Lizzie Anti-Pest Tips

Repell Head Lice Naturally

2007-03-07T23:13:00.001-08:00

I remembered it was so long ago since I last caught head lice on my hair. It is quite painful to go through that time, especially when friends start to shun you a little when they hear the news about the lice on my head and I also remembered the long hours of waiting while covering my hair with the towel after soaking with some strong kerosene smell liquid. Yeah, I thought it was kerosene. And also I remembered my mother picking out the nits from my head as she checks them with the sunlight on my hair.

Vinegar and Mayonnaise

I am glad to have chance on this website about head lice remedy that you can try in desperate times. One of the most popular method is to use original mayonaise to soak the hair for at least 2 hours or more, with a wrap towel. The lice typically lay their eggs with a glue so it can stick on the hair strands. You might like to add more white vinegar to the mayonnaise to melt the glue away. Do not dilute, but use the white vinegar in its concentrated form.

Other Repelling Methods

Other effective method is to use the original listrine or tea tree oil (2 to 3 tablespoons) with olive oil (1/2 cup) to soak on the hair and wrap with the towel to suffocate the lice with the chemicals in your hair. Spraying these chemicals may not be enough so make sure your hair is thoroughly soaked with it. Others also suggest to use hair dryer to kill the lice with heat but this must be done with caution to prevent burning your scalp while being too enthusiastic over killing the lice.

At the end of the treatment, use fine tooth hair comb to comb it through. When I was young, I remembered using the traditional fine tooth comb (I think it's made of bamboo or wood). There are people who suggest metal comb but I think a fine-tooth comb should be fine. Interestingly, dyeing a hair can also prevent future head lice and I think this is an excellent idea too!!!

Sanitization Steps

Besides killing them in the hair, try not to re-use the towels that was used for the head lice treatment and clean all your bedsheets, combs and pillow cases and other items that may be in contact with the hair. Use the heat from the sun to sun bathe your pillows if possible. Otherwise, you may use other heating device (hair dryer) or vacuum it thoroughly.

Useful Reference

1) Head Lice Home Remedies

2) Hot Dry Air Can Eradicate Head Lice

Love Lizards

2007-03-01T16:58:00.000-08:00

Lizards can eliminate flying insects for you. The existence of lizards ease me a little whenever I see them at home, especially when the insects are around. I love these reptiles though I get frightened whenever they cross my path suddenly or when I accidentally have skin contact with them. I guess the reptile would probably have been more frightened than me.

To find out if the lizards population is at its optimum for repelling insects, it is interesting to know their preference for the food they eat. Typically, larger lizards prefer to eat caterpillar, grasshopper and larger insects while the smaller lizards are more likely to take those smaller flying insects. I think not many would intentionally breed various sizes of lizard in their garden but I think it can useful to determine how effectively the area would be cleared from flying insects by the size of the lizards.

During the night when I am blogging or surfing the net, I often peek through my bedroom door into the living room, to see them crawling quickly across the floor and I grow to like their discretness and agility.

Related reference

1) Lizards in Insect Control

Blood sucker Fleas

2007-02-21T21:37:00.000-08:00

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

2007-02-14T19:45:00.001-08:00

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

2007-02-07T18:19:00.000-08:00

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

Flying Cockroaches, Hidden Repellents

2007-01-30T21:32:00.000-08:00

I often screamed at the top of my voice when I see flying cockroaches. Whenever spring cleaning comes, I often have to brace myself up before fighting the pest. My parents seem more brave than me, using their bare hands to slap the cockroach flat, before picking them up into the bin. When I was young, it seemed to me that they were playing some kind of Arcade Games to see who kills more cockroaches. Though it may be true that cockroaches are probably extremely proud of their long existence heritage, I don't really like their sneaky character. They often sneaked from th common dustbin that goes all the way down from the top of multi-storey flat. Sometimes, they crawl up and fly in from the kitchen window.

So, besides cleaning your home to wipe out the cockroaches and their eggs, what do you do to prevent and to repell the cockroaches from your home? I have a short list of natural repellents against cockroaches:-

1) Cinnamon (my favourite)

Cinnamon works best in enclosed spaces in your cupboard. If you can get those that is not grinded, you can use it without staining your space with the brown spices. Otherwise, you can put your powder in a pouch. I was also told that you should replace the cinnamon every 6 months.

2) Catnip

It was said that Catnip can repell cockroaches due to the presence of 2 types of nepetalactone. Similiarly, leave it at spots where cockroaches are likely come from. This would greatly discourage them from coming to your home.

3) Bay Leaves

If you run out of cinnamon, bay leaves, that is a spice used for cooking, can also shoo-oo away the cockroaches. It is probably due to the presence of Ceneole that the cockroaches dislike.

Leech, trekking pest

2007-01-22T20:26:00.000-08:00

I love trekking at waterfall and I remember during my very first trekking experience at Endau rompin (Malaysia), I had to overcome my fear of leachees. They are such a pest as they sometimes can spoil the amateur's hiking experience. They latch on you, release an anticoagulant (hirudin) and after they have their blood fill, they drop off, leaving the wound bleeding for the next few hours. The thought of it still chills down my spine as I recall.

