Reducing Bugs

HOW TO KEEP FLIES, MOSQUITOS, FLEAS, TICKS, ANTS,
COCKROACHES, TERMITES, RATS AND MICE, ETC., FROM
YOUR HOME AND YARD WITHOUT THE NEED OF FLY PAPER,
SCREENS, POISONS, BUG BOMBS, OR ELECTRIC ZAPPERS.
*************************************************

              by Oscar Falconi


Implementing most of the following suggestions can
result in a substantial and permanent decrease in
the number of insects in your home at any time,
especially if you can get your neighbors to do the
same. The range of travel of insects is surpris-
ingly small and neighbors who help each other can
really help themselves, too.

1. Don't kill spiders! They'll capture great numbers
of insects or they'll die trying. Even in a near
bug-free home many insects are caught in their webs.
If you don't like that spider in the bedroom, just
capture it in a glass and move it to some other
place in your home or yard.  Every insect killed by
a spider is one less insect to mate and multiply and
annoy you.

2. Get rid of ALL your indoor plants. They merely
attract bugs, and are a great source of unwanted
humidity.

3. Don't leave even a speck of food around. Get
those food crumbs off the tables and counters, out
of cupboards and toaster, and off the floors.

4. Get those dirty dishes off the table, out of the
sink, and washed up, or in the dish washer, right
after every meal.

5. Get your garbage out of the house as soon as
possible. The insects will smell it lots sooner than
you will. Placing garbage in well-tied plastic bags,
in covered cans, out of the sun, will defeat those
ubiquitous bugs and animals.

6. Insects seek animals!  Their dirty hair, body
smells, urine, feces, and their generally filthy
habits, are a great attraction for all sorts of
insects, especially flies & fleas. So, get rid of
all animals, particularly your house pets!  Ask dog-
walkers to foul their own place, not yours! A third
of all dog-owners have worms in THEIR OWN
intestines !!

7. Without animals around, you'll find the stray cat
or two claiming your yard as their territory.  This
could be OK since cats are excellent mousers and can
keep your gopher and field mouse population well
down.  A slow bird may get caught now and then, but
that's only Nature removing the unfit.  Also, the
cats may have fleas -but fleas much prefer dogs, and
that, together with the cat's incessant self-
cleaning, leaves this as just a minor problem.  To
avoid fleas (and allergic reactions), don't touch
the cat, NEVER let a cat, nor any animal, into your
home, and don't feed cats - let them eat mice.

8. Also, don't feed birds in the summer - let them
eat insects.

9.  Using the microwave instead of the oven will
decrease smells and keep the kitchen cooler,  dryer,
and cleaner.

10. Eliminate all places where puddles can
accumulate for any length of time, indoors or out.
For instance, old tires are great breeding grounds
for mosquitos.

11. Solve all water problems, such as leaks, dry
rot, and damp areas.  Check under the house, too.
Make sure all rain water drains AWAY from the house
and foundation. Gopher tunnels can move great
quantities of water to the wrong places. Termites
thrive on moisture, so repair leaking pipes and
remove all water damaged wood (usually around
toilets, sinks, tubs, and showers) which termites
and fungus prefer due to its softness.  Eliminate
any wood-to-earth contact, and clean up any loose
wood from around or under the house.

12.  To really help with the mosquito problem, try
to get your neighbors to eliminate puddles and solve
their water problems, too. In fact, give them a copy
of this article.

13. Keep your home as dry as possible. Cook under an
exhaust fan. Don't fold up damp towels and dish
rags. Open them up fully to dry quickly and avoid
stale smells that would soon attract insects.

14. After a shower, open the window and shower door
(or curtain) for quick drying. This will also
discourage algae.

15. Avoid watering plants near the house. The closer
you water, the closer the crawlies will come. Ants,
cockroaches, termites, and all insects, MUST have
water!

16. Grow garlic near the house, but grow artichokes,
tomatoes, fruit trees, and all insect-attracting
plants, as far away from the house as you can.

17. Eat, sell, give away, or discard any fallen
fruit from your trees.  Insects and worms are
attracted to decaying fruit.

18. Compost heaps? Get rid of them! These piles of
hot garbage will attract every insect and rat in the
neighborhood!

19. It is said that eating garlic and taking a
potent B-Complex supplement will repel mosquitos.

20.  Take down most of your screens!  They keep
insects IN as well as out. The only screens you'll
need are those on open windows facing neighbors with
animals, with uncovered garbage, or with water
problems. A lighted room with an open window will
also require a screen at night.

21. Screens are great barriers to free air flow and
are little better than closed windows. Also, small
or baby insects often get through the screen to the
light.  So, it's better to keep the windows to
lighted rooms closed at night.  Don't worry about
the insects accumulating on the outside of the
window.  Let them bang their heads against the glass
while lots of bugless air is coming through the
screenless open windows of unlighted rooms. Next
morning these bugs will be off chasing the sun and
will disappear as if by magic!

22. The occasional insect will of course  enter your
home, but will quickly notice the lack of animals,
food, and water and soon be on its way.  Thus the
active killing or repelling of insects using
poisons, fly paper, bug bombs,  electric zappers,
ultrasonic devices, or fly swatters is unnecessary.
And, you'd surely lose many of your treasured
spiders, thus doing more harm than good.

23.  Mosquitos, however, are another matter. They're
attracted by the heat radiating from YOUR body.  Not
only that, but YOU are their food and their bites
are uncomfortable and distracting and can be
dangerous. That's why it's so important for you and
your neighbors to solve all your water problems.
Mosquitos may be the only insect worth the trouble
of actively hunting down and swatting.

24. After you take your unnecessary screens down,
you'll soon find that insects tend to come in
certain windows and leave from certain others. This
can be due to prevailing winds, or to the orienta-
tion of your house to the sun's path, or to smells
emanating from your kitchen or garbage, or from
those of your neighbors. You can play these windows
to your advantage by closing the bug-in windows and
opening the bug-out windows.

25. Turning on outdoor lights at night will attract
bugs from all unlit rooms whose windows are open,
BUT will also attract insects from your neighbors.
Play this one by ear.  You might temporarily turn on
outdoor lights only if you have some insects you
wish to attract out of the house.

26. If you must have an all-night outdoor light, a
yellow bug-lamp may somewhat discourage a few of
those messy, mating insects that tend to collect
around night lights. Consider installing a motion-
sensing device (less that $20) that turns on the
light for just a few minutes, only when necessary,
nearly eliminating the bug attraction, and paying
for itself many times over in electricity savings!




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