My FIL gave my DH a bottle of pyrethroid to spray -it's in a detergent bottle :shrug and I don't want touse it, maybe it will go missing somewhere today even!! Anything else we can use?
If I vacumned that would help too!:mrgreen
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My FIL gave my DH a bottle of pyrethroid to spray -it's in a detergent bottle :shrug and I don't want touse it, maybe it will go missing somewhere today even!! Anything else we can use?
If I vacumned that would help too!:mrgreen
Is the problem area indoors or outdoors?
Indoors!!!!!!
Talcum powder at the entry points can be a deterrent. You would need to put it into a squeeze bottle with a pointy tip, like a sauce bottle or something, and squirt it into any holes or cracks. I sometimes set honey traps too - just a flat saucer with honey smeared in it which they get stuck in and can't remove themselves from.
Putting ant-vulnerable foods on a body of water (pizza trays and oven trays are useful for this, with just a few milimetres of water on the bottom). Ants are a real problem where I live because of our heavy clay soil - we have an ant megalopolis living under the surface!
Oh, yeah, vacuuming can help if there's crumbs they're after.
Talc! WOw that's a good way to get rid of this baby powder i was given! COol one jodie! SHould I get rid of the pyrethroid? It is bad stuff isn't it? In laws say it's "safe" but we have a different definition of that in many ways ....???
Yep I will just get rid of it I've decided!!
I wouldn't use pyrethrum in the house! Can't stand the smell so it must be toxic. But we do resort to using it outside periodically when the ants go berserk in the summer. I'd stash it away somewhere safe and if you ever locate the nest (bwaahahaha! Nests - multiple most likely) then you may or may not like to use it then.
I should mention that talc won't kill them - just deter them.
Borax is another one.
Haha, I know what you mean about differing ideas of "safe." My Dad reckons Zero weed killer is "safe" because once you spray it on it just dissappears and doesn't poison the soil....:roll mmmm, where does it go??
What worked for me for a little while was having my Venus Fly Trap on the windowsil. When his water dried up, the ants would go exploring in there and I would refil the saucer trapping the little buggers ! Mwhuahu :D He got a few good feeds that way !
Seriously though, even with a freshly cleaned and vaccumed carpet they still come in and go exploring. Is it gonna be a wet Winter and they are stocking up or something ? There was one crumb on the floor and it was like happy hour in there. :mad I think I searched the other day and found some reference to a spray bottle with eucalyptus oil or something, that deters them ? I also *think* I read somewhere growing basil on the windowsils keeps them away also ? It may be another herb though and I am mixed up.
just out of interest how do you use the borax?
Dad also told me about talcalm powder which I intend to use next summer as they were aweful!!
Still exploring my laundry - only the gods know what they are after - and its been raining all day!
kristi
xx
Basil doesn't work! I have basil thriving in the garden where my ant nests are. Really, there is no such thing as a herb that deters insects.
Do you put borax in the squirt bottle and fill the cracks just like with talc? That makes sense to me. Salt would probably work too.
Yep, just put it in the cracks. Borax is good for cockroaches as well apparantly. You shouldn't let the kids get at it though (like talc I suppose.) Salt sounds like a good idea - probably the safest.
Isn't the Neem tree supposed to repel insects?
Take a look at this:
http://eartheasy.com/live_natpest_control.htm