In DIB Chat, We discussed pests like ants in our homes. I suggested using Cinnamon for ants, but there are more methods you can use, here's more:

* Simply place some vegetable oil on a paper towel and wipe the base of the area entirely. Ants will not and can not get through the oil barrier. It really works!

* Mix equal parts of white sugar and baking soda on a saucer. Place it anywhere you see ants. The ants eat the mixture and the baking soda turns into CO2 and kills the pests. What's best is you don't have to worry if your kids or pets get into it.

* Skin-So-Soft hand lotion from Avon. I've used this in the track of my sliding glass doors and I haven't seen any ants since. (I know it seems kind of weird, but it works.)

* Ants don't like baby powder and spearmint gum. You can prinkle baby powder whereever the ants are or just leave spearmint gum sticks and the ants will disappear.

* I have used "Bay Leaves" to keep those large black ants out of my home, by placing them near window sills and door ways. You can purchase them in the spice section of your local grocery store.

* Sprinkle aspartame (diet sweetener) where ants trail and down the holes they enter through. I haven't had ants in two years using this method.

* Ants hate cinnamon! I sprinkle cinnamon around the area where ants are found, they stay far from it! If you ever want to see an ant run fast, or have something delicate that you can't spray poison on (makeup, artwork, VHS tapes, etc.),
sprinkle some cinnamon on or around the area. Ants go berserk,! Cinnamon isn't poisonous, and it's cheap, effective, and it smells great! My problem is, I can't tell where the ants are coming from!

* Sprinkle powdered red chili pepper, paprika, dried peppermint or borax on ant trails, in cracks and near entryways to deter them from moving in.

* Create liquid bait by mixing 1 tsp. boric acid with 2 1/2 fluid oz. corn syrup or honey. Heat until the boric acid dissolves. In an eyedropper, add equal amounts of water and solution to drop in places ants frequent for 2 weeks.

* Try mixing 2 parts molasses to one part
sugar, and 1 part yeast. Ants love this, and they take it back to the anthill. The mixture kills the
whole colony, as the yeast multiplies and causes the ants to explode.

* Spread a thin coat of petroleum jelly wherever you see the pests enter, and, voila, they no longer use that entrance. As an experiment, draw a circle around an ant with Vaseline, and it'll be there tomorrow. Good luck ...

* 409 and "Simple Green" cleaners kill them on contact, then clean up their trail using one of these products.

* Neutra Air will kill most of the ants on contact, and they won't go near that area again because of the smell. Spray some on the carpet and in other areas. The ants won't go near those areas.

If you have similar tips for other pests, feel free to post them here. It's that time of year and maybe we can all use a few of these tips.

* Mix equal parts of white sugar and baking soda on a saucer. Place it anywhere you see ants. The ants eat the mixture and the baking soda turns into CO2 and kills the pests. What's best is you don't have to worry if your kids or pets get into it.


CO2 also kills monsters like "The Blob" (More CO2, Dave!) :mwaha:

My cat is also for rent cheap, she loves to chase down bugs and eats them unless I find them first and "rescue" the bugs and take them outside.

Like bookmistres, my cats chase sown any insects we have. And I smash to smithereens any spider. :D We don't have a problem with ants here. Where I lived before we had those big black ants in the house. NAsty things! Good advice, Dio! :)

Cat's a mouser and dog eats bees, but nothing else!

Those are great tips, Brian! :thumb:

Haven't really tried most of them (Were submitted to me by others), but the cinnamon one DOES work (Tried that). A little pinch goes a long way! I sprinkled the back of my truck last summer and none since then and NO ants to this day! I prefer non-lethal methods (ones that don't kill them but makes your home less desirable to them.) I'm the type that thinks all creatures deserve to live...just not in my home LOL!


Here's more:
(Comments by me in Italics)
For Outdoor Gardeners out there:

Companion planting is the practice of placing plants which pests dislike around those plants which pests relish. For instance, aphides hate chives, so chives are a great companion plant for roses.

Hand Picking is time-consuming but unbeatable. Use gloves and remove all visible offending pests.

Put a cone of birdseed in your garden. Birds are much more efficient than people at killing bugs. Flickers, warblers, finches, jays, robins, grackles, sparrows, cedar waxwings, starlings and many other birds will consume thousands of insects every day.

You can also plant flowers that attract birds: pincherry, white flowering dogwood, honeysuckle, holly, white pine, Russian olive, sunflowers, marigolds, or ask your local nursery for other examples. The birds will come for the berries and seeds, but they’ll stay for the bugs.

Cockroaches:

Apartment dwellers, especially, should be sure that drains are plugged. Roaches need water at least once a week and will live in drains. Also, spray a little Lysol in toilets in the evening. Cut them off from all water.

Use boric acid. Every night before going to bed, clear every thing off kitchen counter and sprinkle boric acid all around the sink. The roaches crawl through it to get to the water in the sink and carry it back to the nest. Do this every night till you don't see any more.

