Natural, kid-safe, EFFECTIVE pest control?

[Lady Mayapple]

Does this exist? I have carpenter bees eating away at the fence, multiple sightings every day of adult squash vine bugs, which will lay their eggs in my plants and destroy everything in their path, and mosquitos which make the backyard uninhabitable after 5pm. I need to do something, but what?? Our backyard is like an extension of our house in the summer. I want to keep it safe for everyone-people, pets, and plants! Help!

[MissMommyNiceNice]

Have you tried diatomaceaous earth? It will take care of most bugs with the exception of mosquitos. Just sprinkle it where you see activity. As for the mosquitos, you will need to find their "home" breeding ground. Mosquitos have a 1 mile radius from this area. Treat the area with dunks that can be purchased at a hardware store. Look for any source of standing water including buckets, empty pots, unnattended ponds, etc. I am not above tresspassing in a neighbor's yard to dump over an offending bucket.

[mattemma04]

I always try to look for another bug/animal that will eat my target pest.You can make some sprays with oil,dish soap,and I think garlic.Look for jerry Baker books for homemade mixes.

I agree with dunks or sprinkles for skeeters.Put up some bat houses.Some birds like skeeters too.In the summers I spend a few collecting jap beetles by hand into soapy jugs.

Often you can find DE cheaper at feed stores that what you get in garden sections.

[Lady Mayapple]

Originally Posted by mattemma04

I always try to look for another bug/animal that will eat my target pest.You can make some sprays with oil,dish soap,and I think garlic.Look for jerry Baker books for homemade mixes.

I agree with dunks or sprinkles for skeeters.Put up some bat houses.Some birds like skeeters too.In the summers I spend a few collecting jap beetles by hand into soapy jugs.

Often you can find DE cheaper at feed stores that what you get in garden sections.

Speaking of bats...We live at the top of the street which faces a main road and business district. On the other side of our fence is an insurance company. Last year they installed what are basically stadium lights on the back of their building and the lights shine right into our yard. We used to have barred owls in our trees and a large bat population, now they are all but gone. I see a few bats in the evening, but I think most of them went away because of the lights. Maybe it's my imagination, but I swear our mosquito population tripled since they put up these lights. I had to put up room-darkening curtains in our bedroom because of this...I wish there was something I could do but I doubt they would even consider my opinion if I complained.

I will try the diatomaceous earth. The only use I ever had for that stuff was in my mom's old swimming pool..never knew it could be used for anything else!

[Lady Mayapple]

Originally Posted by MissMommyNiceNice

Have you tried diatomaceaous earth? It will take care of most bugs with the exception of mosquitos. Just sprinkle it where you see activity. As for the mosquitos, you will need to find their "home" breeding ground. Mosquitos have a 1 mile radius from this area. Treat the area with dunks that can be purchased at a hardware store. Look for any source of standing water including buckets, empty pots, unnattended ponds, etc. I am not above tresspassing in a neighbor's yard to dump over an offending bucket.

Ohhhh boy...the yards that surround us are filled with vicious dogs and who knows what else. The yard behind us is an overgrown, dog-poop-filled nightmare that is guarded by an agressive pitbull. People have complained and complained and they were ordered never to have an animal after their last dog died, but they didn't listen. In the two years we've lived in this house, I have only seen someone back there cut the grass ONCE. They never rake leaves in the fall and everything is a total mess. In the summer, the one guy who lives there sits on the 2nd floor balcony and blares loud music. I don't want to know what he would do if he caught me snooping in his yard.

There are a few remaining metal posts from where the old chainlink fence used to be and I noticed they hold water. I need to fill those with dirt or sand or something to keep the water from getting in.

[lunarlady]

Another option for small areas of standing water is oil. I use cheep veggie oil. You just pour a little bit in (enough to skim the surface). It suffocates the mosiquto larve, and will biodegrade in time. Might be easier than filling all those posts.

Depending on the pests you have, you can also look for nematodes. They are little worms that infect and eat insect larve. You spread them on the soil and they eat anything that has a soil/grub section of it's life cycle. I think that the beetles would be killed by this. As long as you have a large enough population, the neamatodes will reproduce and thrive, so you only have to do it once.

[lightheart]

What about the citrollena smelling Geraniums planted around your yard? The plants themselves are probably not kid-safe if your child ate them but would be ok if your child touched them.

One of those bug zapper lights are effective but you run the risk of zapping moths and other flying insects.

About the lights, I'd check with city ordances, here in our town if you have security type lights there are rules about the wattage and the shine into neighbors homes. It's not a cookie-cutter homeowner association type of rule but a citywide rule. I don't know if businesses are under another rule or not though, but maybe something you could check into.