bugs, bugs everywhere

[HappiLeigh]

I feel like we are way too outnumbered in our house right now--everywhere I look there are bugs! Ants, spiders, bugs I can't identify, and even garden slugs in the basement. Argh! I live in a 110 year old house, my cat brings things in from outside, the screen doors don't fit properly and we rarely use the A/C. I think all these things are contributing to the problem. I just left town for five days and without my constant care, it seems they have taken over while I was gone. (Even though DH was here!) New spiderwebs on the ceilings, tiny little unidentifiable bugs on my dining room tablecloth even, gnat-looking things in the bathroom, and we're getting bitten by mosquitoes inside the house. Yuck! What can I do? Honestly my house is not unclean, I'm pretty vigilant about sweeping the kitchen (although I have a three-year-old, so some crumbs are unavoidable). I realize a certain number of bugs in my situation are going to be unavoidable, but this seems a little ridiculous. What can I do without poisoning us all?

[BaBaBa]

... on the bright side, you have a really healthy envirnoment :

sorry, I haven't a clue as to what to recommend you. I also live in and old farm house and have similar complaints (not to your extreme) since we stopped spraying years ago. Best I can do is vacuum, vacuum vacuum.

The good thing about spiders is that they eat the other bugs. But I don't expect that is much consolation either.

[SunshineJ]

I usually keep bay leaves by the doorways, and hedgeapples when in season and that helps. If things do start getting extreme I will on occasion break down and use the Ortho Home Defense which is the safest thing I've found that actually works.