In this less-than-perfect world, almost everybody has to cope with creepy crawlies that invade your space, start families and propose to settle in for life. To protect your turf and save your sanity, you have to move quickly to eradicate these unwelcome visitors.
Many landlords contract with exterminating services, which appear at regular intervals to spray all the units in their buildings. That’s a pretty effective way to get rid of most of the more common insect infestations.
However, if you have respiratory problems, if you have small children or pets who might be affected by sprays or, if you simply aren’t comfortable with the smell or the idea of breathing toxic chemicals, you’re usually on your own. Your landlord is expected to control pests, especially cockroaches and vermin, in your space but he doesn’t have to do it your way.
A less toxic, do-it-yourself campaign isn’t as difficult as you might think. Human beings have been battling creepy crawlies since the days of the cavemen and, long before the age of technology, they won most of the skirmishes without the aid of any artificial chemicals.
The invincible one
The ubiquitous cockroach is by far the most prevalent and the most persistent insect pest in the urban environment. He makes himself equally at home in the squalor of tenement apartments or the most luxurious high-rises. He’s a prolific little sucker, so, if unchecked, he and his family will soon take over your space.
Stan the Bug Man, who answered listeners’ entomology questions frequently on WGN radio until he retired recently, said that the best way to combat cockroaches was to make your apartment inhospitable to them. He suggested that people who are troubled should start with some basic good housekeeping habits, such as keeping dishes washed, wiping up all crumbs and spills promptly, keeping open food packages in airtight jars or in the refrigerator, emptying the garbage daily and seeing that cabinets are kept clean and dry.
It also helps to find out where the little devils have set up housekeeping. They love places that are warm and dark, so check everything from your television or stereo cabinets and the folds of your draperies to the area behind the books in your bookcases. If you find a colony, suck them up in your vacuum and throw away the bag. Quickly. If you can eliminate them at the source, you’ve got it made.
There are a number of natural products around that will help, too. Neil Levin, business manager for Whole Foods in Chicago, says his store has a product made of ground-up shells, which can be spread around to combat cockroaches and other hard-shelled insects. It’s nontoxic and biogradable. When they walk through it, it scratches their shells and they dehydrate. He says they also feature a bug juice made from the pyrethrum flower.
“It is mildly toxic,” he says, “so you wouldn’t want to put it where your pets or kids can get at it, but it’s also biogradable and it’s all natural.”
Mildly toxic
Boric acid is a cheap and readily available roach poison that has been used effectively for generations and is suggested in practically all household hint books, including Mary Ellen’s Best of Helpful Hints and Hints from Heloise. It’s also mildly toxic so, if you have kids or pets that eat everything in sight, you should probably keep it out of their reach. But, the principal damage it will do will be to the roaches, who apparently have a very low tolerance for it.
You spread a thin line of the powder around the interior edges of cabinets, under the sink and anywhere else you’ve seen roaches. They track through it and carry it back to their nests to contaminate the rest of the colony.
Consumer Guide’s Practical Hints & Tips recommends borax powder, which works pretty much the same way as boric acid but it’s a bit more toxic.
It’s also important to realize that roaches can come into your space in a lot of sneaky little ways, the most common of which is in grocery bags or cartons, so be sure to check the containers closely when you’re unpacking and putting things away.
Roaches are first, but fleas come in a close second as major, irritating household pests. If you don’t have dogs or cats you probably won’t be bothered by them, but if you do, the chances are you’ll be faced with this annoyance sooner or later. Flea collars will discourage fleas but, according to veterinarians, they are not 100 percent effective. Flea powders and sprays are also deterrents, as are dips, but you have to powder, spray or dip every 10 days or so throughout the season and most people won’t bother to do it. In addition, all of these methods involve toxic chemicals.
Like roaches, fleas are prolific breeders and, if your pet carries one or two into your home, you’ll soon wind up with an extensive colony. Unlike cockroaches, which are relatively harmless, fleas bite and they’d just as soon bite you as your cat or dog. When your space becomes infested, it can become a highly unpleasant environment for any warm-blooded creature who lives there.
