Page 2 of 2
1 2
pest control – Page 2 – Homesteader Depot

Homesteader Depot

Tag: pest control

  • Getting Rid of Mice

    Getting Rid of Mice

    Some people are horrified of mice. Some people think they are cute. When you are a homesteader, they are a problem that you need to solve quickly. If you are unable to get rid of the mice, they can destroy or contaminate your food supply faster than you might think. They breed quickly, and when you see just one or two of these rodents, you can be sure the problem runs a lot deeper.

    First, you will want to determine just how you want to get rid of the mice – humanely or with lethal traps. It depends on how you feel about killing mice. Live traps can work quite well. However, if you choose this method, you need to release the mice far away from civilization. You can’t just walk to the other side of your yard and let them go because they will head straight back into the house, your storage, and everywhere else you don’t want them to be.

    If you utilize lethal traps, don’t feel bad about it. If you don’t get rid of the mice, they are going to cause a substantial amount of problems for your home and potentially your health. You need to put you and your family above your feelings for fuzzy little mice.

    Once you get rid of the mice on your property, you will want to make sure they stay away. Using a spray of apple cider vinegar and water has proven successful for some. In addition, you might want to consider getting cats, as they can prey on the mice. Also, if you happen to see snakes on your property, as long as they are nonvenomous, let them stay. The snakes will also help to keep the population of mice down for you.

     

    If you liked this, you might also enjoy…

    Ancient Healing Secrets You Can Learn at Home…

    Yoga and Weight Loss: What You Need to Know…

    How to Become a Master Woodworker..

     

  • Natural Tips for Aphid Control

    Natural Tips for Aphid Control

    Aphids are a nightmare for anybody who has a garden, and if you have a garden, there is a very good chance that you have or will have aphids at some point. What you need to do is learn how to get rid of them so they do not destroy your supply. Fortunately, there are some good ways that you can get rid of these nasty little pests.

    First, you might want to consider adding some plants to your garden that help to repel aphids. Fortunately, some of these plants are going to be very useful and will likely be things that you want to grow anyway. You can put sunflowers in your garden, as well as mint, turmeric, ginger, oregano, basil, cilantro, garlic, and onions. All of these help to drive aphids away. By planting them in between other types of plants – the type that aphids tend to like, which is just about everything else – you can help to reduce the number of aphids you have.

    In addition, you may want to create some sprays that you can use for the garden. There are some very simple sprays that work quite well. Take about 100 g of crushed garlic cloves and put it in a gallon of water. Let it set for 24 hours and then boil it for 20 minutes. Once it is completely cool, you can put it in a sprayer. Even a spray bottle will work. You can do something similar with onions. Just put the hundred grams into two gallons of water instead. Then cook it for 30 minutes, and let it cool. Put it in the sprayer and head out to the garden.

    With these simple tips, you can start winning the fight against the aphids!

    If you liked this, you might also enjoy…

    Natural Healing Techniques Doctors Don’t Want You to Know…

    The Weight-Reducing Magic of Yoga…

    The Ultimate Woodworking Course..

     

  • Tips for Repelling Ticks

    Tips for Repelling Ticks

    If you have to live in the woods, you’re probably very familiar with ticks. They are not a fun creature deal with, and they can cause Lyme disease. Whether you’re trying to protect yourself, your children, or pets, you need to have some tips for making sure you can keep ticks at bay.

    Garlic is said to work quite well at repelling ticks. However, you probably don’t want rub garlic all over yourself. Eating garlic or garlic pills can provide the same results though. Something to remember is that garlic is not good for pets such as dogs and cats. So do not give it to them.

    Utilizing insect repellent that contains DEET can help as well. You can spray your clothing, as well as your shoes and socks. This works very well to keep the ticks away. If you’re going to be in an area where you know ticks are present, keep your pant legs tucked into your socks. It might look silly, but you can be sure the ticks are not going to get inside and onto your skin. You can also look for products that you can give to your pets that will help to repel or kill the ticks.

    Always take some time to check yourself, your loved ones, and your pets after you’ve come back from an area where there are ticks. If you find any ticks, use tweezers with a fine tip to grab the tick. You want to grab as close to the surface of the skin is possible. Then, pull upward with a steady pressure. Never twist or yank the tick. This could cause the head or parts of the mouth to break off inside the skin. Then, clean the area.

    To dispose of a tick, you can drown in alcohol. It can also be flushed down the toilet. You do not want to crush it with your finger.

    Be aware of the ticks that might be in your area, and start taking precautions if you haven’t already.

    If you liked this, you might also enjoy…

    Natural Healing Techniques Doctors Don’t Want You to Know…

    The Weight-Reducing Magic of Yoga…

    The Ultimate Woodworking Course..

     

  • Super-Simple DIY Pest Repellent for the Garden

    Super-Simple DIY Pest Repellent for the Garden

    As you probably know, most commercially available pest-repellants are full of harmful chemicals that you wouldn’t want anywhere near your house, children, or pets, let alone near the garden that you’re growing your food in.

    Even if you don’t spray chemicals right on the leaves of your plants, spraying them around the perimeter, either to kill grass, weeds or bugs, will trickle into the soil and can easily be absorbed through the roots of your plants, and you don’t want that.

