But what about the poor malaria germs! Won’t anyone think of them?!?!?
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You act as if this would be a bad thing.
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Off the top of my head, I can think of a few species that should go.
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Only if you want to grow anything else. The mint would choke it out. That said, a yard of mint does have its appeal
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And unfailingly polite, of course!
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Peppermint and eucalyptus are both highly effective against ants and mice, also. I like to get a small vial of essential oil from the health food store ~ it lasts a long time, and you only need a dab.
A few years ago we had some mice move into the neighborhood. I filled a small spray bottle with rubbing alcohol and an $8 bottle of peppermint essential oil, then sprayed along the carpet line and in the closets. Mice did not visit our home after that.
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and your house smelled minty fresh!
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As a matter of fact, it did! It had a kind of peppermint candy smell for the first day, not cloying but noticeable. After that, it mellowed to a vague, pleasant mint aroma that was gone a few days after.
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Speaking as one who gets two different sizes of ants, I can say that this works for some ants, but not for others. Vegetarian ants, yes, it will wipe them out quite handily. Carnivourous/omnivourous ants, not so much.
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And bug bombs are healthier for you? Yeah, it’s not a good idea to breathe the dust. So wear a mask while you are spreading diatomaceous earth around or cleaning it up, problem solved.
DE doesn’t get in the air unless it’s disturbed, so spread it and then don’t disturb it. It’s a wonderful way to create a pest exclusion zone under cabinets/the fridge/other places you can’t get at where they might be lurking.
I can’t use pesticides for health reasons. DE, boric acid, and caulk/foam have been my friends for years, both for dealing with roaches in apartments where the neighbours are not as clean as us, and for keeping ants under control now that we own our own house and have a yard full of hungry ant colonies.
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I’ve never seen a little roach, except new hatchlings. Hereabouts they grow to Harryhousen size in a couple of days.
We have geckos. They’re terrified of the roaches.
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How do you know the blue-green algae doesn’t work? You haven’t died yet, have you?
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came here to say Borax, figured I’d been scooped, and I was right:
this shit works. this is what put me on:
my buddy and his wife said it was the only thing that worked on their flea infestation, too.
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Every hedgehog I know is sarcastic and condescending in the way that only a '90’s cartoon protagonist can be.
And they like chili dogs better than insects.
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Seconding Eco-Smart repellant. I use it on ants, roaches, whatever wanders in from the desert and it does the business without killing critters.
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When we lived in Taiwan we had a gecko living in our kitchen taking care of any potential bug problems. I think he was already there when we moved in, but he liked to hide in the daytime so it took awhile to notice him.
Residents of Taiwan refer to them as Bihu (壁虎), literally “wall tigers,” because they were hunters like tigers and hung out on the walls.
They are also pretty cute.
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From the classics:
John Muir, My first summer in the Sierra
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I grew up in Florida. We always said that if you didn’t kill the roaches when they were still young then they’d come back in a few days and mug you for spare change in the bathroom. We also had loads of lizards in the yard. Whatever they were eating, it wasn’t the roaches. The guy who came around and sprayed once a month said, " ya gotta change the chemical out every couple months 'cause the little bastards start liking it. "
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Reminds me of the botfly, which should be on anyones extinction short-list…
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Ugh, just the mention of a botfly makes my skin crawl. Thankfully not literally.
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