Natural Pest Control System

The best pest control system, does not consist of misting systems, electronic devices, pesticides, or nuclear blasts! The systems technology is ancient, simple, and changes little over time. The philosophy behind it has existed since the dawn of time, and it is almost infinitely expandable. It will not harm your health, the health of your neighborhood, or the health of the planet, and with basic skills, you can operate this system on your own, with no special licenses or permits.

The best home pest control system does require some planning, some forethought, and a little manual labor at the beginning, and some maintenance as time goes on, but these are all things that normal home maintenance requires anyway.

This system for controlling pests involves three parts: Prevention, followed by natural biological controls, and finally botanical products.

You can begin to use this pest control system from either end, that is, you can begin inside your home, and work outward toward the outside of your property and beyond, or you can start your pest control system from the outer edges of your property and work from there to the inside of your home.

Prevention

Starting indoors

If you begin inside the home, you will be beginning with exclusion. That simply means, that you seal any internal openings inside the home, where pests might gain entry, such as around window frames, cable and pipe entries, and other such gateways into your living space. Then you work to do the same thing on the outside of your home, and include such things as window screens, door sweeps, and weather stripping.

Landscape

The next step in this pest control system is in the landscape immediately around your home. You should do such things as trim shrubs at least a foot away from the edge of the home. Remove the mulch to a distance of a foot away from the foundation, trim any vines that are attached to walls, and prune shrubs and trees so that they do not touch your home.

Any pest control system would be incomplete without some mention of dealing with trees. Tree limbs, should not be touching your home, or be overhanging your roof in such a way, that they provide access to squirrels and other such small animals. The trees should be properly pruned to prevent infestation by insects and diseases.

The best pest control system for lawns

Regular mowing will help to keep the pest population down. Irregular mowing, will have the opposite effect. This is true of insect, and weed pests. Balance in irrigation, fertilization, and other cultural practices is important in any lawn care system, and proper lawn care, is important in any pest control system.

Clearing the edges

Clearing the edges of your property of brush and debris which feeds and harbors insects and rodents is an important part of this pest control system. Brush and debris is where your problem starts. If you don’t get rid of these problems, the other problems will grow, and the weeds, insects, and rodents will find a way to get into your lawn, landscape, and living space in time. This is one reason that we encourage people who use our pest control system to start with these areas first.

If you are ready to get started visit our pest control system pages.

Natural Biological pest control

The next step in our natural pest control system is the use of natural biological controls. I make a distinction between types of biological controls because some are a long way from being natural. The controls we use are those that are found as native controls in a given area. These will be encourage if your landscape is made as native to your area as possible. What we did in the first part of this system is pest prevention, and we accomplished this through modifying the habitat to make it less desirable to the pests. The second part, will make it more desirable to the predators of the pests that we are trying to get rid of.

Bats and birds consume many of the pests that we seek to be free of. Building a habitat suitable to these predators should cut down on the unwanted insect population. This involves finding out what native insect consumers exist in your area, and finding out how to welcome them to your home.

Such flying creatures as barn owls, will take care of the outdoor rodents, but what about the larger predators and critters? This goes back to the initial ideas of prevention by modifying our habits and habitats.

Botanical pest control

The third step in our pest control system is treatment. These treatment types begin with the least toxic treatments first. That is, botanical products used to get rid of remaining troublesome insects. There are some great products on the market.

We will provide more information on botanical pest control in a future post.

With the proliferation of mosquitoes of a variety of types, carrying a wide variety of diseases, and the proliferation  of natural mosquito control products, it seems to be the right time to remind people of the most natural mosquito control method, mosquito prevention. With the increase in blood borne pathogens which mosquitoes are known to carry, comes an increased risk to the safety of the public. Sadly, the emphasis seems to be placed on the wrong side of the issue, focusing on treating the symptoms, rather than solving the problem.