    But there is a very easy, at-home solution for keeping pests out of your garden, and it’s safe enough to use regularly.

    The solution is very simple: vinegar and peppermint essential oil. You can spray it around the perimeter of your garden, however NOT on any plants you want to keep alive, vinegar kills plants! If you have a fence around your garden it would be ideal to coat the fence with the spray every week or so, and the strong, pest-repelling scent of the peppermint oil is sure to keep pests away.

    What you need:

    Peppermint essential oil

    Vinegar

    Spray bottle

    Label (optional but recommended)

    What you do:

    1. Pour your vinegar into the spray bottle.
    2. Add about 25 drops of your peppermint essential oils
    3. Put the top back on the spray bottle, and shake to combine. You’ll want to do this before you use each time just to make sure the oil is evenly dispersed throughout the bottle
    4. Label if you like. This is highly recommended if you use spray bottles for other garden uses, as vinegar is something you definitely don’t want to get mixed up with say, a neem oil spray or fertilizer!

    And that’s it! If you can create a barricade around your garden of the strong vinegar and peppermint oil scent, it will greatly reduce the pests in your garden without putting toxic chemicals in your food.

    If you enjoyed this you might also like:

    DIY Home Energy System…

    Click Here To Get The Best Survival Medical Course…

    Check Out These Mind Blowing Survival Skills…

  • The Simplest, Safest Pesticide On Earth

    The Simplest, Safest Pesticide On Earth

    Long before war profiteering corporations began flooding the civilian market with their chemical products, people had been killing insects without blanketing their homes and gardens with carcinogenic and costly poisons.  You don’t have to be a chemist to prepare the age-old insecticide either, and you most likely already have what you need in
    your home.  It’s so simple that if you haven’t tried it already you probably won’t believe it until you do.

    It’s soap and water.

    That’s it, soap and water.  It kills nearly every insect, and even spiders and centipedes.  Some take a little more than others, but even some of the toughest, like the dreaded palmetto or the German cockroach will go down to this perfectly safe and cheap insecticide.

    How does it work?  Whether it’s Dawn dish-soap (still pretty toxic in its own right), organic dish soap, or agricultural insecticide soap, it all works by clogging the spiracles that bugs breath through.

    To use this miracle pesticide, just fill a squirt bottle with water and add a few ounces of the soap of your choice, shake it up a little to mix it, and spray the filthy little critters.  If you are using it in the garden you will probably want to use a mist in order to cover the leaf surface or the fruit that your pests are attacking.  This will also work well for use inside the home for smaller pests like ants on the kitchen counter.  But if you are trying to take down big game like Palmettos or German roaches, then you will want to hit them with a solid jet of soapy water.  It will be most effective on large and fast-moving pests like roaches if it hits them in a way that makes it hard for them to run, if they run away and the soapy water dries before they choke to death, then it will not be effective.  You might even want to have a paper towel ready to smash the really tough ones with after you hit them with the soapy water.

    You don’t need to put your life or the life of your loved ones on the line in order to kill pests, it can be done with safe, clean, household items.

    If you enjoyed this you might also like:

    How to get started with Aquaponics.

    Grow your own food, better, faster, stronger….

    DIY Home Energy System…

  • How to Make a DIY Gnat Trap

    How to Make a DIY Gnat Trap

    Gnats and fruit flies can be a real pain, especially when you keep fresh fruits and vegetables from your garden around the house. If you have a gnat infestation, and you’re looking for a way to get rid of them but you don’t want to spray chemicals everywhere, try one of these DIY gnat traps.

    The Vinegar Trap

    To make your trap, you’ll just need a few household items, including:

    • A mason jar
    • A lid
    • Apple cider vinegar

    First, take your lid and poke several holes in it. You may want to use a punch or a sharp knife. Whatever you use, be safe. A cut finger is worse than even the biggest gnat or fruit fly invasion.

    Next, fill the jar at least two-thirds with your apple cider vinegar, put the lid on the jar, and place it in an area where you often see gnats. Go about your day and then come back to see how many flies you’ve caught in your trap.

    The Fruit and Soap Trap

    This trap involves a couple more items, and you don’t want to leave it out too long, or it’ll start to smell. Take a large bowl and add about an inch of water to the bottom. Then add a few drops of dish soap to the water (this will help the gnats sink instead of floating on the surface). Place some fruit in a smaller bowl and put it inside the larger bowl. Cover the trap with plastic wrap and poke several holes in it. Place the trap in a gnat-infested area and wait for the gnats to collect.

    Either of these traps can greatly reduce the number of gnats in your home. To get rid of them completely, be sure to compost old fruit and vegetables and keep your kitchen clean and free of any rotting food materials.

     

    Sources:

    http://knowledgeweighsnothing.com/get-rid-of-gnats-quickly-gnat-trap/

    http://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-Create-a-Fool-Proof-Gnat-Trap/?ALLSTEPS

    If you like this, you might also like:

    Advanced Gardening Course To Accelerate Your Food Production…

    Survival Medicine & Wilderness Survival…

    Survival Techniques From Long Ago, Re-purposed For The Modern Era…