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The summer has been a difficult one for homes plagued by bugs.
Ants are a particularly persistent problem. Mosquitoes, whiteflies and aphids can also be hard to get rid of.
There are strategies that can help. First, you should determine whether you are producing an intriguing environment for the pests. Then, you can figure out how to combat them.
Battling ants
What to do inside the home:
• Remove and clean up whatever the ants are after.
• Find out what they’re getting into.
• Wipe up the ants and their trail with soap and water.
• Caulk openings where the ants enter the house. Petroleum jelly or duct tape in the cracks is a quick, temporary fix.
• Apply a fine dusting of diatomaceous earth into cracks or entry points that can’t be caulked.
• Apply boric acid powder in cracks and crevices. It is a poison so be sure it is inaccessible to pets and children.
• Avoid the use of aerosol pesticides. It is more likely that you will breathe a pesticide if it is airborne. These products have very little long-term impact.
• Use ant bait products containing boric acid, hydramethylon, fipronil or arsenic.
How to thwart ants outside:
• Ants are beneficial in the garden, attacking termites and eating the eggs of many pests, including fleas, so limit ant control efforts to problem areas.
• Apply a sticky substance (such as Tanglefoot) several inches wide around tree trunks and bush stalks.
• Place boric acid or hydramethylon ant baits in problem areas. Both are insect stomach poisons, which have relatively low toxicity to mammals. Keep out of reach of children and pets.
• Destroy a nest by drenching it with boiling water, insecticidal soap, potassium salts of fatty acids or dust the nest with diatomaceous earth.
Whiteflies
• Encarsia partenopea wasps (tiny, stingless predatory wasps) help keep the whitefly population under control. If you spray pesticides, you may be killing these beneficial wasps.
• Be sure that plants get enough water while under attack. Whiteflies suck plant fluids.
• Insecticidal soaps can help control the common whitefly in greenhouses and gardens.
• Use traps or make your own traps: paint a piece of cardboard bright yellow, coat with a sticky product like Tanglefoot or a mix of petroleum jelly and detergent, and hang near infested plants. (Safe for Encarsia wasps which are not attracted to yellow.)
Fleas
What to do inside:
• Vacuum carpeting, pet bedding and furniture, and seal and dispose of vacuum bag in trash outside of the house. Monitor adult fleas with a green light trap and a sticky card. Light should periodically go out for a short duration for best results.
• Steam-clean the carpet to kill most of the hatched adults, larvae and some eggs. The heat will trigger some eggs to hatch, so vacuum after steam cleaning.
• Use methoprene containing products. Methoprene is an Insect Growth Regulator (IGR). IGRs eliminate the next generation of the pest by interrupting their reproductive cycle, but don’t affect the pest’s insect enemies.
Methoprene mixed with pyrethrin is a common, less-toxic combination. IGRs are thought of as one of the safer pesticides. Spray on carpets and floors, where fleas breed.
• For infestations: Use a pyrethrin-based spray. It is a short-lived pesticide and may require reapplication until the fleas are under control. Apply sodium polyborate powder deep into carpets to control fleas through dehydration.
What to do outside:
• Spray insecticidal soap in outdoor areas where fleas are concentrated.
Spray beneficial nematodes on your yard regularly. Nematodes eat flea larvae and pupae and die when their food source is gone.
On Your Pet:
• Use a good flea comb. This is the best way to monitor your progress. Kill the fleas in soapy water.
• Wash pets with an insecticidal soap, a pyrethrin/methoprene shampoo or a citrus-based shampoo containing limonene or linalool.
• Avoid conventional flea collars (a constant, low-level exposure of your pet to a toxic substance).
For more information, visit the Watershed Watch Campaign’s Web site, www.watershedwatch.net.
