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    #16
    Re: Getting rid of household pests...

    [quote author=LadyGarnetRose link=topic=1037.msg25036#msg25036 date=1293434500]
    For ants, a pin tin of sugar that has boric acid mixed in ants pick up the tainted sugar, bring back, whole mound dies. Just make sure you keep this away from pets.
    [/quote]

    Wiki says mixed things about boric acid's toxicity and possible long-term side effects of exposure. Do you know anything about this? I'd love to try something new but I'm cautious.

    [quote author=Shahaku link=topic=1037.msg23409#msg23409 date=1292726098]
    For ants and other crawly type bugs... Be insanely protective against crumbs for awhile. I know that's difficult with toddlers, hell it's difficult with adults. But eat only at the table and swipe and vaccume immediately after eating. Keep your (indoor) garbage cans right outside the kitchen door, or farther away if you don't mind walking every time you need to through something away. Welcome spiders (cringing at thought, but...). Get a good spray for your house, I think we use Orchid or something like that that works really well. You can spray it inside so that the rain won't wash it away.
    [/quote]

    We only get a few lone strays most of the time, it's just that they invade en masse whenever there's rain. I'm a grad student and not the best about being a food-scrap nazi (and my partner and I are still negotiating what "tidy house" means), but I've seen them swarm when there's nothing on the counters at all and raid the pantry for low-sugar cereal and flour. Yes, flour. O.o

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      #17
      Re: Getting rid of household pests...

      A friend has raised garden beds (2-3' tall, a bit under 1 m for those on metric) that some local ferile cats have been using as litterboxes. He's tried some kind of fancy deterrent spray that did nothing at all. We're thinking chicken wire is the way to go, but does anyone have other ideas?

      If it matters, the crops are various herbs and veggies on rotation. A lot of beds are fallow this season, though I'm not sure how related that is to the cats' decision--they're all from a litter that was born nearby about 3 mo ago, and the problem has grown as they have.

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        #18
        Re: Getting rid of household pests...

        Have you tried putting black pepper on the beds they are using? we used to use it where our cats decided to toilet behind the TV. The smell irritates their noses and they tend to not go back for a while.


        Failing that, stand guard with a high powered water pistol and shoot them with it when they get to the beds, a couple of times of being soaked and they won't want to come back.


        M
        In the end, only you know if you were right or wrong, so tolerate others beliefs, no matter how wrong, they may be right...

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          #19
          Re: Getting rid of household pests...

          Or try an offering to Apollo.
          www.thewolfenhowlepress.com


          Phantom Turnips never die.... they just get stewed occasionally....

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            #20
            Re: Getting rid of household pests...

            [quote author=Tylluan Penry link=topic=1037.msg27009#msg27009 date=1294315844]
            Or try an offering to Apollo.
            [/quote]

            I second this.

            That aside, I'd just like to bring up another pest that nobody has mentioned yet - the dreaded moth. You know, the kinds that get into your rice/oatmeal/cereal/flour/potatoes and lays eggs, ruining a whole bag? Yeah, I hate those little...fellas.

            To repel them, fill a spray bottle with water and add four drops each lavender and cedar oils. Shake well and give each cabinet a good spritz or two. I like to spray the backs of the cabinet doors, too. We haven't had moths around since I started doing this, and no, it hasn't made our food taste weird.

            The lavender/cedar water is also a flea repellent and can be sprayed on carpet, bedding, upholstery, and directly onto pets.
            Children love and want to be loved and they very much prefer the joy of accomplishment to the triumph of hateful failure. Do not mistake a child for his symptom.
            -Erik Erikson

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              #21
              Re: Getting rid of household pests...

              [quote author=Tylluan Penry link=topic=1037.msg27009#msg27009 date=1294315844]
              Or try an offering to Apollo.
              [/quote]

              I hang out with his sister, but don't know as much about him. Because of associations with husbandry and healing?

              [quote author=Maulus link=topic=1037.msg27005#msg27005 date=1294309934]
              Have you tried putting black pepper on the beds they are using? we used to use it where our cats decided to toilet behind the TV. The smell irritates their noses and they tend to not go back for a while.


              Failing that, stand guard with a high powered water pistol and shoot them with it when they get to the beds, a couple of times of being soaked and they won't want to come back.
              [/quote]

              I'll suggest the pepper. Unfortunately he can't afford to hire a garden guard, and there are a lot of cats who each only come sometimes... though the image of the family cycling through super soaker cat guard duty is pretty darn amusing :

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                #22
                Re: Getting rid of household pests...

                Another common pest: cockroaches *bleh*
                Hate hate hate them!

                Cockroaches hate salt, so placing rock salt around the place is a great way to keep them out. Also good if you have small children, since they won't be harmed by eating the salt (as opposed to bait) Either that or get a cat :P

                Oh, and snails. Crushing up egg shells and outgun them on the garden keeps slugs and snails away. They can't slide over them because it cuts their bodies up, but the eggs don't harm your plants. (salt also works, but is a horrible idea on a garden :P)

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                  #23
                  Re: Getting rid of household pests...

