Shoo Pesky Pests Without Pesky Chemicals

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July 9th, 2008 · No Comments

Today, for instance, Bohdan wouldn’t recommend that anyone use a spray fogger in their house. It coats tables, plates, cabinets and counters with toxic chemicals that simply aren’t necessary. And, as Bohdan notes, “cockroaches don’t live on your kitchen table anyway.”

Far better – less toxic and more clever - to set bait for the insidious cockroach where he/she does live, behind your dishwasher, say, and get him to act as an insect-kamikaze, carrying bait back to home base.

Bohdan uses a bait made of boric acid (a mild acid employed as an antiseptic, in medicinal eye washes, and as a pesticide). The boric acid, which is on the EPA’s List of 25 Safer Pesticides, is delivered to the roaches wrapped in a grain that attracts the bugs. You will need to keep your dogs, cats and toddlers away from this stuff; if they ate some, it could make them sick. But you won’t have to change clothes, wash everything you were wearing during the application and follow the mile-long list of precautions that come with some conventional pest-killing products on the market.

For fire ants, a stinging reality in hot Southern states, Bohdan recommends the Abemectin, an insecticide derived from a soil bacterium considered to be a safer product environmentally because it breaks down in soil and water relatively quickly, though it is toxic and does not make the EPA’s list of 25 non-toxics. He also vouches for boiling water as a natural solution, though this approach sometimes requires several passes at the ant mound. For more ideas see Beyond Pesticide’s fact sheet on alternative approaches for ants and info sheet on Abemectin.

For house ants, Bohdan favors new, gel-based boric acid products because a small amount in a few discrete places does the trick. But he warns do-it-yourself folks to take care and avoid skin contact. Even “organic” products can require special handling.

The veteran of the invertebrate wars also is a fan of totally non-toxic, low-tech “exclusion methods,” such as closing up weep holes in houses so spiders can’t enter. (To see more exclusion techniques, please view our video interview with Bohdan.) This action of first resort can help avoid falling back on last resort solutions involving poisons and harsh chemicals.

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