Saturday, June 30, 2012

Bugs Be Gone

I detest, abhor, loathe creepy crawly things. Unfortunately, I live in Florida. Here we not only have bugs we have GIANT bugs. Seriously- grasshoppers up north are little pests you can hardly even see. In Florida grasshoppers have names like the, Giant Orange Grasshopper. This seems to hold true for most bugs-they are all bigger in Florida (don't tell Texas).

Pre-Tate we would routinely "bug bomb" the house every 4 months or so. This is very effective but when I was pregnant I didn't want to use the chemicals and the idea of bringing my baby into a house with chemical residue all over it makes my skin crawl worse than the thought of bugs! As the Florida summer has set in I am finding "visitors" more and more frequently. As luck would have it I heard Andrea Fabry of Mom's Aware on the radio and the whole program was on non-toxic pest control.

Yes, I am now the lady who: A. is listening to the Christian version of "talk radio" (love me some Moody Radio), B. hears the radio program topic is on non-toxic pest control and gets overly excited about it, and C. is disappointed when I arrive at my destination and have to miss the end of the broadcast.

Well I may have missed the end of the broadcast I did go to the Mom's Aware website and they have several recipes for natural non-toxic pest control.

We are currently battling against ants and your garden variety of pests.

Ant Trap
1 Tablespoon Hot Water
1 Tablespoon Honey or Sugar
1/2 Teaspoon Borax*

*Please note that while Borax is considered a natural pest control solution that the ingestion of it by pets and/or people is still harmful. She went into detail about this on the radio broadcast seems like common sense that if it kills ants who eat it that it probably wouldn't be good for pets but I don't want to be responsible for Fluffy's emergency vet trip.



Place all ingredients in jar and shake to mix. Soak cotton ball in mixture and squeeze out excess liquid. Place cotton ball on lid, plate, etc. in area where ants are. Leave it there until the ants are gone. Dispose of cotton ball.



I'm currently working on a natural broad spectrum pest powder. Mom's Aware website has one but it called for A LOT of ingredients that I didn't have readily available and there are some that I do have that I am pretty sure will get the job done. If my pest control powder is a success I will post about it.

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