ladybug, ladybug -- get out!

Just because you enjoy going outside to look for wildlife, doesn’t mean you want to share your home with critters! But how can you remove common home invaders without spraying stuff that comes in a can with a huge “WARNING” label? Here are some tips.

ANTS: Stir boric acid powder into two different types of bait – canned pet food, and jelly (some ants seek sugar, others protein). Set the bait in a shallow lid in areas you are finding ants. Foraging ants will carry the loaded bait back to the nest and feed it to other members of the colony. The boric acid will do the rest (it hits the nervous system, and is also abrasive to their digestive system).




EARWIGS: Place a dozen or so layers of newspaper in the areas earwigs are found (they love to hide in such shelters). Roll up the papers and take them outside periodically, well away from the house, and either 'release’ the earwigs or stomp them, depending on your mood. :-)

LADYBUGS/BOX ELDER BUGS: Use a shop vacuum to suck them up, then blow them into a plastic garbage bag and put the bag in the freezer for a few days. (Like most insects, they can survive the cold of the freezer, but not the dryness.)






Just remember, when you do choose to use poison insect control it often harms many beneficial insects as well as the pesky ones. So if you do choose a more chemically-based approach, please follow all instructions and warnings carefully and use sparingly. When you think of it, people are WAY outnumbered by our insect friends. We live in a bugs' world, not the other way around!