We just bought a house that was abandoned for a year and we have all different kinds of ant and giant spiders. We would like to fog the house however we have three small children and I am afraid of the affects of the fogger after we come back into the house, do all there clothes need to be washed? Is it safe to use with children? We used baits they walk around them, we can only use a limited kinds of poisons because of our babies. If anyone has any insight on this topic I can use the advice, I never had this problem before.Bug Control?
Ants don't care for mint or citrus, cloves or bay leaves, so think orange peel, peppermint tea, lemon juice, ground cloves, etc. If you can plant mint around the foundations of your home, you may deter them from entering. Vinegar has the same acid as citrus, so use it to clean with and ants won't feel welcome. (It probably erases or overpowers the odor trail other ants have left for them to follow.)
Clean bench tops and cupboards down really well, and then wipe down with a clean damp cloth that has a few drops of essential peppermint oil on it, you may need to apply a few drops of oil a couple of times.
Ants hate the smell of it and it is also environmentally friendly, and safe for humans and children, and no residue powders etc to clean up. And the big bonus is that the room smells fresh and minty. I also want to add that you can put the oil on a cotton ball after cleaning and put in the areas you have ants and that should help too...replace once the smell is gone.
Get rid of all the cardboard boxes around. Spiders love cardboard since it is a wood product and they also love wood.
Steps to Natural Spider Control
1. Find out how they are entering your home. Find and seal all cracks in basement walls and in window casings and doorways. If there is just a tiny crack in your house, spiders will crawl through.
2. Clean any places there are lots of spider webs, clean both inside and outside. Use a broom to sweep down if inside or use water to remove them outside.
3. Keep clutter picked up inside the house so spiders won't have a place to hide. They won't stay in an area that is completely smooth and clutter free.
4. Make your house unfriendly to other bugs. Spiders eat bugs, if their dinner isn't handy, there's no reason for them to hang around.
5. Inside the house, look under beds, couches, and other furniture for hiding places and clean out with a broom. Any spiders can be sprayed with an indoor spray formula (described below).
6. Essential oils:
Rose oil
Citronella Oil
Lavender Oil
Cinnamon Oil
Peppermint Oil
Citrus Oil
Tea Tree Oil
any of the above oils will kill spiders and other insects on contact!
A Natural Spider Spray Formula for inside the house: To get Immediate Relief from spiders inside the house buy 8 oz bottle of Peppermint or Lavender Soap, or any other natural soap. Go to your local drug store (I've found a great supplier at the local arts and crafts store) and buy 1 oz of Essential oil.
Add 5 tablespoons of the soap per quart water. Add 5 tablespoons of any natural citrus oil to the quart water which you added the soap and label it spider control spray. Add to sprayer and spray inside house where spiders are seen. Should be done as often as needed. This is not a long term solution but will provide you immediate help.
You can also add 1 drop of any of the above (depending on preference to you) to 1 quart of water:
Test for strength.
7. Spray outside the house: Spray outdoor trash and recycling bins with any natural soap. Use the same formula as in #4 to spray the containers and the area around it with. You can also use any natural citrus based cleaner at 1 oz per quart water. Spray around the outside of the house and along any places that you see too many of them.
8. Wear long sleeved shirt and long pants when cleaning up in areas you know have brown recluse spiders. Have spray bottle ready with spray formula.
9. Clean up around the outside of the house and garden. Less trash, less spiders. Less places for them to hide in. Do spring cleaning every year and get rid of piles of wood etc that you are not using. You will be glad you did.
10. Keep your trash bins away from the house because spiders will stay around them, hoping to catch the bugs that are attracted to them.
11. Remove old vegetation or wood from against the house foundations. Spiders like to hide in these things and often find entrance from there.
12. Trim back trees, bushes and other vegetation from touching the house walls.
13. Keep pet food tightly covered to keep from attracting bugs which attract spiders. (Don't leave pet food in a dish all day.)
Some Additional Suggestions:
Put oil of pennyroyal on a cotton ball or scrap of cloth and place where you see spiders. (Use this with caution it is said that pennyroyal can be harmful to humans and pets. Personally I've never had a problem with it and actually love the smell.)
Borax in shallow lids or just sprinkle on the floor under couches or beds or wherever the problem area is.
Baking soda... same as borax.
Kerosene. Use it on window screens and sills as well as doorways. (Kerosene is flammable until it evaporates, so keep it away from flame or heat.)
Eucalyptus leaves in closets, drawers and under large pieces of furniture
Use osage orange (also called hedgeballs or mock oranges).
Chestnuts Proved Effective: Put chestnuts around the exterior walls of every room in the house as well as on all the windowsills.
A Good Use for Tobacco:
1) Get a package of pipe or chewing tobacco, soak it in a gallon of boiling water until it cools. Strain the liquid into a clean container. Put a cup of tobacco juice and 1/2 cup lemon dish soap into a hose-end sprayer and spray. This works on all kinds of bugs.
2) Put a package of chewing tobacco in a quart jar of water, and let the jar sit out in the hot sun for a day so that the tobacco has a chance to steep slowly. Then strain the mixture into a sprayer. This mixture is poisonous and can actually be absorbed by the skin, so be careful. It can also be absorbed by the leaves of plants, so don't use it on food crops.
Spiders and Lemons: I don't know if this is true or not but someone said that spiders have their taste buds on the tips of their legs and that they hate the taste of lemon pledge. Dust your windowsills and doorframes with lemon pledge, both inside and out, and any areas where they accumulate.
I hope this was useful,Good Luck!!! :)
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