Malaria is the worlds number one health crisis, Dengue fever threatens two fifths of the worlds population, is epidemic in Mexico, and is present in the lower South Eastern states in the U.S. While mosquito prevention, and thereby disease prevention may be impractical, or impossible in many of the worlds tropical and coastal areas, it is possible in most parts of the U.S.

We all know that mosquitoes carry West Nile Virus, Malaria, and a variety of other diseases which can be passed on to humans and animals, besides that, they hurt when they bite, and they are a general nuisance. This page will provide some advice on natural mosquito control to help you keep yourself and your family safe. The prevalence of disease makes every step to prevent mosquito problems an important step in public health and safety.

What is natural mosquito control?

The most natural mosquito control is the same as the most natural control for any problem, that is, prevention! This is done by changing the habitat from a place that they can use for living and reproducing, to one that makes living and reproducing difficult for them by denying them what they need. Any mosquito control system should start with mosquito prevention. It should be the first line of defense, and without it, all other methods are doomed to failure. All other mosquito control methods are secondary. Sprays, nets, foggers, and even exclusion will fall short. All the flavor of the day, newfangled contraptions in the world will not solve your pest control problems! Sprays, electronic devices, potions and spells can’t help if prevention is not given it’s proper place at the beginning of the program.

Mosquito control using prevention

Mosquitoes, like any other type of pest, like certain habitats. In the case of the mosquito, they need:

• Water for larvae to hatch and grow.

• Cover to hide in.

• Blood for the female to reproduce.

If you eliminate any of these, mosquitoes will not be able to reproduce in your area.

How to do it

Water:

If you have puddles of standing water, buckets, tubs, or any other receptacle for water on your property, mosquitoes can find it, and use it against you. If receptacles are the problems, dump them, and make sure that they can no longer hold water. If the problem is standing water in low spots or puddles, provide a way to drain the water either through surface drainage, that is, fill the low spots and holes, or sub surface drainage, such as a french drain, or a pipe drain with a catch box. If you use the catch box and pipe drain, make sure that the grade on the system is consistent, so that water doesn’t accumulate in the pipe. This could cause mosquitoes to use it as a basin, and become a home for other pests.

Don’t just look at the ground, there are other areas which might hold enough water to encourage mosquito populations such as home gutter systems, which should of course, be cleaned and maintained frequently.

If the water problem is a pond or lake on your property, the problem is not only water, but also cover. This is a problem I see on a regular basis. It has less to do with water, than with cover.

Cover:

If mosquitoes are exposed to natural predators, the predators work very well as a green mosquito control method. If the predators can’t get to them, they can’t eat them. If you have brush and weeds around your home, it gives mosquitoes a place to hide from the things that like to eat them. It also gives them a place to find small animals for the blood needed for reproduction. If you eliminate hiding places like brush, weeds and high grass, you will drastically lower the population by exposing them to predation by their natural enemies.

If ponds or lakes exist on your property, you obviously do not want to drain them to get rid of mosquitoes, but you can reduce the amount of cover available. High weeds, and shallow water around the shallow edges of a pond should be removed. If filamentous algae, or pond scum as it is commonly called cover a large part of the body of water, the mosquitoes have a perfect habitat. They have water easily available for producing young, they have blood available from the animals that come to the water to drink, and they have cover in the water for protection from the fish who would otherwise dine on them! Skimming off the algae, or otherwise eliminating it will remove the cover, and and allow the fish to do their job.

Blood:

The female needs a blood meal to produce offspring. That may often come from you! Sometimes it comes from small animals. Reducing the availability of water and cover, reduces the numbers of small animals present to feed the hungry female.

Off site mosquito problems

If you paid attention to the mosquito prevention information above, and followed the suggestions, most of your problem with mosquitoes is gone. There are however, other circumstances that can allow mosquitoes to be a problem for you and your family, and some of them may not be within your means to control. This could include such problems as swampy areas on adjacent properties, or ponds and lakes that exist nearby, and are not properly maintained.  Even if this is your situation, you should still do the work mentioned above, which will still eliminate most of the problem, and then concentrate on the things you can do about your off site problem.

