if you are one of the growing number of people worldwide that thinks that we should start using fewer chemicals on our planet, then you have probably wondered about home-made pesticides. Once you have had a lung full of ant spray or cockroach spray, you know that it would be a good idea if you could use something less ghastly.

The problem is that we have come to depend on a spray of this to destroy ants, a spray of that to kill cockroaches and another spray for silverfish or whatever. This is all a big con. You do not need three or four sprays to kill or deter all the insects that you are concerned about.

In fact, many sprays contain the old-fashioned pesticides, but they are packaged so as to make you pay a lot more for them.

Boric acid can be used to kill all insects that have mandibles and scavenge. If you want to eradicate ants, mix it with water and sugar. It will be taken back to the nest, if you do not make the mixture so strong that it kills the ants before they can get home. Boric acid will also poison cockroaches. Mix it with flour or pour it in liquid form on bread.

You can kill greenfly or aphids quite effortlessly, by spraying them with your used washing-up water. Soapy water is all you require to kill these insects.

The Colorado potato beetle is a pest in some countries. You can kill or discourage the Colorado potato beetle with a spray made from soaking cedar wood chips in water. This will make a tea-coloured fluid. It is a powerful pesticide and an antibiotic too. Spray it onto the foliage.

You can also use a foliage spray made from tansy. The method is to dry the tansy and then grind it up – as finely as you can be bothered to. Use a pestle and mortar and then mix it with water. The finer you ground the tansy, the fewer blockages you will suffer in your spray gun.

Cutworms can be defeated by mixing pineapple weed with water and spraying on affected areas. Sagebrush and water will have the same effect, but you may need to boil the mixture to extract the essential oils.. If you do not have these plants where you live, you can mix molasses with bran or sawdust and spread that on your plants just before dusk.

The tomato hornworm causes a great deal of damage to tomatoes where they exist. This technique of destroying them is not a pesticide as such, but it is very effective. Spread cornflour around your tomato plants, the hornworms will feed on this too, but they cannot digest it. It will soak up their digestive fluids , expand, and blow them up. This technique can be used on cockroaches too.

A spoonful of canola oil and a drop or two washing-up liquid in a spray gun will exterminate most soft bodied grubs

Diatomaceous earth is a good barrier to all insects and is one of the few ways of clearing out bed bugs too.

Owen Jones, the writer of this article writes on many topics, but is currently involved with Terro Ant Killer. If you would like to know more or check out some great offers, please go to our website at Killing Carpenter Ants.

Do you have a termite problem? If you have, you should get on to it straight away, because the eventual future of a house ridden with termites is a demolished house. Termites can be got rid of, there is no question about that, but the method you select is significant. One of the means that some professionals use is termite tenting.

If you and your termite exterminator decide to use this technique, the contractor will erect a huge tent around your house to contain the noxious gas that he uses to kill the termites within your house. The house has to be tented to contain the gas in and around your house and to prevent it from dispersing, because it is harmful to human health as well.

Some say that termite tenting is old-fashioned and just too hazardous, others say that it is the only certain way of killing all the termites in a house. Some people say that it is very expensive, others say, so is a house. At the end of the day, the choice is yours, obviously, but please be aware that there are other alternatives of eradicating termites these days, although not all are as fast-working as termite tenting.

In fact, termite tenting may be the only option open to you, if your house is about to fall down, because you will be able to get on with the renovation work that much more quickly. Other contractors do not agree, saying that if you use a slow-acting poison, you can still work alongside the dying population of termites. You would be best advised to get a few quotes for the job and a couple of opinions.

If you go for termite tenting, you will have to seal up all your food and clothing in air-tight plastic bags, which the exterminator can usually provide. Then, they will assemble a huge loose-fitting tent around your house. Next, they will discharge a poisonous gas into your house and have it distributed into every nook and cranny by the use of fans.

This gas is detrimental to humans, so you will have to move out for two or even three days and people will be warned by signs to keep away from your house while it is being fumigated.

The termite tent will be taken down on the second day and the clean-up process will commence. Now the powerful fans will be used to drive the gas from your house and sensitive instruments will be used to check when it is safe for you to come back. That often takes another twenty-four hours to be certain.

Although the gas is poisonous, it does not form a film on surfaces, so when the house is deemed clear, it really is safe. Many people are anxious that it is not. This fear is groundless, which is borne out by the fact that you are advised to have your house checked for termites in your annual house maintenance routine because they can come back and you will not want another termite tenting treatment.

Owen Jones, the author of this article, writes on many subjects, but is at present concerned with Termidor termite treatment – a termite killer. If you are interested in this or if you are wondering: What Does A Termite Look Like?. Please go to our web site now for further details.

Are you looking for an outdoor sink?

Just imagine that you have finished setting up your spring garden. The transplants are all in to the thoroughly turned and somewhat muddy soil. All that is left to complete is clean up your tools, wash your hands and sit back to enjoy your labors. Now you have a decision. Would you track the mud and dirt into the kitchen or the rest room? How about neither, how about using your outdoor sink? You don’t have one? Well, here are five reasons why every home should really have one.

First- Why track dirt and grime through your house when you can clean up outside? An outdoor sink is the perfect solution for those times when you have worked in the garden or on your greasy car and don’t want to produce another mess in either the rest room or the kitchen. A little soap and some hot water and the job is done and the house stays clean.

Second- One of the messiest cleanup chores there is, is the cleaning of your brushes and rollers after finishing a wallpaper project. Why take this cleaning effort into the kitchen and splatter the paint all over the counter, walls, and sink if you are able to clean everything so easily at your outdoor sink. The mess stays outside where any splattering is easily attended to and the inside of the house is spared from drippings.

Third. Bar-B-Q time is usually a time for messes. Sauce laden hands, dirty mouths, and hand sanitary concerns are all around. Who desires to end up in and out of the house again and again just for a quick clean up. With an outdoor sink, you can wash up in just a step or two. With freshwater and an outdoor sink, you can also clean up your Bar-B-Q tools super quick and easy.

Fourth. Fido needs a bath! Should we do it in the bathroom? Do you remember the last time you gave him a bath in there. He splashed water out of the tub all over the floor. When the bath was over he jumped out and shook wildly getting “doggie spray” on everything. And cleaning the bathroom took longer afterward than it did to give him the bath in the first place. With an outdoor sink, you have yet another clean up problem resolved.

Fifth. Kids birthday parties almost at all times a bunch of children running to and fro with cake and ice cream all over their faces and clothes. Do you really want to have each of these cuties go traipsing your home leaving a trail of crumbs for the ants to follow? What a wonderful time to have that outdoor sink to make cleanup a breeze.

These are just 5 reasons to have an outdoor sink. There are perhaps one hundred and five more reasons and I bet you are thinking about some right now. An outdoor sink keeps cleanup messes from becoming brought indoors, offers a place of tackling untidy water involved jobs, and makes life easier when you spend time or entertain outdoors.

Want to find out more about cheap sinks, then visit Kente Wallman’s site on how to choose the best outdoor sink that suits your needs.