It concerns me to see posts about killing insects and animals when it is just as effective and less poisonous to repel or prevent infestation.
Roaches love the glues in the box tops and bottoms. Keep boxed open items like pasta, bisquick, etc. in jars. They also love the glues in shelf paper. Use something else on shelves. Catch them and take them to a warm compost pile outside. You can re-train the whole colony to move outside where they can live completely invisibly to you.
Flies won't keep buzzing into a house that has tansy planted by doors and windows. Bunches of dried tansy work almost as well, but not quite. Keep screens in good working order. Use a butterfly net to catch them and take them outside when they do get in. Keep your trash cans clean so maggots don't appear and turn into more flies.
Bedbugs hate thyme. Sprinkle the bed with it, spread it around the edges of the bedroom; open the windows, close the door and wait until morning. Vacuum and they are gone.
Fleas can be kept away with pennyroyal oil. It's a strong mint and dangerous to pregnant women. A drop behind the pet's neck and under the neck as well as at the base of the tail will keep fleas away. Also add nutritional yeast to their food, a spoon a day, sprinkled on, and a pill of garlc (cut a small pill shape from a slice of garlic clove) will keep ticks and fleas from staying and biting.
Editor's Note: Garlic should only be given to dogs, it can be harmful to cats.
Mosquitos won't bite someone who takes a B-complex vitamin daily. If you are camping, you may need to take extra. It turns pee yellow, so don't panic! Garlic works too but not garlic pills. They are useless.
Keep weevils out of food by storing flours and such in jars.
Ants can be kept out easily by seeing where they are getting in and using petroleum jelly as a barrier they won't cross. Also, washing their paths with soapy water keeps them from instintcively using it again. You can also try cayenne pepper as a boundary but you might have to refresh it until they are re-trained.
Pennyroyal also keeps termites from eating your house, by treating the possibly infected area with the oil. Use cedar bark for mulch around the house if you don't want to attract more termites. They won't eat the cedar, but will infest other bark mulches.
Keep clutter down and store things in plastic bags, like linens and luggage (if it doesn't seal well).
There are lots of chemical free alternatives to pesticides and traps. We often think "Thou shalt not kill" is a good value, but we rarely remember that doesn't end with "except for bugs and enemies..."
By Allison
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