What do you use to repel bugs (in general...) that is safe to use around pets and babies??? It seems like tonight they are out in full force. Especially a bunch of carpenter ants. (they are probably so bad because the neighbors were chopping trees down and cutting the wood not far from our house...) I have seen that stuff that you spray around the edges of your house, and it SAYS that it's OK to use indoors, but it doesn't say anything about pet or child safety. Please help! We are starting to go nuts.
When ants starting crawling into the baby's crib, I called Orkin. I didn't care whether it was safe or not the baby had ants in her hair.
Since then we have used professinal pest control in Illinois, NC twice, VA and CA, we are military. I have 4 kids, 3 dogs, and 3 cats. No one has ever been harmed or has ever had any side effects.
Ant bait usually works.
We use an ant powder all around the outside of the house - literally an unbroken line all around the house. This seems to keep more than ants from coming in. The hardware store sells it in containers that look like what salt is sold in: large cardboard cylinders. Inside the house I have always just used the "ant hotels" in the kitchen and living room, near corners of doors and windows. Then in the attic we will "bomb" once a year: we buy a set of 4 little aerosol cans from Ace and you push them on and they keep spraying until they are empty. You quickly have to leave the attic and keep it closed for 24-48 hours. We go back up and find tons of bug laying on the floor. For indoor I would go to Ace hardware store and ask the helpful hardware person what can be used indoors. I know there are non-aerosol sprays that can be used under the sink and along baseboards, but I would double check what is safe for pets to lick and kids to crawl through. But I think if you do a decent job outside, then you have much less to do inside. We just keep a dust-buster handy with the long snout and vacuum up anything that crawls. It sounds like you might have had a nest of ants that swarmed into or near your house. Good luck.
We've used a combo of ant hotels and an unbroken line of cinnamon. We've got 10 dogs, squirrels, birds, a cat and 2 ferrets - I understand you not wanting to use something that could harm them.
I don't want to repel bugs, I want them to die die die. (Bwahahaha) So much for my green and natural lifestyle. However, I use ant bait indoors and stakes outside instead of spraying pesticide. With the spray stuff, it's hard to contain the poison. With the baits, the ants eat it and take it to their nest to feed their babies so there is no residue left around your house. It takes a little longer to work but the results should be more long lasting if you can get rid of the nest itself.
Last time we had ants, I did a taste test experiment for the little pests. I went to Home Depot and bought a half-dozen different ant baits and put one of each in the cabinet under the kitchen sink where they seemed to be coming in. ( If I had little ones in the house I'd put a lock on the cabinet.)
Sure nuff, after a couple of days, I could see the ants preferred one of the baits and left the others alone. So I set out more of the tasty bait and freecycled the rest. Ants were gone shortly thereafter.
Ant Steaks! They can be consealed under cabinets and place outside near all the water pipes - kitchen, bathroom, laundry areas etc. I've used them for year's, they are safe and they work. Go to your local hardware store and ask for ANT STEAKS. The most important thing to remember is that you need to run them under hot, hot water to get them activated.
Blessings.......
Call a pest control company. Both Arrow and Orkin have pet and child friendly methods these days. In fact, most of them do because of the high demand for it. You can also discuss outdoor methods instead of them coming into your home. We use Pest Ban outdoor stakes and some indoor system that was built into our house. It's been WONDERFUL! I think it's a bit pricey, but we almost NEVER see an insect or spider in our home. Usually when we do it's a little something in the basement. There are no sprays or anything that can get near your children or pets.
As far as personal use, we use Avon's Skin So Soft. GREAT repellant. You can also try a dryer sheet (for some reason they are supposed to hate them) or the electronic clickers. In terms of household management, I'd call Orkin. They are wonderful, do an awesome job, and any time you have a problem, need an extra treatment or just want a different professional, they will happily come out and treat for free. We just had an infestation of carpet beetles that came with our new carpet and yup - free! Additionally, aside from one guy that didn't know anything, all of our guys have been degreed entomologists (our current guy is from Perdue)! Very pleased with Orkin over the last five years of service. Our biggest problem when we moved was spiders (brown recluse, garden weavers, black widows and two tarantulas) and while they don't guarantee against spiders, it's worked for us. We had an ant problem as well that they've stopped.
Good luck!
Don't use anything indoors-please!
Hi R.,
We use a line of non toxic cleaning supplies around the house that repel bugs of all kinds. They are non toxic and safe to be absorbed into the skin so I have a mixture for a bug repellant that I can even use at the beach for those awful biting flies.....they have a safe product that kills lice and even one to keep the fleas off our dog. We had a homeless kid live with us for a couple of months who kept bringing scabies home and we were able to clear it up for him and no one else in the home got it. He still comes back to "borrow" a product now and then.
I buy these products online and they are cheaper than Walmart. Weve been using them for about 6 years now and have not had an issue in the 6 years weve used them. If you'd like some more info, let me know and I can get you some.
Hope this helps!
M.
Carry around a dryer sheet in your pockets. They won't come near you.
I use a local company. The big name ones are seriously overpriced - they're all spraying the same stuff and doing the same thing. They all spray chemicals that are said to be safe around pets and children. I don't love the chemicals, but it's that or have those huge nasty cockroaches crawling around the house. The tech told me it's just because of the state, they are native, and they live in trees and leaves and stuff. Can't get rid of them permanently, they crawl or fly inside if the door is open.
I'd call around for estimates. We get a good deal because we go through the rental company, but even so, Orkin and those types of places are going to charge you more because they are bigger and have to pay more for advertising. Just the way it works. The small local cheaper companies spray the same stuff and will come out for free in between scheduled maintenance, just like anyone else.
My Dad's Uncle told him to use a product called Home Defense.
Mom and Dad had ants really bad... the huge black ones. They used HD and said it was odorless and all the bugs were gone. Not sure about the safety for babies and pets but it didn't bother their parrot.
