Keeping Cockroaches Gone FOREVER, And Other Pests by Graeme Stephens
Cockroaches are one of the most resilient pests on the planet. It is estimated that they have lived on this planet for over 300 million years and that they have evolved very little in that time. In other words, cockroaches today look exactly like the cockroaches 300 million year ago.
Once you’ve seen cockroaches in your home, chances are you have been infested. Prepare for a difficult battle! Getting rid of cockroaches can be a very difficult task.
Here are some quick tricks you can use to maintain cockroach control:
1) Sprinkle boric acid where ever you’ve seen them, especially in areas where they take refuge. Boric acid is toxic to roaches and it will kill them once they’ve come into contact with it. Be careful if you have children or pets because boric acid can be harmful to them as well.
2) It is also believed that you can make your home made roach trapsby mixing equal parts baking powder and sugar with soda. Put the mixture in a shallow dish and place it near the location of the roack sightings. The mixture is fatal to roaches and they will die once they’ve ingested it.
3) Eliminate their sources of water! Cockroaches can live for months without food, but like most creatures they require water on a daily basis to survive. By limiting their access to water you can achieve sucessful roach control! Make sure you fix any leaking pipes, dripping taps, pools of moisture, etc..
4) Maintain a clean environment. Like many other household pests – such as ants, spiders, silverfish, etc – cockroaches are attracted to environments that are unkept, dirty, and in disarray. It is crucial to clean your home and keep it clean if you want to win the fight against cockroaches.
Keeping Cockroaches GONE FOREVER!
There are many sprays and pesticides on the market for getting rid of cockroaches, but many of them will not help to achieve permanent cockroach control. Although many of them will succeed in achieving temporary relief from cockroaches, they will always come back if you haven’t corrected the conditions in your home that attract roaches in the first place.
The primary conditions that attract cockroaches are:
A dirty, unkept environment
A source of food
A source of water
Suitable places for them to hide and breed
The key to success is altering these conditions so that roaches can no longer thrive in your living spaces. If conditions are less than idea, they will simply move on to another environment where they find it more suitable.
Slugs
Are one of the most damaging, persistent garden pests to eradicate. There are numerous garden slug control methods available commercially, but some of them can be harmful to birds, animals, and friendly garden insects.
This page offers a few ideas for natural slug control methods that may be a more suitable alternative for your garden.
Natural Slug Control Methods
Watering Schedule
Probably one of the best ways to get rid of slugs is to alter your watering schedule. Slugs have very delicate bodies that require a moist environment to. Slugs are abundant in the garden because it contains a great source of food and it is usually very moist from watering.
If you have a slug problem, make sure you are not watering your garden in the evening. Water in the morning instead. This simple method can reduce garden slug damage by 75%.
The Beer Trap
An age-old trick for controlling slugs is to use beer as a trap. Set a small amount of beer in a wide and shallow container or bowl and bury it in your garden soil so that it is level with the ground. Slugs will crawl into the beer bowl and drown in the beer.
One downside to this method is that the beer can be diluted by rain, attracting fewer slugs into the trap. In addition, rain can cause the trap to fill up and spill beer into your soil, attracting more slugs without trapping them. In order to avoid this problem, create a tent-like structure above the trap so rain cannot fill the beer container. Make sure you leave room for the slugs to enter.
Copper Wiring
Another slug control method is to attach small strips of copper around the sides of Flower pots or raised beds. The copper acts as a barrier that slugs won’t cross. Make sure there aren’t any leaves or branches hanging over the side that will allow slugs to bypass the copper.
The copper wiring method has worked well in some gardens and not at all in others.
Diatomaceous Earth
Diatomaceous earth is the sharp, jagged skeletal remains of very small shellfish. It is used as a slug control method because the sharp edges of the diatomaceous earth can lacerate the soft bodies of slugs and snails, causing them to dehydrate.
One problem with diatomaceous earth is that is virtually ineffective when wet. It can also be very irritating to eyes and lungs, so it needs to be used with caution.
Lava Rock
An alternative to diatomaceous earth is lava rock. Lava rock has an abrasive surface that most slugs will avoid.
Killing Slugs Manually
Many of the above slug control methods have been used with mixed success – for some they work very well, for others they don’t work at all. If you are one of the unlucky gardeners that just can’t maintain slug control, you may have to try hunting them down one by one.
One popular slug killing method is to mix a solution of 3/4 household ammonia with water, shake it up in a spray bottle and hunt them down individually. The ammonia is harmless to plants but the slugs die almost instantly when hit. Go out at night with a flashlight when slugs are most active.
The main downside to this method is that it takes a long time. Many slugs will still enter your garden from outside and it can be very time consuming to turn over every leaf looking for slugs.
To eliminate the following, may these helpful links referred to you:
http://www.pestcontrolauckland.org.nz
http://www.pestcontrol.org.nz
http://www.steam-n-dry.co.nz /Pest_Control-x.htm
About the Author
Graeme Stephens has been running the largest owned carpet cleaning company in new Zealand for 24 years. IICRC qualified “master restoration technician”
Flowers Sand Art – Hope for Japan & Christchurch NZ – O Mio Babbino Caro – Dame Kiri Te Kanawa
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