Our sources of chemical exposure are endless. Anything you can do to cut down on chemicals in your environment helps. If you are still having pest control come to your house and spray, you might think about trying a few of these ideas and reducing that chemical exposure.
1. Diatomaceous Earth
This powder is a soft sedimentary rock mostly composed of silica. It works against bed bugs, fleas, cockroaches, crickets, ticks and spiders. Your use will differ depending on the bugs you are trying to control. Basically it works by pulling the lipids out of the bugs and destroying their exoskeleton. You can sprinkle it around the outside of your house and in cracks, corners, crevices inside your house.If you have a bed bug or flea problem you can sprinkle it on your mattress, in your carpet etc and then vacuum it up later. DE is safe but since it is a very fine powder you want to avoid inhaling it and it will also pull the oils out of human skin so use gloves if you don’t want dry/cracked hands. If you have pets watch to make sure they aren’t overly interested in the DE.
2. Cayene Spray
Many bugs including spiders taste with their feet. They do not enjoy spicy things. If you want to keep spiders away a good trick is to make cayenne pepper spray. You can make a “tea” by adding cayenne pepper to water and bringing it to a boil then let it simmer for 15-30 minutes. Once this tea cools add it to a spray bottle and you have homemade spider deterent. This also works on your garden if pests are getting in and eating your food you can spray your plants (they won’t mind cayenne but the pests will!)
3. Catnip
Catnip is a natural repellent to cockroaches. You can place tea bags of catnip behind appliances, in cabinets etc. Or just like the cayenne you can make a tea out of it to spray around your house. Completely harmless to humans but may drive your cats a little crazy!
