Has A Bug Ever Crawled Into Your Ear While You Are Sleeping?

@faery I don’t want to use traditional insect pesticides especially since I’ve had cancers. I do use a natural herbal oil-based one outside of the front door and sometimes in other areas inside the house. Very messy though if it gets on the floor. Yesterday I went out and sprayed flies with rubbing alcohol. I do it too when one gets in the bathroom and buzzes around. It takes care of them pretty quick. Earwigs are worse this year than last year, probably due to all of the rain. We have little lizards outside that will climb up on the garage door when it cools down in the evening and eat them or other bugs that climb up it. Haven’t seen them yet this summer but don’t go outside for longer periods of times. They are one reason that I don’t want to use chemical pesticides around the house outdoors or inside.

@cherokeepatti I just bought some bags of diatomaceous earth for a gentler overall treatment of the yard, which should help the house a lot. I don't like harsh chemicals either but I admit to using a harsher treatment to start to control all the fire ant mounds at the beginning of the warm season. I couldn't believe how much worse they set in compared to many of the previous years. They were taking over but I do feel guilty for using the bad stuff at first. Inside, I put out a boiled syrup I made of sugar, Borax and water for the ants coming inside. I do love to see the lizards gobbling up all the bugs outside. Come to think of it, I haven't seen many around this year yet either. They were having a bumper-year last year, though. They were everywhere. I haven't seen any earwigs in ages and ages inside my house, thank goodness.

By the way, thanks for the info on rubbing alcohol for flies. That should save me some time and energy.

@faery I read a newspaper article about 40 years ago about a new way to kill fire ants. The man they interviewed lived in Florida and worked at an orange juice plant. They have to collect the oil from the juice and discard it and keep it in buckets. The man’s supervisor told him to carry it outside and discard it. He walked out behind the plant and saw a fire ant mound and poured it over the mound. It killed every single one of them. I have used a natural orange oil spray in a home fragrance spray to kill bugs. The oil will dissolve their exoskeletons and kill them. Bugs like ants die pretty quick. I spray the sugar ant trails that are in my sunroom when I see them on the window sill and it gets them all. And I’ve sprayed larger ants. It just takes a quick spritz to do it. It would be more economical to buy a quart of the pure oil and put it in a spray bottle and spray it on the mounds if you can do that. I remembered reading that article and first used the orange spray in a can in my mailbox when I saw a couple of dozen inside of it. Didn’t want to use regular pesticides there. Just gave it a quick spritz and came back about 30 minutes later and they were all dead. Have used it on other insects too.

@cherokeepatti Another great tip, thank you. I'll do some research to find out how to get the most bang for my buck with the orange oil. I never thought about it in large amounts, just little bottles of essential oil and they are expensive. With a material amount, I could cover more square footage, so it just might be more effective overall. And I love the smell of oranges, so yay. Thanks again :)

@faery They sell orange oil here in health food stores for cleaning. It is really good for taking labels of jars, I always use it and it takes just a tiny bit because it works so well…and I’ve tried a lot of things and it works the best. You can also order it on Amazon.

@cherokeepatti Alright, you've got me started on my way. I'm sure it's cheaper on Amazon than locally. I'll compare first, just in case it's worth it to support my local HFS. I try to shop locally as long as the difference isn't astronomical. I'd always used coconut oil (the refined kind) for labels. Still takes a bit of elbow grease.