Watch The Environment With Safe Pest Control

Controlling pests in your garden is absolutely necessary for the continued health of your investment. Plants cannot flourish if damaging pests eat the roots and foliage of your plants, or penetrate the bark of trees. And inside your home, pests can spread disease as quickly as they breed. While there are many chemicals that you can use to get rid of pests, we often wish there were an alternative. When you poison a destructive bug, it often poisons a beneficial one, too. Plus, runoff water can be contaminated with pesticides. Here are some ideas on how to treat your garden for pests in an environmentally friendly way.

Ants

There are actually common items in your home that repel ants. They hate bitter cucumber, so you can place slices and peels of cucumber where ants tend to find their ways into your home. They don’t like cloves or mint, either. If you have a problem with ants getting into your pet’s area, you can sprinkle ground cloves on the ground to keep ants away. Ants actually thrive on the protein found in the feces of dogs, so this could be a problem. You can also sprinkle cayenne pepper, cinnamon, or coffee grounds on the ground surrounding the ant bed.

Cockroaches

Your cat may like catnip, but cockroaches hate it. Make a catnip tea by boiling catnip in water. Let it cool and pour it into a spray bottle. Then, you can spray the tea on baseboards and in pantries where cockroaches travel. You can also use boric acid without harming the environment. Put the powder on the top shelves in your kitchen, and the roaches will take it back to their nests. Of course, if you have birds or cats that might access those high areas, you can’t use it. You can also spray roaches with soapy water. It kills them. Cockroach traps are non-toxic, and can get rid of many of the pests.

Fleas

If you have trouble with fleas outside, there is a plant called Fleabane Daisy. It has violet daisy flowers that repel fleas. If your pets are having trouble with fleas, you can bathe them in shampoo with citrus peel or citrus oil. Cedar is also a flea deterrent, and many people use cedar-filled cushions for their pets’ beds.

Diatomaceous Earth

Perhaps one of the most universal treatments for pests both in the home and in the garden is diatomaceous earth. This produce is a very fine, powder, almost like dust. It evidently is made from fossils of a hard-shell algae. The particles in this earth are very sharp, and eventually cut through the exoskeletons of insects. Food-grade diatomaceous earth is safe for use around pets and children. In fact, if your dog has fleas, you can rub this product into his fur to kill fleas. You can also sprinkle this product around ant beds and in their trails, and sprinkle it in the pathways used by cockroaches. Be sure not to get the non-food grade product, as it is dangerous.

Josh Andrews is a huge gardening fan, when he isn’t gardening or even writing about gardening, you can usually find him working for a lawn company called Lawnmaster.