by Kathy Summers
You know you should stay away from toxic pesticides when you’re pregnant, but this is the time of year when house and garden pests are pestier than ever. Here’s how to manage them without harming yourself, your baby, or the environment.
NATURAL PESTICIDES IN THE HOUSE
- Properly caulk and seal doors, windows, sinks, and showers.
- Keep your kitchen free of crumbs, including underneath the sink and refrigerator.
- To route out roaches, lightly dust the area they frequent with boric acid.
- To give ants the axe, mix a cup of sugar with 3 cups of water and 4 teaspoons of boric acid. Put it in a jar, wrap the jar with masking tape, drizzle some of the mixture on the side of the jar, and poke several small holes in the top. Leave the jar(s) out for the ants to find and carry back to their ant colonies.
- Stop crawling bugs in their tracks with a nontoxic sticky product like Tanglefoot.
NONTOXIC PEST CONTROL IN THE YARD
- Light attracts insects, so keep outdoor lights turned off at night.
- Keep the area close to your house free of rocks, ground litter, firewood, and piles of trash– they serve as a welcome mat for roaches, scorpions, centipedes. While you’re at it, trim back trees and bushes close to the house so bugs won’t use tham as ladders to your windows.
- To get rid of ant piles in your yard, pour hot, soapy water down the entrance to the ant hills.
- For aphids and other plant destroying insects, try a mixture of Ivory Soap, water, and vegetable oil. (Watch Joe Lamp’l, author of “Over the Fence,” in the video below to see it in action.)