Neighbors and Officials

Talk with the people who own the adjacent property about the problem. Do this before contacting public health officials. See if there is something that can be done by the owner before involving officialdom. If not, that is your next step. Encourage them to practice long term control rather than short term controls like pesticides. It will cost them less in the long run. If they are reluctant or obstinate, explain the health and public safety issues involved.

Prevention is the most natural of natural mosquito control methods because it denies them what they need to thrive and reproduce, and exposes them to natural predators like birds, bats, and fish. These natural predators are the next step in our mosquito control system, biological control.

Biological mosquito control

Biological mosquito control is the next best step in green mosquito control, after we have used the best prevention methods. You have modified the habitat to work against the mosquitoes, now, you should modify the habitat to work in favor of their predators. This can be done by providing shelter and other encouragements for such predators as birds and bats. This can mean providing food sources like natural, native plants that birds enjoy, and a source of clean water like a fountain, or a well maintained, non stagnant bird bath. Bats require the same things. Bird and bat houses differ, but are fairly easily attained.

Botanical, or organic mosquito control

Unfortunately, this is what most people think of when they think of natural mosquito control. Botanical, or organic products are a great addition to our green mosquito control arsenal, but they are not the main line of defense. Prevention is the first step, biological controls or predation is the second, and only after these methods are effectively used can you hope for success with botanical or organic mosquito control. The use of such things as citronella, or some of the commercial products designed for insect control has a place in the system. These products can be used in a couple of ways. They can be sprayed in areas where mosquitoes might have cover, and may have some preventative effects when used in outdoor living spaces, and they can be used in misting systems. Such misting systems are falling under more careful scrutiny these days, but when used in conjunction with botanical products other than pyrethrins, should pose little problem to your health, or the health of your soil. Still, with any system, there are costs, and possibly collateral damage.

Other natural mosquito control methods:

If you have followed the stages outlined above, you should not have any unmanageable mosquito problems at this point, however, if you have not followed them completely, or other extenuating circumstances exist, these tips will help.

• If you have problems with mosquitoes inside your home, you should read the section of this site which deals with exclusion, and make sure all entryways for insects are sealed or screened.

• If you have trouble in outdoor living spaces, mosquito netting for exclusion fans to improve airflow, and citronella torches will provide a degree of relief.

• If you have standing water that cannot be drained immediately, some light mineral oil can be sprayed evenly over the standing water from a spray bottle to help break the reproductive cycle.

There are other natural mosquito control practices that can help you on this website. Most of the information that applies to other insects applies to mosquitoes as well, so have a look around.

If you have a problem with mosquitoes inside the home, this tutorial on how to prevent bugs at home might be helpful.

Green Living | Going Green and Saving Green

Going green doesn’t have to be expensive. In fact, if you do it right, going green can save you some green. There are some great  green ways of cutting down on expenses.

The economic times may be getting tough, so we decided to do our part for your personal economy by taking a little detour from our normally pest control oriented blog, to provide some tips on going green and saving money at the same time. There is some pest prevention related information here as well.

Reducing lawn expenses. Reduce your lawn space.

Lawns take up a lot of resources, and that costs a lot of money.

• Reduce your lawns size.

• Lawns eat up the majority of your home water resources, reducing the size of your lawn will reduce your water bill.

• Lawns Consume the majority of fertilizers used in home landscapes, reducing the size will reduce your fertilizer bill.

• Lawns are the major consumers of insecticides and herbicides, reducing the size will reduce the need for them and cost a lot less in the long run.

• The reduced lawn space will cost less, and be good for the environment.

• Make that extra space pay off.  Plant a garden! The garden will provide a source of safe nutritious food to cut down on the supermarket costs.

• Even if you don’t want to get rid of part of your lawn, you should consider using part of your landscape area as a garden space. Just get rid of some of those exotic plants, and replace them with edible plants. Even in the winter you can grow such things as salad greens and cole crops like kale. In the summer, you can use sweet potatoes, which have a natural insect and weed repelling quality to them. There are hundreds of other garden plants that do well as ornamental plants as well.