                  [quote author=Gwen link=topic=1037.msg27100#msg27100 date=1294350752]
                  I hang out with his sister, but don't know as much about him. Because of associations with husbandry and healing?

                  [/quote]

                  As Apollo Smintheus he presided over mice, and there was a version of him invoked during long hot Roman summers when he presided over the ludi Apollinares
                  www.thewolfenhowlepress.com


                  Phantom Turnips never die.... they just get stewed occasionally....

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                    #24
                    Re: Getting rid of household pests...

                    [quote author=Tylluan Penry link=topic=1037.msg27115#msg27115 date=1294358044]
                    As Apollo Smintheus he presided over mice, and there was a version of him invoked during long hot Roman summers when he presided over the ludi Apollinares[/quote]

                    Thanks! I may do this myself quietly. (Don't think the guy would get it.)

                    [quote author=PharaohKatt link=topic=1037.msg27114#msg27114 date=1294357851]
                    Oh, and snails. Crushing up egg shells and outgun them on the garden keeps slugs and snails away. They can't slide over them because it cuts their bodies up, but the eggs don't harm your plants. (salt also works, but is a horrible idea on a garden :P)
                    [/quote]

                    You rock my sox! I'm savin' my eggshells.

                    In related news, I've been experimenting with copper tape as localized snail repellent. Seems to work if I put 2" of tape just below the rim of a plastic cylinder open at both ends and dig the cylinder in just enough to stand as a wall around seedlings. (I cut the bottoms off of large-ish clear plastic food containers for the cylinders.) The last time I planted carrot seedlings (sans barrier) they were all eaten within three nights. The experimental carrot planted within the barrier has survived three nights now with no damage whatsoever. Yay!

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                      #25
                      Re: Getting rid of household pests...

                      For any animal getting into your garden, I've heard dusting it with crushed cayenne pepper keeps almost everything away. Deer, rabbits, cats. I don't know about small insects, but I could see that stuff burning any mucus membrane, aka snail bodies. Snails also hate salt, it burns them and can even kill them with long enough exposure, but salt also isn't very good for plants so...
                      We are what we are. Nothing more, nothing less. There is good and evil among every kind of people. It's the evil among us who rule now. -Anne Bishop, Daughter of the Blood

                      I wondered if he could ever understand that it was a blessing, not a sin, to be graced with more than one love.
                      It could be complicated; of course it could be complicated. And it opened one up to the possibility of more pain and loss.
                      Still, it was a blessing I would never relinquish. Love, genuine love, was always a cause for joy.
                      -Jacqueline Carey, Naamah's Curse

                      Service to your fellows is the root of peace.

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                        #26
                        Re: Getting rid of household pests...

                        Is there a natural way I can deter spiders? I don't want to kill them, but my partner has a bit of a phobia, so I'd rather them not near the house. :/

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                          #27
                          Re: Getting rid of household pests...

                          [quote author=PharaohKatt link=topic=1037.msg28245#msg28245 date=1294822689]
                          Is there a natural way I can deter spiders? I don't want to kill them, but my partner has a bit of a phobia, so I'd rather them not near the house. :/
                          [/quote]

                          I'm glad for our spiders, they keep down the other crawlies... my partner dislikes them, but we have an arrangement whereby he doesn't kill them if I remove them whenever he spots one.

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                            #28
                            Re: Getting rid of household pests...

                            [quote author=Gwen link=topic=1037.msg28248#msg28248 date=1294828164]
                            I'm glad for our spiders, they keep down the other crawlies... my partner dislikes them, but we have an arrangement whereby he doesn't kill them if I remove them whenever he spots one.
                            [/quote]

                            I'm happy to move them, but He really can't stand to be near them (phobia). Our cats take care of the other crawlies, and they get the spiders too if I'm not around to rescue them.
                            We also get red backs in summer, which I really DON'T want near the house, or near me. The one spider I don't like.

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                              #29
                              Re: Getting rid of household pests...

                              The best way to keep the spider population down is to keep the population of their prey down...they just want to be where their food is.
                              Wonderful Life: The Burgess Shale and the Nature of HistoryPagan Devotionals, because the wind and the rain is our Bible
                              sigpic

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                                #30
                                Re: Getting rid of household pests...

                                [quote author=Gwen link=topic=1037.msg26826#msg26826 date=1294176747]
                                Wiki says mixed things about boric acid's toxicity and possible long-term side effects of exposure. Do you know anything about this? I'd love to try something new but I'm cautious.

                                [/quote]

                                If you handle it many times a day, and lots of it, it will be toxic to you. If you have pets, keep it away from them.

                                Otherwise, it won't bother you much.

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