Boric acid is nature’s "secret ingredient," used in many commercial treatments for insect control. This magical white powder is mined from the Mojave Desert in California and has a proven track record in eliminating cockroaches, palmetto bugs, water bugs, ants, silverfish, and termites. Boric acid (100%) powder is odorless and non-staining. Also used in a popular powdered cleaner: good old fashioned Borax!
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| Biocontrol Network offers natural alternatives to "conventional" chemical pesticides. |
As for termites, boric acid when mixed with propylene glycol (non-toxic version of anti-freeze) has proven to be very effective against many types of termites. The glycol helps the solution to penetrate into the wood and become a part of the wood fiber. This solution is a terrific treatment for dry rot in wood.
One of the best qualities of boric acid is that the insects don’t develop a resistance to it, unlike with chemical pesticides. And it’s not harmful to pets or children unless ingested. You can find many helpful recipes and user tips about this natural bug killer on Google’s extensive database. Type: boric acid insect killer.
If you find yourself in need of a professional extermination company, you can avoid the toxic tent by using D-limonene — the chemical name for Orange Oil. It is a renewable resource and is a by-product of orange juice manufacturing. More information on a non-toxic method to destroy dry termites here.
Even fleas can be controlled without chemical help. See my blog entry on flea control here.
Simply put, you can avoid the use of toxic pesticides to rid your home of common household pests. Using chemical pesticides that pollute the water, soil and air we breathe is irresponsible and comes with a deadly price tag. So, if you have not fired your “bug man” yet — you’ve got a phone call to make!
Recommended reading: Home Safe Home — Creating a Healthy Home Environment by Reducing Exposure to Toxic Household Products by Debra Lynn Dadd.
This is very timely – I need all of this now! We have found termites in our wood floor and I want to get a start on bugs/fleas before they are full blown.
Thank you.
We have lots of trouble with Black Widows and some other spiders. We have used “Battle” from Green Nest and that helped a little with the cockroaches (but not as much as I would have liked), but not with the spiders. Have not found anything natural that works on Spiders.
My parents had to hire pest control service to get the Black Widows under control for the safety of my niece and the dogs. Do you have any recommendations on how to naturally control Spiders?
Excellent article, Dr. T !!!! What do you recommend for keeping pesky flies under control and keeping them off the dogs ears? That’s the one thing about living in CO – flies by the zillions!! I have the outside covered with the water jars. Thank you!!
Kimberly & Toni,
I think a Pesticator May work for spiders. If you can see them, try tossing boric acid powder (which is an ingrediant in Fleabusters) on them.
For flies, try fly paper. I have flea traps that are like fly paper except they are lighted and work mainly at night for a small area. My flea traps have caught fleas, flies, spiders, and crickets. (Basically anything that is attracted by the light.) I give my dog Brewers Yeast with garlic for fleas. The Brewers Yeast is for the coat and insects plain don’t like garlic. I also take garlic capsules 500MG 1 or 2 times daily depending on the infestation. The fleas may land on me but don’t bite. It is worth a try for flies. Can you bring the water indoors? You are lucky not to have mosquitos. Also bug zappers are good for flies or any flying insect but works only at night.
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Obviously it is important to control the fleas or whatever from being tracked in by the pet. I use Capstar to kill fleas and Program to prevent fleas from breeding. If you use Sentinel for Heartworm, you don’t need Program; but your pet requires a heartworm test before your vet will sell you Sentinel.
Insecticides also cause an adverse reaction to some humans, but the industry and even doctors won’t admit it. I had a bad flea infestation 8 years ago. Since insecticides are out of the question, I did quite a bit of searching to find products that had no insectides. Now I have a fairly good control on the fleas and use the flea traps mainly as a census and to catch anything else that is attracted by them. For Pest Control without insecticides please see:
http://www.shopwhiteman.us/PestControl.html
Toni’s question about flies on dog ears:
Mix citronella oil with Bag Balm— this ointment is an all purpose remedy good to keep on hand for skin irritations and abrasions. You may need to soften the ointment to evenly mix in the oil. You can also add these essential oils*: cedar and neem oil. Use 2 to 4 parts oil to 8 parts ointment. Experiment and see what works best for whatever is bugging your dog. Generously coat the ears. Vaseline can be used as a substitute for Bag Balm (available at feed stores or on-line retailers).
OR purchase a cedar-oil based gel (made for horses but safe for dogs). A popular product made in Germany — “Fliegenschutz” (meaning fly protection) is sold here under the name Pharmaka Deo Gel Fly Repellent — same famous CLAC formula containing: citronella oil, clove oil, thyme oil, cedar oil, geranium oil. You can find several online retailers with the help of Google. Another cedar based product — made for horses but safe for dogs — is POCO fly gel. Commonly found in feed stores.
If the ears are severely affected, apply liquid bandage (available at drug stores), to the affected edges and tip of the ear flap beforehand, and then one of the above remedies.
Get a death grip on flies where they love to breed and feed — horse barns and kennels — with the help natural insects that eat them called Fly Predators. These tiny insects are harmless to animal life and feed on the fly’s pupa (cocoon) stage of development. They do not attack the adult pest flies. Thus, the adult flies currently existing must either be removed by supplemental methods or tolerated until they live out their short life span of about 21 days.
During fly season, you must repopulate fly infested areas every 30 days with a new supply of recruits that will be mailed directly to you from Spalding Fly Predators. From the website, read all recommendations carefully on how to handle your fresh supply of these little exterminators. You want them to be alive and hungry when you release them!
The author has successfully used and recommends Spalding Laboratories (http://www.spalding-labs.com/Default.aspx) for their excellent customer support. And it works!
I saw Bag Balm once at Walgreens. An oral hygienist suggested Bag Balm for my dry lips.
Borax is the best! I have tried this for “carpet beetles” that infested an herb-filled therapeutic neck wrap! It appears that the little “buggers” love to eat the dried herbs and flowers in the cloth tube. The borax did the trick & as Dr. T states, will also rid the household of other pesky pests (with exoskeletons). It can be purchased from garden or home improvement centers.