunity to it. The experience on my farm is that DE is a very effective, safe way to control insects.

There are many studies, some going back as far as 1946, that indicate that DE is effective for controlling insects on most crops and in most orchards. However, for reasons I don't know, few know of these studies and, today, most people haven't even heard of DE. I think it is unfortunate but am glad that my farmers are using it.

It is natural and good to have a wide range of insects in a garden or field. If the soil is well-tended and crops are rotated appropriately, insect populations tend to maintain a natural balance. In the case of stored grain, there has to be zero tolerance for insects but, in most cases, zero tolerance is not a good thing. Insects, like birds, animals, and humans, are a natural part of the ecosystem and it is natural for them to eat some of your crop. My suggestion is that you use DE when it is necessary to do so, not indiscriminately.

Minerals

Trace minerals are evident in many types of DE. However, the types and quantities of trace minerals can vary widely, depending on where the DE came from, and some may contain heavy metals.

The DE I like has an excellent spectrum of trace minerals, and they are listed later on this page. However, I would also suggest you hear what Ritah has to say about the chelated trace minerals in kelp.

Here we are, back at the end of the day.

Why is it, you may ask, that DE is not used by everyone when it has so many uses?

That is a very good question. All I know is that we use it on this farm and it works very well.

What are the benefits of using DE?

Increased profits

Healthier animals

Decreased use of antibiotics

Decreased insecticide use

Reduced workload

The ultimate management tool for prevention would be a solution that is effective, easy to use, economical, stress free, and safe. The DE my farmers use is all of these.

How much DE should I use?

The DE my farmers use comes in a 50 lb (22.6 kg) bag. DE is light so the bags are relatively large – closer in size to a 40 kg (88 lb) feed bag rather than a 25 kg (55 lb) bag of minerals.

DE can be sprayed on barn walls, spread or sprinkled on soil, put on animals, and added to feed and bedding, including poultry litter. It remains active for as long as it is present.

Application rates fall under two general categories:

• For Animals
• For Field and Garden

Please note that DE can be dusty. If you are spraying or dusting DE in an enclosed space, or are working with DE in a way that you could breathe in too much, wear a face mask or other protective gear. If you notice some irritation or soreness in your throat or nose, move into fresh air, drink some clean water, and / or blow your nose.

Can you give me more technical details on the DE you like?

Of course, a pleasure to do so. I have presented the technical information in three categories:

• Typical Physical Properties
• Typical Chemical Analysis and
• Typical Trace Element Analysis

Just click on the category you want.

Does Pinnacle Farms stock DE?

We sincerely regret that Pinnacle Farms is no longer able to serve you as Sue, Pinnacle's eyes, hands, and mind, is no longer with us.

Thank you for your patronage over the years.

We hope you found this page informative and helpful.