Baking Soda/Cleaning Products

[ShereeJacobi]

My understanding is that baking soda is poisonous to squirrels. I just want to verify this. What else besides vinegar and water can you clean with? I have always used a non allergy laundry soap to clean rugs with and used a machine and rinse them 3 or 4 times with just water to remove anything left, but this still sets my squirrels ears off anyway and makes then itch. I have found the ear itching is caused by smell of chemicals or odors because my baby has no mites or fleas. It took months of going to the vet and treating the ears (unknown causes) for me to finally figure out it was a smell kicking off the ears itchings. I need something natural, non harmful, no smell/odor that stays past drying, to clean rugs with. Any suggestions? :thankyou in advance!

[Jackie in Tampa]

I did not know that about baking soda.

What about Rubbing alcohol in a spray bottle..??
don't do it, wait for someone else to help!!

I have no clue...:thinking

[Sweet Simon's Mommy]

Time to pull out the rugs and put down tile .....
there are a lot of chemicals in the rug themselves, formaldehyde is a big one, every time you steam clean them you release more of the those chemicals.

Diatomaceous earth also can freshen odors and kills buggies at the same time.
You must be very careful with it though, don't want to inhale any dust, and it very expensive and it must be the humane consumption one not the one in home-depot.
There also is some stuff called odor ban, kills bacteria and cleans very nice, I had a rescue kitty that peed everywhere and this was the only thing that got the smell out...of the concrete under the rug.
I have used this around Simon with out issue.

[Skul]

I've never heard about baking soda (sodium bicarbonate) being harmful.
The amount you would use for cleaning would be very small after you vacuum it up.
I seriously doubt there would be any issue.
It's certainly better than using detergent on a regular basis.

[Trooper]

My understanding is that baking soda is poisonous to squirrels. I just want to verify this. What else besides vinegar and water can you clean with? I have always used a non allergy laundry soap to clean rugs with and used a machine and rinse them 3 or 4 times with just water to remove anything left, but this still sets my squirrels ears off anyway and makes then itch. I have found the ear itching is caused by smell of chemicals or odors because my baby has no mites or fleas. It took months of going to the vet and treating the ears (unknown causes) for me to finally figure out it was a smell kicking off the ears itchings. I need something natural, non harmful, no smell/odor that stays past drying, to clean rugs with. Any suggestions? :thankyou in advance!

Squirrels being mammals should not be either allergic or reactive to the sodium allotrope salt of bicarbonate. I would be hard press to have someone explain to me the mechanism of how baking soda is harmful to squirrels or any other mammal. Granted ANYTHING in excess is poisonous to our bodies, even plain pure water (hypodiuremia) of which our bodies are 75% made of.

I would not be concerned if you use it mixed with vinegar, which is in fact a way to neutralize sodium bicarbonate (a base) with an acid (vinegar). Try it; mix equal weights (very important to be equal weights) of each and after the sizzle, taste it: if it tastes slightly vinegary you had too much vinegar. If it taste slightly salty, too much bicarbonate. If you had the exact ammount, it should taste like water.

I use Cage Clean, a 32oz spray bottle from Amazon.com cost $13.00. It last a long time and does not smell pefumy. It has natural enzymes and not highly processed chemicals with weird names. I have been using it daily without adverse effects on Trooper.

Good luck,

Trooper's dad

[ShereeJacobi]

Squirrels being mammals should not be either allergic or reactive to the sodium allotrope salt of bicarbonate. I would be hard press to have someone explain to me the mechanism of how baking soda is harmful to squirrels or any other mammal. Granted ANYTHING in excess is poisonous to our bodies, even plain pure water (hypodiuremia) of which our bodies are 75% made of.

I would not be concerned if you use it mixed with vinegar, which is in fact a way to neutralize sodium bicarbonate (a base) with an acid (vinegar). Try it; mix equal weights (very important to be equal weights) of each and after the sizzle, taste it: if it tastes slightly vinegary you had too much vinegar. If it taste slightly salty, too much bicarbonate. If you had the exact ammount, it should taste like water.

I use Cage Clean, a 32oz spray bottle from Amazon.com cost $13.00. It last a long time and does not smell pefumy. It has natural enzymes and not highly processed chemicals with weird names. I have been using it daily without adverse effects on Trooper.

Good luck,

Trooper's dad
Thanks so much! I had pulled up a site and it had info to kill squirrels and one of the products in it was baking soda. So, my alarm went off! I just don't want to irritate my baby's ears or kill him! :squirrel1

[KathleenNYC]

On hard surfaces I use 1 part Listerine to 3 parts water...

[Rhapsody]

I personally take my rugs out side with a garage sweeping broom and scrub them down with Dawn dish soap, then after they are fully dried I give them a good spray with Febreze for pets.