Natural Pest Control

[zach]

I just found this interesting website on natural pest control. Its very interesting, it talks about making nature scapes in your yard that attract natural predators of pests and other things you can do to avoid pest problems then it lists a bunch of nature pest controls if you do end up with a pest problem.

Eco-Tips :: Natural Pest Management

NATURAL PEST MANAGEMENT Americans spend over $1 billion and apply over 70 million pounds of pesticides to suburban lawns each year, making storm-water runoff a leading source of water pollution.
Pesticides:
kill thousands of beneficial insects, including honeybees, wasps, and ladybugs, for every insect that they attempt to control, and destroy the balance of nature. destroy the environment and collect in the tissues of animals and humans, causing disease and death. are especially harmful to children. Children absorb more pesticides relative to their body weight and are unable to detoxify from the chemicals as their organs are still developing. Each year more than 43,000 children under age six are exposed to concentrations of pesticides high enough to cause cancer, respiratory illness, and central nervous system damage.
Common pesticides, like Dursban, that are use to treat lawns and ornamental plants, are nervous system poisons and exposure can cause headaches, aching joints, nausea, dizziness, disorientation, and inability to concentrate.

[MrBerner]

I use a sharp knife and a torch to get rid of slugs. Wait til night time, go out with your torch and look amongst your seedlings and stab any slug you see. Leave the body, it attracts other slugs who snack on the body, ghouls! Makes them easier to find
www.talesfromtherock.com to see what we are up to on our small patch

[Hanako]

My mom gave me a great tip for whatever creature eats my hostas and coral bells to bits every summer... place a few saucers of beer in between the plants. Apparently the pests are attracted to the beer, but don't tolerate it well and die. I am looking forward to trying this out....

[greenTmom]

There is a great way to use certain plants in your home that will naturally get rid of unwanted pests. On of the plants is the Venus Fly Trap which is considered a carnivorous plant. If you are interested in learning about more of these natural plants, check out this article titled Organic Pest Control.

[Isabella]

Thank you Zach. That website is great. The 'Natural Pest Remedies' there are really useful.

Does anyone know how to distinguish 'sugar ants' from 'grease ants'??? In my vegetable patch I have both what English people call 'red ants' and 'black ants', but I haven't a clue whether these would be 'sugar ants' and 'grease ants' and if so which are which.

And GreenTmom - the article on organic pest control is also interesting, but I really need organic pest control for outside, not for inside the house. In my house a Venus Fly Trap is likely to starve to death. But I found a lovely Irish recipe for cabbage and potatoes on that site, which I'll try soon.

[TheGreenestDollar]

I normally don't use insect repellents, but this company, EcoSmart Organic Insect Repellent, just sent me a box of their products for review (I do green product reviews on my site).

When I first looked at this stuff I was convinced it couldn't work. All the ingredients are natural (they use rosemary and peppermint oils) and 100% organic. I didn't think peppermint oil and rosemary oil would kill wasps and repel mosquitos, but I was wrong. This stuff was amazing!

You can see the review here if you're interested: EcoSmart Organic Insect Repellent Product Revew | The Greenest Dollar

Anyway, if you're looking for a natural and safe way to kill bugs and repels mosquitos and ticks, check out the EcoSmart line (EcoSMART Organic Pesticides & Natural Insect Repellent). I was really impressed with how well it worked. And, it smelled really good using it!

[gludeman]

I don't recall the website. but I found a great solution for the control of ants in our home that is both organic and humane... Mint or mint oil. Inside the house, whenever I see signs of an ant trail, I use a Q-tip with some mint oil and "draw" a line around the entry point. Within minutes they stop coming in. Outside, planting mint plant around the house or garden is supposed to deter them as well (although I haven't tried this yet).

[zach]

I'm going to have to give that a try. We had a pretty bad ant problem last year, I slowed them down by caulking around all the sliding glass doors inside and out but they still manage to find there way in.

I did figure out that lemon oil works great for spiders. We had them coming out of the recessed lighting in the basement so I used lemon oil (lemon pledge works too) and put it around the lights and basement windows. It lasted about 6-7 months before I started seeing spiders again. I was amazed!

Originally Posted by gludeman

I don't recall the website. but I found a great solution for the control of ants in our home that is both organic and humane... Mint or mint oil. Inside the house, whenever I see signs of an ant trail, I use a Q-tip with some mint oil and "draw" a line around the entry point. Within minutes they stop coming in. Outside, planting mint plant around the house or garden is supposed to deter them as well (although I haven't tried this yet).

[TheGreenestDollar]

Hopefully I'm allowed to post this here; if not, so sorry!

I just wanted to let everyone know that the organic bug spray company I talked about in my first post has agreed to sponsor a giveaway contest on my blog, TheGreenestDollar.com.

If you're interested in trying this natural insect repellent, you can enter by leaving a comment on this post:
EcoSmart Organic Bug Spray Product Giveaway Contest! | The Greenest Dollar

The contest is running from May 13-17. I'll be giving away 5 bottles of organic bug spray.

I've used EcoSmart's products in the past, and they actually work. I was really impressed with how good they smelled, and the fact that they're 100% organic.

Thanks!

[DanTheMan]

This really would have come in handy all weekend in Muskoka, I forgot a sweater and most importantly bug spray!