One of the hazards of a warm, wet climate
You may not recognize the melting skyline in my icon, but that's Houston. It's my home. Now, one of the facts of life in a climate like this is bugs. No one is immune, the best you can do is control them so you never see them. It's a constant battle. That said, I *hate* insecticide and use natural options whenever I can find them (resorting to insecticides only when necessary). The folks next door and upstairs moved out within a week of each other and guess what? I, and I assume the folks in the other upstairs apartment, inherited their unwanted "roommates".
*sigh*
It's not too bad, but it's enough to kick me into high gear. I had been using the Combat disks that someone gave me (they work pretty well for maintenance), but need to get more aggressive for a while. As I'm out of borax (need to buy some), I've been doing some digging and have rediscovered some other methods.
I found a new one that I hadn't run into before. Equal parts sugar and baking soda with a bonus of something strong smelling (I chose powdered onion). Using the bottle tops I hang onto, I've set it in strategic places and then I turned off the lights for a while. When I turned them back on, oh, momma! Instead of scurrying out of the corner of my eye, I see bugs staggering here and there. Such a lovely sight. :-)
I need to pick up a spray bottle (my old one broke) and a new supply of rubbing alcohol. It works *much* better than bug spray when you see them. If you can see the damn things and spray them directly, the rubbing alcohol will kill them as well as any poison you can buy, plus it evaporates cleanly *and* is far cheaper.
Oh, and then there are the wine or beer traps. Half fill a small wine glass with beer or wine and leave it out overnight. You'll find all sorts of unwanted guests drowned in it in the morning.
Borax and sugar or cornmeal is still best since they track it back to wherever they're nesting, but in the meantime, this is working great.
The only downside is cleaning up the corpses. Oddly enough, I don't mind that very much. :-)
*sigh*
It's not too bad, but it's enough to kick me into high gear. I had been using the Combat disks that someone gave me (they work pretty well for maintenance), but need to get more aggressive for a while. As I'm out of borax (need to buy some), I've been doing some digging and have rediscovered some other methods.
I found a new one that I hadn't run into before. Equal parts sugar and baking soda with a bonus of something strong smelling (I chose powdered onion). Using the bottle tops I hang onto, I've set it in strategic places and then I turned off the lights for a while. When I turned them back on, oh, momma! Instead of scurrying out of the corner of my eye, I see bugs staggering here and there. Such a lovely sight. :-)
I need to pick up a spray bottle (my old one broke) and a new supply of rubbing alcohol. It works *much* better than bug spray when you see them. If you can see the damn things and spray them directly, the rubbing alcohol will kill them as well as any poison you can buy, plus it evaporates cleanly *and* is far cheaper.
Oh, and then there are the wine or beer traps. Half fill a small wine glass with beer or wine and leave it out overnight. You'll find all sorts of unwanted guests drowned in it in the morning.
Borax and sugar or cornmeal is still best since they track it back to wherever they're nesting, but in the meantime, this is working great.
The only downside is cleaning up the corpses. Oddly enough, I don't mind that very much. :-)