It’s summer and at least here in Jacksonville, N.C., that means bugs and lots of them. But, I hate pesticides. It just seems wrong to spray chemicals to get rid of bugs. I was overjoyed when I found some natural bug repellents from Richard Fagerlund from his book “The Bugman on Bugs: Understanding Household Pests and the Environment.”
To get rid of ants, mix 2 tablespoons of peanut butter, two tablespoons of jelly, and one teaspoon of boric acid. Put that in a small, disposable container and sit it where the ants are. If you have a mound you need to get rid of (and boy do we have tons of them here!), try wetting the mound with water then pouring baking soda on it with a bit of white vinegar until it bubbles.
Mosquitoes are another pesky summer pest, but Faberlund says planting basil will keep them away.
If there is one of God’s creatures that I really despise, it is spiders. Just cannot stand them, so I am always looking for ways to get rid of them. Fagerlund says they can be killed with a simple spray mixture of 40% water, 40% alcohol, and 20% dish detergent.
Have a problem with flies? Just fill a gallon sized Ziploc bag half full of water then tie the top with a piece of rope or rubber band and hang it near your door or whatever area you are trying to rid yourself of flies. Because flies have compound vision, they will think there are hundreds of flies in the area and leave. Pretty cool, huh?
I don’t know about the rest of the country, but no matter how clean a house you keep, southern homes just seem to have an innate problem with cockroaches. Professional Pest Control Products offers a product called Niban Bait that is made with boric acid http://www.pestproducts.com/niban.htm
Learn more about bugs and pesticides from Richard’s web site.
(This image is in the public domain because it contains materials that originally came from the Agricultural Research Service, the research agency of the United States Department of Agriculture.)