If you’re concerned about the potential health effects of active ingredients in commercial pesticides, you should be.  However, you do have alternative options. Here are a few for some of those annoying buggers that sometime visit your home.

It is always best to start with measures to block points of entry for pests. Use weather strips on doors, caulk gaps around windows and seal voids in exterior walls where pipes or utilities enter by filling them with expanding alternative foam, or steel wool.

It’s also important to make sure that your home isn’t a “bug magnet.” You need to make sure that you eliminate things that attract them, like sources of food and water.
Do your dishes after use, clean up crumbs, and take the trash out right away.  It’s also important to take plumbing into consideration. If you see bugs on the second floor of your home, chances are it’s because of a water source.

Implementing these simple housekeeping steps will solve the bug problem 90% of the time.  Here’s what you can do for the other 10%.

Least Toxic Solutions:

Ants- when you see ants marching across your countertop, check to see where they are coming from so you can seal the point of entry. You can eliminate ants by using a spray solution of healthy dishwashing detergent and water, (1:4 ratio); this will also erase the trail they use to navigate from their nest to the food source.

Roaches- Boric acid (available at hardware stores) is a great solution for roaches. The idea is to force the roaches to walk through the solution and ingest it. To make this solution, mix the boric acid with a little flour or sugar and place it in a saucer and set out for bugs.

Spiders-The good thing about spiders in your home is that chances are it’s just a spider. If you have roaches and ants, chances are there are tons. This makes spider cleaning pretty simple. Spot vacuuming is the best way to take care of this situation, but some spiders can be poisonous so it’s best to take precautions.

Visit www.beyondpesticides.org and click on “learn more” to find out what spiders are poisonous. You can also find at about other safe and alternative ways for solving pest problems in your home.

Hope this helps!