An ordinary insect spray won’t usually get rid of them because they quickly settle into all sorts of obscure crevices and crinkles, including your mattresses, couches, carpets and draperies.
Ban the bomb
The most common way to deal with an infestation of fleas is to buy an aerosol bomb, remove yourself and your animals for a couple of hours and set it off to fog your premises.
For those who are opposed to chemical controls for either environmental or health reasons, there are a number of alternatives to flea collars, sprays, foggers and dips.
Veterinarians and dog owners are very excited about a new medication designed to control fleas. You feed your animal a monthly pill, which enters its blood stream and is absorbed by the flea when it bites the animal. It doesn’t kill the flea but it does render it sterile. It won’t prevent your pet from picking up fleas but it will prevent those fleas from reproducing and infesting the living space. The medication is available at veterinary clinics.
If your space is already infected and you don’t wish to use chemicals, Consumers Guide suggests you vacuum all the little hidey holes where fleas might hang out, such as your carpet, couches, mattresses and bedding, draperies and folds and, of course, your pet’s bedding. Then, dispose of the bag immediately. You can also remove fleas from your pet by using the vacuum on it, if you can persuade the animal to put up with the treatment.
As a further precaution, try to keep your pet out of areas where there is a lot of overgrown vegetation. Adult fleas live in tall grass and weeds while they wait for the opportunity to pounce onto a warm-blooded meal ticket.
Ants are absolutely maddening little creatures. They march along your cabinet tops, table or floor as though they owned the territory, they carry off tiny morsels of your food on their shoulders and, as quickly as you smash them or wipe them away, others take their place. They make their home in anthills outdoors, so you probably won’t have much of a problem with them if you don’t live close to the ground floor. If you do, authorities say the quickest way to get rid of them is to track them back to their nest and destroy the hill by pouring scalding water into it.
Killing with kindness
The Consumers Guide book says that a half-and-half mixture of Borax and sugar is an excellent ant killer. Sprinkle it around your outside entrances or in other places where they might be entering your apartment-but don’t put it where your pets or small children can get at it.
Flying insects aren’t apt to enter your apartment in droves, so the best way to get rid of those that do is through one-on-one combat. You can use a fly swatter as a weapon, or a piece of rolled newspaper. The exception is stinging insects, such as wasps, bees or yellow jackets. If you swing at one of these things and miss, it can get real testy and deliver a painful bite. Some people are severely allergic to the venom. The Consumers Guide book suggests that, if you don’t have an insect spray handy, you can zap them with hair spray. It stiffens and sticks up their wings, making them an easy and safe target for disposal.
Centipedes look disgusting but they won’t do any harm to you or your possessions. According to Heloise, they only eat other insects, so, if you’re seeing a lot of them, you probably have some other insects around. Get rid of those and the centipedes will go away.
Moths are probably the most destructive of all household insects. The larvae can run through your entire wardrobe of woolens in the course of just one season. If you can’t stand the smell of mothballs or crystals, the traditional method of discouraging them is storing your woolens in cedar containers. Consumers Guide says that, if you clean all wool garments before storing them and then store in air tight, plastic containers such as large garbage cans, you should be safe.
The problem with mice is that many of us think they’re cute, which makes eliminating them through conventional spring traps traumatic. They do, however, chew a lot so they can do considerable damage to your furnishings and clothing. Consumers Guide says the best way to prevent them from entering your apartment is to seal off any openings they may be using.
The book suggests stuffing such openings with steel wool and then spackling over it. If there is a space between the bottom of your entry door and the door sill, you can buy a plastic or rubber weatherstripping seal, which won’t interfere with opening or shutting the door.
If you don’t mind using spring traps, most books recommend peanut butter or bacon as a more effective bait than cheese. If you can’t bear to look at those tiny dead bodies, your only alternative is to live trap them and release them somewhere as far away from other buildings as possible.