• Plant some native fruiting trees and vines instead of those care intensive, and resource hungry exotic ornamental plants. The plants you use will also require some care, but at least you get to eat the fruit of your labor!

• Consider composting lawn and kitchen waste for fertilization instead of buying expensive commercial fertilizers.

Going green and saving money in your home

• Replace worn weather striping.

• Replace worn door sweeps.

• Caulk around the door frames and windows of your home.

• Check and caulk all plumbing, electrical, and communications lines entering your home, both inside and outside.

This will make the home both more energy efficient, and pest resistant, requiring less energy, and less pesticide, both of which cost you money, and have environmental impact. going green by using pest prevention is not only the greenest form of pest control, it is also the most economical form of pest control.

I am sure that there are thousands of other ways you can think of to go green and save green. If you have some things in mind, don’t be stingy, share them with others. That’s what our comment section is for! You can find a comment box at the bottom of each post.

Green Living | Landscaping Landscape Pest Control

If you are already practicing green living, or just now going green, there is one singularly important aspect to creating and maintaining a green landscape, and practicing green landscape pest control. That is, the use of native plants in your landscape. Many people or moving away from the traditionally exotic laden landscaping practices of the recent past, and toward a more economical and earth friendly landscape using native plants in native habitats.

Environment and Economy

Why is it more economical and earth friendly? Well, it takes less water, fewer herbicides and insecticides, and less fertilizer, to keep native landscapes healthy, and that is better for everyone. It also requires less work!

Green native economics

There are a lot of other reasons that this is a great idea. On a practical level, your native habitat, or backyard habitat, as they are often called, if properly planted and maintained, will probably make your lawn space smaller, and lawns eat the lions share of your outdoor maintenance budget. Lawns consume more water, fertilizers, and require more pesticides than natural, native habitats. It saves you money.

Green native environment

With less fertilizer and pesticide needed, you will cut down the size of your carbon footprint, cause less environmental contamination, and preserve water, 3 things that are great for the health and safety of your family, and the health and safety of the environment.

Extra landscape pest control

By using plants native to your area in your landscape, you will also get an extra boost in pest control. You see, native wildlife, particularly native birds, love the plants of your area, and will want to spend more time in your new green living habitat, and the will want to eat a lot of unwanted insects while they are there.

These are just a few of the many reason that native plant landscaping is one of the best ways of going green in your outdoor environment. There are other green living tips on this site as well. Most of these tips deal with pest prevention which we consider to be the most environmentally correct way of dealing with pests. Our Main Directory is a great place to get started, we even have a complete, step by step Pest prevention Program for you, at no cost!

Green Living | Lawn Care Lawn Pest Control

Welcome to the green living section of our site! There are many things that you can do to enhance or develop your green lifestyle. To make a real impact for the planet, and for your neighborhood requires more than buying a certified green home, or buying low wattage light bulbs and recycling. Green living is much more. It starts with where you choose your home, if you have that luxury, and how you maintain your property.

We will begin by assuming that you may not have control of all the elements such as where you build or buy. Few of us have the money required to exercise complete control in those areas, but there is still a lot you can do to be green as it relates to lawn care, and lawn pest control.

More Green Less Green

To begin with, green living may involve having less green around your home. Green as in lush lawn grasses that is. The vast majority of the fossil fuel based chemicals such as herbicides, pesticides, and fertilizers which are applied to home and private property, and our parks and athletic areas, are applied to lawn and turf grasses. Most of the water used to irrigate our landscapes goes on our lawns as well. Knowing this, we should begin to do two things:

• Lower the acreage that is covered in turf grass requiring lawn care.

• Change our methods of lawn care, irrigation, fertility and lawn pest control.

Lawn size and lawn pest control

Some of this can be accomplished by reducing the area of our outdoor habitat that are covered in lawn grasses, and replacing them with native plants and trees. We should pay special attention to the native part of the equation, because plants native to your area will be more resistant to the pests and diseases that inhabit your area, and will require less fertility, and less water.