Though leech bite is harmless, it is still undesirable to have one.

Creating a natural repellent against this leech pest can be quite tricky if you want to protect the environment at the same time. But nevertheless, it can still be done.

Natural repellents:-

Tea Tree essential oil

Add a few drops of tea tree oil with your favourite repellent. And apply it onto your arms and legs, your clothings and your socks. It is this easy. And when it crawls to your skin, you can aim on the leech using a small spray bottle containing tea tree oil with your homemade repellent (to repell insects).

Deep Heat or oinments that contain menthol

As the leech dislike the presence of menthol, it becomes a suitable repellent you can consider as well. As usual, rub onto the surface that is vulnerable to leech attacks and the leech may think twice about sucking your blood.

Prevention measures at leech infested areas:-

Witnessing a leech sucking your blood can be quite frightful though there is no pain. Thus it is best to look prevent yourself from falling into the leech victim.

Wear thick socks or leech socks

Wearing a pair of thick socks can prevent them from latching onto your skin before you get rid of them. I have witnessed the leech crawl quickly within split seconds into the holes from your shoe lace portion or up from the socks. You can further thicken your socks by wearing double layers for double protection. You should also wear your socks over your trousers for better seal.

Wear good shoes

As I mentioned, wearing the right shoe is important. Make sure that the layer of the shoe is thick enough so that the leech is not able to access to your skin and suck the blood from the outside. Also make sure that you tighten your shoe laces to leave no little gaps for the leech to crawl in. They can crawl really fast!!

Wear long trekking pants

There are trekking pants that tightens the seal down from your ankle so you may consider investing on one. This can help to at least reduce your exposure of bare skin as they sometimes would playfully jump high enough to reach your calf. And remember to wear your thick socks over your pants.

Avoid stagnant and dark waters

Swimming along the rivers where the water is stagnant and dark are typically where the leeches would be, especially on the rocks. So enjoy yourself in the water but avoid those areas.

Useful reference

1) Wikipedia - Leech
2) Travel camping first aid

3) Use of Tea Oil

4) The Herbs place - The Tea Tree oil

Natural Mosquito repellent

2007-01-15T21:18:00.000-08:00

When I was trekking in the forest, I often didn't like the idea of spraying chemicals from insect repellent that is often not environmentally friendly. Diethyltoluamide (DEET) is commonly included in commercial mosquito and other insect repellents and there has been some environmental concern with the use of DEET. However, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency reported that it is safe to use so long as users comply to the labels instructions. But, the implications to the environment is still not fully known.

Thus, there are some reccomended natural insect repellents to consider:-

1) Citronella oil
2) Catnip oil
3) Castor oil
4) Lemongrass oil
5) Peppermint oil
6) Geranium oil
7) Celery extract

As for me, I prefer to use Citronella essential, or Citronella-containing repellent sprays and patch. Citronella is friendly to skin but may cause mild rash allergy for some. If Citronella is not suitable for you, you can always consider other natural repellent options. Personally, I think it is only a matter of time that mosquitoes may eventually get used to DEET-containing repellents, so it is always good to seek advise from our mother nature before it becomes too late to salvage the environment.

EPA website

DEET (TEACH Chemical summary)

Plant Oils Fact Sheet

Natural Repellents reference

Natural Mosquito Repellent

What is Citronella?

Handmade Organic Mosquito repellent

Garlic as a Mosquito Repellent

Grow your own Mosquito Repellent

Which Natural Mosquito Repellent works best?

War with Ants

2007-01-14T03:34:00.001-08:00

Do you have ants passing through your bedroom? I recently experience black ants crawling across through my bedroom window to the kitchen. You see, my bedroom is just beside my family's mini garden that is laid along the common corridor of my flat. I really fought hard with the ants as the lost ants crawl up my feet while I was surfing the net. I considered a list of ways to chase away the ants:-

1) kill them with my hands
2) use vinegar
3) use baby talcum powder
4) use insecticide
5) use the ants poison.
6) destroy the ants nest
7) use water (it prevents them from eating my favourite cake!)

I didn't like the idea of poisoning the ants as I am aware of the environmental effects for the use of pesticides. Drinking vinegar is fine but not smelling like one in a bedroom seem undesirable to me, so I discarded the idea as well. Water is useful for discouraging the ants only if the water is deep enough. Killing them with my mighty hands has been a norm during my fight with them but it didn't discourage or stop them either. I didn't manage to find the nest either as it was well hidden. The ultimate moment came when I saw them bringing the fried fish bone from the kitchen floor to my bedroom. I got hysterical that midnight and began cleaning my bedroom thoroughly. Then I furiously pepper the talcum powder on all possible entries that includes my windows and my bedroom door. I did this for a few days until the ants decided to change their route to my living room door. You can anticipate my next step was to powder the living room door steps as well, ignoring my mum's annoyance with me. The talcum powder seem to work for now, though it didn't entirely stop the ants from coming in and I wasn't really keen to destroy the ants, I am really glad that it literally stop crawling under my feet while I am working on my computer.