Blood sucker Fleas

We all know how dirty a carpet can be with our imagination. It is the most abused and accumulated dirt trapped inside. Sometimes vacuum cleaner might not be able to help either. For furry pet lover, fleas are common and most likely, your carpets have the fleas with their eggs too.

Citrus oils
Citrus oils are commonly known to kill fleas. The first direct victim is your furry pets. To prepare a homemade insecticide for your pet, pour the boilng water onto the sliced lemon with the skin and extract it overnight. Sponge the solution onto your dogs. Do not use this for your cat as it may poison your cat while killing the bugs. To kill the bugs in your carpet, mix 2 1/2 cups baking soda, 8 drops of peppermint oil, 20 drops of citronella oil and 6 drops of lemon balm oil. Sprinkle them onto your vacuumed carpet and leave them for at least one hour before you vacuum the carpet again. Do remember to throw the vacuum bag away after use so that the survived does not lay more eggs or crawl out.

Your pet's diet
It was said that including garlic (cooked) in your pet's diet can help to repell the fleas as the blood does not taste as good to them. Besides garlic, brewer's yeast (1 tsp daily in their food) and apple cider vinegar (1 tsp in your pet's drinking water) is also useful as an inclusion to your cats and dogs. (Note: raw garlic is poisonous for your cat so remember to cook them throughly.)

Set Bugs Traps
Many finds this useful so you can consider this option. Simply put a basin of soapy water under the light. Fleas are attracted to warm light and gets drown in soapy water. This method is cheap and playing the nature game. Just make sure your pets doesn't drink it though.

Sanitize your area
The most important thing to do during fleas crisis is to identify the nest and destroy it. Identify all possible areas of your home, from carpet, to linen and especially the spots where your precious pets love to play and sleep. Make sure all areas are covered. Wish you all the best in your flight against the fleas.


Other related reference

1) Natural flea control

Snails crossing my path

Do you have snails problem in your garden? Or do you simply want them out of your path as you do not want to crush them by accident? You might laugh at me here, but I seriously screamed when I stepped on a snail that rainy night. It was a gross experience for me and I can still remember the slimy, slippery feeling crawled on my feet and it also sounded like I have crushed an egg shell.

Fortunately, there are some useful pest control methods to repell them from walking across your path. Some of the common ways are:-

You can use broken egg shells, used coffee grounds, sharp sand or coarse gravel as a natural pest repeller to block off their paths that you are likely to cross the way. You can also use this to surround the plants you want to protect. In this way, the snail will avoid difficult pathways. Another effective way is to use copper foil or to use copper sulfate. For the copper foil or bands, use it to wrap around the planting beds and regularly clean the surface with vinegar. It was said that its effectiveness is because copper is toxic to most invertebrates that includes snails.

Some Gross Methods
This sounds a little gross to me but I guess in the light of helping the ecosystem to turn the food chain wheel, you can crush the snail and feed it to the fishes. I recalled one of my ex-colleagues wanted the snail shells and so subject the poor snail in the microwave so that the body will dislodge from the shell. The thought of it really grossed me up and I hope you are not considering that option.

Other Related Reference

1) Snails and Slugs

2) Pest snails

Garlic and Onions insecticide

In this post today, I shall share about this organic insecticide that is useful to protect our garden. It's garlic and onion I am talking about. They taste great in our dishes, add to the nutritional value and best of all, it repells insects and even some animals such as rabbit and moles.

Why garlic and onions?
The garlic and onions are such a useful ingredient as a garden insecticide due to the presence of sulfur volatiles attributed by degradation of Allium tissue. Cavallito was the first who discovered the biocidal properties of Allicin. In general, it is used against insects that chew and suck on your precious plants, such as mosquitoes.

What is the formula for the homemade pesticide?
As the biocidal source comes from the enzymatic degradation of Allicin, you can crush 5 large clove of garlic and boil it with 1 litre of water. When cooled, add another 4 litres of cold water. Home prepared pesticides help you control the chemicals you add to the environment as well as to play the 'Mother nature' game.

The Enhancer
There is a patent on enhancing the biocidal function of garlic oil in particular, using the essential oil. The essential oil is the volatile liquids from flora extracts. To list a few, they include soybean oil, corn oil, castor oil, lemongrass, sesame oil, mineral oil, fish oil and citronella oil (hey this is my favourite one). There is even a concoction to soak the chopped garlic in mineral oil for a day before use and I think it is a great idea too as you do not need to prepare a garlic pesticide stock in a bulk where you might scratch your head for storage space.

Other useful reference

1) Insecticidal and fungicidal potential of Allium substances as Biofumigants

2) Organic Pest Control and Pesticide

3) The Patent - Natural Pesticide