Pesky Pests

Ants in your pantry? There are two natural ways to rid your kitchen counters and pantries of ants. One is to attract them and destroy. The other is to repel them so they won’t want to come in. The attract and rid involves a moist sponge with sugar. Set on the counter in an area out of your way. When the ants gather on it for a feast, take it to the sink and rinse them off in boiling hot water. The repel way is to spread salt in areas they travel in from and in corners of the pantry. For grubs and worms in your garden, there’s always a jar lid filled with beer. They’re attracted to the flavor, get drunk and drown. Always plant marigolds around your garden to ward off vegetable eating pests. Eucalyptus leaves under your house or mobile homes, I heard will warn off roaches, although I may use the sevin dust for them. I don’t spread it inside the house or my garden, but under and around the outside works for me. That’s probably the only chemical I use. Someone mentioned to me that Confederate Jasmine blooms wards off mosquitoes. I hope that’s true. If you know it is, let me know and I will be planting a lot of it soon. Any new or unknown remedies you have for getting rid of pests that really work, please leave a comment and I will include it here with a credit to you. After writing this at 6AM this morning, I sat down to read the local Sunday paper, and low and behold, another natural pesky pest remedy in the paper. To rid your yard of fire ants, rub your shovel handle with baby powder or oil to keep the ants from crawling up to you. Dig up the entire mound when you know the ants are not wandering around looking for food and dump the whole mound in a large bucket. Then pour boiling water into the bucket. It’s the best way to actually get rid of those pests and uses no chemicals. What perfect timing to find that bit of information in the local paper. Sometimes it helps to cut out articles like that. You never know when you might need them.

My next article will be a piece of family history. It will be about my Granddad, Daddy Tank's bus service. Stay with me on this.