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A “Mr. HandyPerson” column in the San Francisco Examiner discusses a reportedly safe pesticide derived from orange peels called Orange Guard – all ingredients are supposedly food grade (at least for all of you who consider orange-peels as food.) The column discusses a battle against Argintinian ants but it is mentioned that it is supposed to work against a number of little crawlies that like kitchens.
(I hope this stuff is more effective than the citrus based bathroom cleaner that I bought long ago that later was reported in Consumer Report as being “about as effective as plain water”…)
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Casey, I think this may be what my g/f's termite people used to de-termite her house. All her cats could stay inside, and the house didn't need tenting. She did say, on the downside, it smelled of oranges for quite a while to the point that she doesn't want to eat another orange. (FWIW, if you are trying to keep cats away from certain areas, I have heard that cats supposedly don't like lemon-scented stuff. My cat owns my house, so I don't bother.)
*I've used orange peels to discourage ants. Put them in a blender, steep for a day, then strain into a spray bottle. It works if you keep after them for a few days. Recently, I've been using boric acid. It's a mild acid in powder form, not toxic to people and pets, and is available at Home Depot, inexpensive too. I use a little "squeeze duster" to apply it along ant trails, around the foundation and on the crawl space mudsills. The down side: if it gets wet it's useless. Again, it only works if you keep after them. So far this year, no ants on the kitchen counter, or anywhere inside for that matter. And that's saying a lot around here. We have four different varieties and they're everywhere outside.David
*David, do you add much water while blending, i.e., what is the desired end-result consistency before you (I ASSume you add water to make it something you would) add the resultant concoction (just water?) to spray?The only time I had cockroaches I used a mix of powdered Borax (in your local super in the detergent section) and brown sugar, mixed and placed in shallow lids (like cottage cheese lids) on each shelf. It worked well except that, for me, when something works, I'll try it anywhere. On an outdoor kitchen ledge with nothing more than plants, ants found their way up two stories and into the house to get at that brown sugar part of the borax mix! I nixed the plants, and have never had a cockroach problem since--except the time a kitty brought in her "HUGE" prey which I didn't discover until she couldn't eat it all, but the ants could :/Bad ==^.,.^==
*I used one orange peel per quart of water. It needs to be strained so it doesn't clog the sprayer...so, go easy on the blender.
*Thanks!
*One more thing, ants don't like cleanser either. So that's what I use on the tile counter if they've gotten that far. Every so often, give it a dusting, then a couple days later a damp sponge. It's best though if you can stop them before they get inside.David