Be Bug-Free, Naturally! [SL55] {RdY}
Be Bug-Free, Naturally!
If you’re looking for an alternative to chemicals and pesticides to keep creepy crawlers at bay, Mother Nature has a few tricks up her sleeve. Give these a try
Ants
Lemon: Cut up a lemon and squeeze out the juice where the ants are coming into the house or are building mounds on your land. Outside, change their route by pouring a line of cayenne pepper, dried peppermint or damp coffee grounds across the ants’ path.
Boric Acid and Corn Syrup: Combine one part boric acid to nine parts corn syrup. Microwave the mixture until the powder dissolves, about one minute. Poke four holes (one for each compass direction) along the bottom edge of an empty margarine tub and place a quarter-size drop of the mixture in the center before replacing the lid. The ants eat the syrup and share it with their colony, poisoning them all.
Dust Mites
Eucalyptus Oil: Add a few drops to your laundry or stored clothing/bedding for dust mite prevention.
Garden Invaders
Marigolds and Chrysanthemums: Marigolds, like chrysanthemums, contain chemicals that repel bugs. If you plant them around vegetables that are prone to insect damage (tomatoes are a classic example), the flying critters often don’t bother trying to make their way through the flowers to find the vegetables. A bonus: Insects do not develop a resistance to this method of pest control.
Mice
Peppermint Oil or Citronella: Fend off a rodent invasion by placing cotton balls soaked in oil of peppermint or citronella around your home’s foundation, at the spot where you suspect mice are getting in.
Peanut Butter and Humane Traps: To give critters the boot, use snap traps that capture but don’t kill (try Tomcat’s, $5, pestdetour.com). Bait the traps with peanut butter and place them perpendicular to any wall that serves as an entry point, then deposit trapped rodents outside. Block every entrance into your house with silicon sealer or cement, and stuff steel wool in any gaps around your pipes.
Mosquitoes
Plant Oils: Up until recently, the government’s Centers for Disease Control and Prevention deemed only products containing one chemical — the potentially toxic DEET — effective at preventing mosquitoes from biting you.
But in 2005, the CDC gave a nod to products containing less risky ingredients: oil of lemon eucalyptus, as well as a lab-made chemical called Picardin, which has long been used in insect repellents in Europe and is considerably less irritating to the skin than DEET.
Other plant oils that may repel mosquitoes include citronella, cedar, verbena, pennyroyal, geranium, lavender, pine and cinnamon. If you want to mix your own repellent, dilute 1 oz. essential oil of pennyroyal in 16 oz. vegetable oil, then apply to your body with your hands, suggests herbalist Andrea Candee, author of Gentle Healing for Baby and Child.
Moths
Herbal Sachet: Make a sachet with two 4- by 4-inch pieces of natural fiber material, such as silk or tight-weave linen, sewing three of the sides together with a simple straight stitch. Or take a shortcut and use cotton tea bags, which come ready to fill with a drawstring (find them in health food stores or visit mountainroseherbs.com). Combine 2 teaspoons each of dried thyme, rosemary and mint, and 1 teaspoon of whole cloves in a bowl. Stuff your sachet about three-quarters full with the herb mixture and sew up the last side to seal, and leave the sachet in your drawer or around the closet where moths strike.
Cedar Chips and Lavender Sachet: Available ready-made at drugstores, cedar chip and lavender sachets work just as well as mothballs — and don’t fill your home with overpowering fumes.
Roaches
Boric Acid, Sugar and Bacon Drippings: To clear your home of roaches, mix 1/2 cup of boric acid (a low-toxic powder available at drugstores), 1/8 cup sugar and enough drops of bacon drippings to form a stiff dough when mixed together. To use as bait, roll into marble-size slabs and place them behind the fridge or the stove where pets can’t reach them. Roaches will keel over from the poison in boric acid. Follow up with a thorough cleaning by scrubbing with soap and hot water, and vacuum all the nooks and crannies to get rid of any eggs.
Ticks
Eucalyptus Oil and Water or Vegetable Oil: Even if you haven’t been hiking in the woods, you can still pick up ticks in your backyard or from family pets.
For a homemade repellent, herbalist Andrea Candee mixes 1/2 oz. eucalyptus oil with 16 oz. water in a spray bottle, then mists it on her body. For longer-lasting protection, combine the eucalyptus oil with vegetable oil instead of water, store it in a jar or vial, and apply with your hands.
To protect a furry friend, dip a thin rope in undiluted eucalyptus oil, then wrap the rope in a bandanna and tie it around your pet’s neck. Redip the rope about twice a week.
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03-06-2009
Re: Be Bug-Free, Naturally! [SL55] {RdY}