Roaches hate bay leaves so place them where ever you see roaches "commuting." You can grind up bay leaves and make a paste and "seal" off any cracks. For outdoors, put cypress mulch around your home. Roaches AND termites HATE cypress mulch.

Scientists have found that roaches dislike catnip.
Sprinkle where roaches are found (best to "activate" it first - rub the herb between fingers). Seems to work with German and Asian roaches.
Use care if you have cats.

Place small amounts of dry plaster of paris mixed together with same amount of caster sugar,sugar attracts the roach the plaster blocks him up when he eats it, place bait in bottle caps in all cupboards.

Mix powdered sugar and boric acid (maybe half and half). They'll carry the mixture on their feet to their nest and it will kill the babies also.

Mice:

This one's obvious
A cat is the best way to get rid of mice in a home!

"Great Stuff" is an expanding foam that comes in a can and is available at Home Depot. It expands rapidly and can fill most holes. Use it around pipes that go through walls and floors or rafters where you suspect animals are entering.

Any gap around a pipe is a entry point. You need copper mesh a screwdriver, scissors, and a can of foam. Cut a piece of the copper mesh, wrap it around the pipe with the screwdriver push it into the wall. Then seal it with the foam.

I used to work a job where part of my job was pest control inspections...during training I learned that mice can squeeze into an opening the size of a quarter easily! Also, the easiest way to find mouse evidence is to look for "mouse droppings". Mice will not go out in open spaces in buildings. they stay along the walls. Look there. you won't find anything in open spaces.

You will need Oil of Peppermint. Put the oil on a cottonball and place anywhere you suspect a mouse. The smell drives them crazy and makes your house smell great.

Rodents can't release gas. Pour some carbonated soda (ie. Pepsi or Coke) on a small container that you don't want back and that will eliminate the problem. (Whole new meaning to deadly farts).

Place instant dry potatoes (not cooked) onto disposable plastic lids. Leave where mice are evident. After the mice eat the potato they look for a water source. The potato expands when it gets wet and - no more mice.

Bats:
Bats can enter houses through chimneys, holes in walls or openings around plumbing, vents, windows and doors. Keeping bats out is a matter of identifying where they're coming in and blocking those access routes.

1. Position several people around the perimeter of the house at dusk to note bats' exit sites as they emerge to search for food. It usually takes about an hour for all bats to leave a building.

2. Search the exit sites for holes 3/8 inch wide or larger.

3. Plug all but one of these holes with sheet metal, caulk, wood or fiberglass insulation.

4. Cut a panel of 1/2-inch bird netting to cover the last hole. The panel should extend a few inches above and 2 feet below and on either side of the hole.

5. Attach the sheet at the top only, with staples or duct tape, leaving the sides and bottom unattached. If any bats remain in your structure, they'll be able to fly out this hole but not back in.

6. Watch for several nights to see whether any more bats come out.

7. Once no more bats are observed exiting from the building, remove the bird netting and seal the last hole.

8. Contact your local animal control agency for extreme or persistent bat problems, and ask about bat removal services.

Perform this procedure between November 15 and March 15. Many bats will be hibernating away from your home during these months. Batproofing your home during the spring or summer months may result in baby bats becoming trapped inside your home, dying and creating a foul odor.

You might not want to kill a bat if it enters your home. If you need to have it tested for rabies, they cant if certain parts of the bat are injured. You're better off to capture it in a jar and call animal control.

Although bats in your home can be annoying and destructive, bats near your home are very useful. Bats eat up to 10 times their body weight in insects each night, so they make excellent mosquito repellants. Try hanging a 'bat house' on a tree in your yard, that way the bats have a comfortable place to live (instead of your house) and you keep the benefit of this natural insect control.

At a university, there was a major bat problem in the bell tower of the law school. Maintenance personnel tried everything, such as sealing, putting out traps, etc. but to no avail; the bats kept coming back. Then somebody suggested using mothballs, because bats, like mice and most insects, hate mothballs. So they had some bags fashioned using cheesecloth, and filled the bags with mothballs and rocks to add weight, and put them around the exterior of the belltower. The bats found a new home.

Birds (sparrows, blackbirds, starlings, jays, etc.)

Put those old CDs to use and save your garden crops. Bright light reflecting off the CDs may be effective in scaring away many would-be munchers such as sparrows, blackbirds, starlings and jays.

Glue two CDs together with the shiny sides out. Tie the ends of a strong string together, making a loop about one foot or so. Place the looped end through the holes of the CD's. Run one looped end through the other looped end. You now have the disks hanging from the string. Loop the string around a small branch and watch the disks spin and reflect the sun. If the CD is shiny on both sides, use only one.

Although hanging CDs is a good method of frightening away birds, the method is not likely to work 100% of the time.