How I Control Household Pests

One of the most toxic chemicals that are used at home are pesticides. Because of this, they were among the first products to go when I began to live nontoxically more than twenty-five years ago.

Over the years, many new less-toxic and environmentally-safe products have come on the market, which I am posting on the Pest Control page of Debra's List, but I rarely use them. I have collected some books on methods of controlling pests naturally (see the Pest Control page of Debra's Bookstore). If I have a pest problem, I generally look it up in one of my books first or go to one of the online informational websites to see if there is something simple I can do before I resort to buying some kind of product.

There are many simple things you can do to control pests, without buying any special products. I simply shoo them away or have my husband put a glass over an insect and slip a card under it and take it outdoors. If we need to remove an infestation, like when we had carpenter ants in California, we used a vacuum cleaner to catch them (if you do this, be sure to remove the vaccum bag immediately and put it in the outside garbage).

Herbal repellents work well, too--most pests don't like the smell of bay leaves, cloves, pennyroyal, lavender, or cedar.

Live and Let Live

My general philosophy about what we call "pests" is to pretty much leave them alone, unless they are dangerous to my health or they are really getting out of hand. Pests are only pests if we consider them to be so--they are actually living things that are part of the dynamic, balanced ecosystem in which we live. Each species has its own role to play in the web of life and I respect these other species.

Is It a Pest?

Before embarking on any action to rid your home of pests, I ask myself if it really is necessary to kill them. A true pest is one that is doing damage or presenting a health threat, not simply a wild thing I am afraid of. If rats are chewing through my electrical wires, that's a very different situation than having a moth resting on my wall. Flies are unsanitary, but a few spiders won't do much harm and actually work beneficially to control other pests.

In nature, species coexist by establishing their territories and honoring territories established by others. I establish my territory with pests by pest-proofing my home.

Pest-proof Your Home

We don't have much problem with pests of any kind because we have pest-proofed our home.

We've done the major things to pest-proof our home in general:

1. Keep them out by filling holes and cracks and putting screens on windows
2. Take away their food supply by keeping living areas clean--sweeping up crumbs, wiping up spills immediately, wash dishes after eating, store food in tightly closed containers, empty garbage and compost scraps frequently.
3. Dry up their water supply--repair leaky faucets, pipes, and clogged drains.
4. Get rid of any clutter they can hide in--clean out closets, the attic, the garage, the basement, and anywhere else unused or infrequently used items pile up.

Mosquitoes

Here in Florida, we do have a lot of flying, biting, insects, especially mosquitos and these tiny bugs called no-see-ums because you really can't see them, but they do bite. So every house has screens on all the windows and doors. Front porches are screened too, and most swimming pools are enclosed in giant screened cages. Otherwise, you simply get eaten.

When I lived in California, we didn't have screens, but we did have mosquitoes. I bought mosquito netting for the bed, which I really liked. It was like sleeping under a dreamy, protective tent that felt very safe and cozy, and not at all confining since you can see right through it.

Cotton mosquito netting is hard to find. Nicamaka carries one style and also a number of styles made from polyester net. A better selection can be found at A Thousand and One Nets, which sells only cotton mosquito nets in many styles, sizes, and colors. Though they are in Australia, they ship to the USA. Though I usually don't recommend synthetic fibers, I've slept under synthetic mosquito nets in hotels, and though I prefer cotton, I don't find the synthetics to be particularly toxic and I'd rather have the synthetic nets than get bitten all night!

I've read that cotton mosquito nets are not recommended because they are heavier and susceptible to dampness, but I haven't had any problem with mine.

Some tips for using mosquito netting:

• Do not leave the corners of the net loose around the bed--they should be tucked carefully under the mattress
• Do not allow the net to come into contact with your skin while sleeping--mosquitoes will be able to feed through the mesh
• Do not use a torn mosquito net, no matter how small the hole.

Palmetto Bugs Teach Us a Valuable Lesson

Here in Florida we have these big palmetto bugs. They are a type of cockroach. They live outdoors most of the year, but in the summer, they start coming in the house.

When we first moved here, the first night I went in the kitchen and there were palmetto bugs all over the counters in the kitchen. Well, it seemed like they were all over, but there were maybe about twenty. When they see you coming, they will go hide, but I was unaccustomed to having giant bugs in the house. This photo does not really do them justice. They are about two inches long with spiny legs...but after I got over the initial fright, I got used to them. What I didn't like was opening a drawer and being startled by one when I reached for a fork.

So we applied pest-proofing rule #1. We took everything out of the cabinets and just started filling up every hole and crack we could find. We found a gaping hole in the wall behind the stove. Also, there were some old air vent grates in the floor from a central heating system that was no longer being used. We covered these with natural fiber area rugs until we can replace the flooring. This greatly reduced their numbers to a level we could live with.

Last summer they apparently found some holes and cracks we didn't see and started coming in the house in greater numbers. So we set out a plate of boric acid behind the garbage can, and that solved the problem in a few days.

But this year...The other night I was asleep and woke up and there was one crawling on me in bed! And two others flying in the bedroom! This was too much! So in the middle of the night, I opened the closet door to get the vacuum and immediately see about a dozen in the closet, where we had a lot of disorganized stuff all piled up.

So I get my poor husband out of bed and we start taking things out of the hall closet with the vacuum in the other hand to capture every palmetto bug we see. It turned out we didn't need to do more to keep them out of the house--they were living in the clost! Whole nests of them!

The attractant, it turned out, was a stash of handmade and natural soaps that had organic material in them like oatmeal and herbs. The bugs were eating the organic material out of the soap and eating the wrappers, leaving holes in the soap like swiss cheese! We had never thought of this as a food source.

Moral of the story for us was...if we have a pest problem, look around for waste--too much, piled up, sitting around not moving, needing to be evacuated = bug infestation. People tend to kill bugs and leave the garbage. I really learned that night that pests they are nature's way of letting us know things are out of order. So we went on a big campaign of handling all of our "out-of-orders" (leaking pipes, unwashed dishes, unswept floors, piles of unnecessary stuff, etc) so as to "appease the palmetto bug inspectors". You just can't ignore the laws of nature without consequences! And that did it...no pesticides needed.