While you are cleaning up your home or office this Spring, you may come across stuff that moves on its own. What do you do to control pests while still being environmentally friendly?
When it comes to insects, rodents, etc. outdoors, we advocate leaving them alone as much as possible. The vast majority of them are actually harmless and some of them, as we've discussed in another blog post, are actually beneficial to your plants and to keeping other non-beneficial pests in check. On the other hand, we can certainly understand people being less enthusiastic about sharing their indoor space with critters.
Our preferred method for dealing with indoor and outdoor pests is to remove as much of what is attracting them as possible. For example, the thing that roaches are looking for most is actually water to drink, so we avoid leaving containers, dishes, etc. laying around that have standing water in them. Houseflies and ants are attracted to sweet, sticky stuff and spoiling stuff, so we keep the house cleaned up and take the trash out often (of course, we try to minimize how much trash we have to start with while still being reasonable about it).
Some people think that avoiding having any leaf litter or organic mulch on the soil surface will reduce pests. This is an unfortunate misconception that has led a lot of people to spend a lot of time, money and effort in removing this material from their property. It's especially unfortunate for our plants because they need the organic matter and certain insects and micro-organisms that feed on that matter in order to be healthy. If you want to be more environmentally friendly and also save money while having better plants, increasing your organic mulch is a big part of the solution. You'll need to water less often, will need buy less fertilizer and your soil will gradually improve itself thanks to the activity of all those mulch munching microbes.
Most of the pests that we worry about don't even live in leaf piles or mulch. We may see them there sometimes, but that's not where they live. Ants, for example, prefer warm, dry, hard-packed soil to tunnel under. You won't find anthills under a pile of leaves. Proof of that is that you'll see just as many, if not more, roaches, flies, ants, silverfish etc. on properties with no mulch on the landscaping than you will with properties that have well-mulched beds.
Our second-favorite method is glue traps, preferably the covered kind with openings in the ends. Glue traps are inexpensive, last a long time and best of all, most of them don't have poisons in them. You can look at the packages to find the poison free ones. Why poison your family and make the place unpleasant to live in for sure by spraying pesticides or setting out other kinds of traps that volatilize poisons into the air (if the trap smells like anything, you are breathing in poisons from it) in the hopes of maybe killing a few pests? The key to making glue traps work is to put them in the places where you find the most pests, and especially where you see the most evidence of them. Those black dots you see around, for example, are the feces of flies, roaches and etc. Clean that stuff up and then put down a glue trap to greet them when they come back. Warm, dry, dark places are often a good place to look, such as behind the refrigerator, in the back of closets, cupboards and other such rarely disturbed places. The bathroom and the kitchen are usually the main draws for pests since they are sources of water and have lots of undisturbed places as mentioned earlier for the critters to hide in between drinks.
Finally, don't freak out. Sure, they may be creepy, but most of the 'pests' we have in North America are actually harmless. Unless you let it go too long and let them take over the building, they won't hurt you. A couple of flies in the air or a roach or two aren't going to kill you, but the stuff you squirt or spray all over the place trying to get them just might eventually.
Have any specific pest questions to ask? Please comment below or on the Contact Us tab.
When it comes to insects, rodents, etc. outdoors, we advocate leaving them alone as much as possible. The vast majority of them are actually harmless and some of them, as we've discussed in another blog post, are actually beneficial to your plants and to keeping other non-beneficial pests in check. On the other hand, we can certainly understand people being less enthusiastic about sharing their indoor space with critters.
Our preferred method for dealing with indoor and outdoor pests is to remove as much of what is attracting them as possible. For example, the thing that roaches are looking for most is actually water to drink, so we avoid leaving containers, dishes, etc. laying around that have standing water in them. Houseflies and ants are attracted to sweet, sticky stuff and spoiling stuff, so we keep the house cleaned up and take the trash out often (of course, we try to minimize how much trash we have to start with while still being reasonable about it).
Some people think that avoiding having any leaf litter or organic mulch on the soil surface will reduce pests. This is an unfortunate misconception that has led a lot of people to spend a lot of time, money and effort in removing this material from their property. It's especially unfortunate for our plants because they need the organic matter and certain insects and micro-organisms that feed on that matter in order to be healthy. If you want to be more environmentally friendly and also save money while having better plants, increasing your organic mulch is a big part of the solution. You'll need to water less often, will need buy less fertilizer and your soil will gradually improve itself thanks to the activity of all those mulch munching microbes.
Most of the pests that we worry about don't even live in leaf piles or mulch. We may see them there sometimes, but that's not where they live. Ants, for example, prefer warm, dry, hard-packed soil to tunnel under. You won't find anthills under a pile of leaves. Proof of that is that you'll see just as many, if not more, roaches, flies, ants, silverfish etc. on properties with no mulch on the landscaping than you will with properties that have well-mulched beds.
Our second-favorite method is glue traps, preferably the covered kind with openings in the ends. Glue traps are inexpensive, last a long time and best of all, most of them don't have poisons in them. You can look at the packages to find the poison free ones. Why poison your family and make the place unpleasant to live in for sure by spraying pesticides or setting out other kinds of traps that volatilize poisons into the air (if the trap smells like anything, you are breathing in poisons from it) in the hopes of maybe killing a few pests? The key to making glue traps work is to put them in the places where you find the most pests, and especially where you see the most evidence of them. Those black dots you see around, for example, are the feces of flies, roaches and etc. Clean that stuff up and then put down a glue trap to greet them when they come back. Warm, dry, dark places are often a good place to look, such as behind the refrigerator, in the back of closets, cupboards and other such rarely disturbed places. The bathroom and the kitchen are usually the main draws for pests since they are sources of water and have lots of undisturbed places as mentioned earlier for the critters to hide in between drinks.
Finally, don't freak out. Sure, they may be creepy, but most of the 'pests' we have in North America are actually harmless. Unless you let it go too long and let them take over the building, they won't hurt you. A couple of flies in the air or a roach or two aren't going to kill you, but the stuff you squirt or spray all over the place trying to get them just might eventually.
Have any specific pest questions to ask? Please comment below or on the Contact Us tab.