Lawn type and lawn pest control

The types of lawn grass we use can go a long way toward providing a green living space without using as many pesticides, fertilizers, and as much water. Here again, the word native is important. Grasses that are native to your area will provide better results, using fewer resources and chemicals. When we use this practice, lawn pest control will be less of a problem for us. The native grasses will be less susceptible to insect invasion, they will need less water, so the chances of having fungus, disease and insects will be lessened by the lower moisture levels needed to allow the grasses to survive.

Lawn pest prevention and lawn pest control

This is lawn pest control at it’s best! It is the age old practice of pest prevention which is the purpose behind this website. The practices involved in using pest prevention as lawn pest control are outlined in detail on this site, starting with Lawncare Pest Prevention, Prevention Starts Outdoors, or How To Use This Site. For more green living tips on lawn pest control, landscape pest control, and home pest control using pest prevention, just dig into this site.

Lawn Pest Prevention | 4 Keys to a Pest Free Lawn

Lawn care basics for a pest free lawn

The basics of lawn care, are also the basics for lawn pest control and prevention.

Lawn pest problems? A healthy lawn is the best way to prevent pests. If you do these things right, you will be able to create an environment which will discourage pests, and lower your need for pesticides.
These are the basic components of lawn care:

Mowing.

Mowing is the one thing that if done properly, will yield the best bang for your buck. If all the other things are done reasonably well, this will make your lawn an oasis.

Make sure that you start with a good mower, with sharp blades. Sharp blades cut the leaves of grass more smoothly, lessening the chance for disease, and adding to the overall appearance. A dull mower blade makes for a ragged cut, and makes mowing harder for you and your mower.

You should mow as often as possible, at least once a week during the growing season. The more frequently you mow, the smaller the clippings, so they become easily available for your lawn to recycle into nutrients, and organic matter. If you bag your lawns clippings, you are taking away as much as sixty percent of the lawns fertility, and depriving your lawn of organic matter and other benefits. Avoid bagging like your lawn depended on it.

Frequent mowing discourages pests, disease and fungus, and helps your lawn grass to grow laterally. There are many other benefits as well.

Cultivating.

Cultivating is something that doesn’t have to be done as often as the other items on our list, but it is highly important.

If you have a thatch problem, or compaction problems, aerifying, or verticutting will aid in keeping your lawn in good condition.

If your lawn is in need of renovating, cultivation is essential. Top dressing is a separate subject, but I mention it here because cultivation and top dressing are usually collaborative efforts. Cultivating twice per year will have a positive impact on your law, and more frequent cultivation in high stress areas can work wonders.

Fertilizing.

Getting the right nutrients, in the right amounts to your lawn is important. For the best fertilizer, follow the directions above about mowing, and don’t bag your clippings. Of course, you will want to add more fertilizer, so start with something like one pound of nitrogen per thousand square feet of lawn space per application. Three applications per year should be sufficient.

You will need to adjust this to the needs of your particular lawn. Most common lawn grasses can be fed as much as two pounds per thousand square feet, per application, but at the higher rates, you can expect a spike in growth.

Some fertilizers use sulfur coated “urea formaldehyde” as a nitrogen source. The sulfur coating slows the release of nutrients, allowing for more time between applications. You can use these at higher levels, less frequently. If you use regular fertilizer, smaller doses at more frequent intervals are recommended.

Irrigating.

Keeping your grass healthy requires making the right amount of water available. Too little and it desiccates, to much and it will languish and invite fungus and disease. I am not going to go into the details of precipitation rates, or other boring facts, but you should watch your lawn. If it is soggy two hours after watering, you should probably back off the water a little. If it is dry at a depth of one inch, you should increase the watering.

The best pest control.

By paying close attention to these four key components of lawn care, you should have a virtually pest and disease free lawn. Proper lawn care is the best lawn pesticide on the planet, and it is a lot safer and less expensive than the alternatives.