Nontoxic ant repellent for home interiors

Last year when I posted about our ant problem, a friend of mine posted her suggestion for ridding our living area of ants. Baby powder.

Baby powder? No way. I was so skeptical, I never tried it. But this year rolled around and the boys had so many ants crawling on the ceiling and walls around their beds, the big black yucky ant kind, that I needed a nontoxic repellent to eradicate ants since it was in their sleeping area. I remembered her suggestion and decided it was worth a shot. The worst it would do is make the house smell like a clean baby's butt.

So I went around and puffed baby powder along the wall, floor, and ceiling cracks where we had ants and beyond, and watched and waited.

Within 24 hours, we saw a 99% reduction in ants! The day before I applied the powder, the kids counted the killing tally and within an hour were in the 30s. The next day I saw one ant on the wall.

I wondered if it was a fluke or just a dramatic answer to prayer, so I asked God to show me. The next day I happened to look at the doorway threshold and saw an ant writhing in the powder like he's eaten ant poison. Amazing!

Thanks, Kelly, wherever you happen to be, today. Your suggestion reversed the ant invasion on our family!

Check out more Works for Me Wednesday posts at Rocks In My Dryer.

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Tech Tags: ant ant killer house natural ant killer nontoxic bugs infestation remedy solution

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How to remove a tick & tick remover tools

I was picking up toys off the floor in the boys' room so I could vacuum and I happened upon a small round object. I went to pick it up, but the punky soft object slipped out of my hand. It felt like a water logged raisin. I was going to pick it up again, but for some strange reason, I thought better of it, so I went to get the flashlight and a tissue.

When I realized the raisin-like object was an engorged tick, I dropped it again and opted for a dust pan.

I still can't eat dried fruit, and this was three weeks ago. Just ask my mom who I confided in and was with me at Bible study just after this event when I tried bread someone brought in to share. Halfway through I bit into raisin and almost gagged. It was all I could do to keep myself quietly together, for the baker's and everyone else's sakes who was still eating the actually tasty bread. I only made it by repeating, "This is raisin, not tick. Ticks are not raisins. Raisin is food. I can eat raisins. I don't eat ticks. Raisin is food. Raisin is food."

I did not go for another piece of bread.

This left picture is of the Tick Key tick remover tool. Don't buy one. They don't work except maybe on engorged ticks. All a newly attached tick does is turn and its still thin body slides out the slit. I returned it to the pet store in exchange for the Ticked Off tick remover tool.

The Ticked Off tick remover really works, and I'm impressed.

As you can see by this picture to the right, it resembles a measuring-spoon with a cutout in the front to entrap the tick. You put it next to the skin and slide it under the tick as close to the skin as possible and slide slowly forward. The tick comes off without any hassle and either lodges into the triangle slit or falls into the spoon part for easy disposal or salvage if you want to test the tick for Lyme Disease.

Want to know how to remove ticks the safe way? Read on.

Tick Removal Don'ts:

1. Don't pull a tick out by the butt.
   
2. Don't heat tweezers and put it on the tick's rear.
3. Don't squeeze the tick.
4. Don't twist the tick.

All of the above will distress the tick and could leave its head in the skin and cause infection. The biggest reason not to do the above, though, is that they can cause the tick to inject its saliva into the skin and, infected with Lyme Disease, infect the host.

Tick Removal Do's:

1. If using tweezers, use needle small head tweezers.
2. Grasp the tick as close to the skin as possible.
3. Pull straight out.
   
4. If using a tick remover, follow instructions but avoid twisting the tick.
   

Check out more Works for Me Wednesday posts at Rocks In My Dryer.

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Tech Tags: tick ~ engorged tick ~ tick remover ~ tick key ~ ticked off ~ spring ~ bugs ~ pests

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Green Up Day in Vermont

Today is Green Up Day in Vermont, the one day in spring reserved for road-side clean up by Vermont residents, all volunteer. The first Green Up Day, according to Green Up Vermont, was April 18, 1970 in response to reporter Robert S. Babcock, Jr.'s reaction to the mounds of litter from spring thaw he saw along the road during a commute to work at the Burlington Free Press. Green Up Day has been going ever since.

We did not participate this year because I was unavailable, but several area locals did. CJ and her Girl Scout troupe greened up Vermont last year. I recall doing it as a Girl Scout, too. I hadn't heard of Green Up Day prior to our troupe's participation, but it felt great knowing that picking up trash along the road made a difference. Besides, I felt important and privileged walking along the road with cars going by.

I understand New Hampshire has a Green Up Day, as well as Vermont. I wonder if any other states or towns have similar things. If you have participated in a Green Up Day or similar event, I'd love to hear your experience.

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Tech Tags: environment ~ Green Up Day ~ Vermont ~ litter

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