An update on my pest issues:
I tried sticky traps first and all that did was catch a few geckoes, spiders and roaches. It disturbed me to find almost as many geckoes as roaches. I found that, like I previously thought, the sticky traps were not very effective and caused more suffering than I can personally tolerate.
I moved on to roach bait traps that I found at Target and they really did the trick with no ill effects to my pets. I was concerned about roaches carrying the bait across my cultures and contaminating them, but it didn't happen, so I am pleased. I really was surprised, but it worked very well.
I sprayed Ortho home defense in strategic places in the kitchen for good measure, but it seems like the baits were already taking effect by that time and I noticed no difference in the amount of dead roaches that I found.
Hooray for roach motel bait things!
Now I have an even worse problem that I am afraid will be more of a challenge for me. :angry:
Big headed ants, have twice invaded my Blaberus containers ( this week) and seem to be stealing scraps from them.
Quite a while ago, I made the mistake of leaving small containers of crickets on the porch and in the laundry room where I keep the roaches and other arthropods( a couple of times
). These ants will very quickly kill and dismember crickets, taking their parts out of the screen, or any holes in the lids of the containers.
The ants never bothered the roaches before now, and don't seem to have done any damage to them, but I am sure they will dismember them if they run out of scraps.
I am afraid to use baits for them because they can enter the roaches homes. I have all my containers raised on a set of cube style shelving that is made out of metal that is coated with some sort of smooth black paint. I thought that the ants may not have been able to access the containers that way, but I found out that they can easily get into the containers.
The first time I saw a trail of ants coming out of a small Blaberus container that has vaseline around the rim and the inside of the lid. The lid is modified with metal screen that I fastened with a low temp glue gun similar to many of my containers. I quickly opened the container to find the roaches intact and shook and hand picked the ants out until I saw no more. My father suggested vinegar to deter them, so I wiped down all my containers, the whole rack, and the table that it is on with white vinegar.
I thought that it was working, but they came back yesterday and I tested the vinegar by wiping a line of it right through the path of ants, leaving the vinegar soaked paper towel in their way. Those ants didn't seem to be bothered by that much.
I have also wiped a very thin layer of vaseline all over the metal bars of the shelving, but I have seen ants walking on that as well.
Now, I am trying to control them by going and hand killing all of them a few times a day.
I am afraid to bait the ants that are close to the house or indoors with the slow acting pesticide because I am afraid that they will share it with the roaches, but I will put bait outdoors if it will draw the ants away.
Now, the ants are distracted by some dog food that I put out to draw them away from my pets. Maybe they won't enter the containers anymore, but I am afraid anyway.
I read that these ants have a very widespread colony that can cover at least the whole property. I have also noticed that they have entrances just about everywhere in the yard, and the neighbors' yards too. They seem to get very abundant once a year and I would like to avoid them this time around.
Does anyone have any suggestions on how to deter them from getting my pets, without poisoning the pets? Even if it sounds like a wives tale, or ineffective, I will try it. Anything has to be better than what I am doing now.
I tried sticky traps first and all that did was catch a few geckoes, spiders and roaches. It disturbed me to find almost as many geckoes as roaches. I found that, like I previously thought, the sticky traps were not very effective and caused more suffering than I can personally tolerate.
I moved on to roach bait traps that I found at Target and they really did the trick with no ill effects to my pets. I was concerned about roaches carrying the bait across my cultures and contaminating them, but it didn't happen, so I am pleased. I really was surprised, but it worked very well.
I sprayed Ortho home defense in strategic places in the kitchen for good measure, but it seems like the baits were already taking effect by that time and I noticed no difference in the amount of dead roaches that I found.
Hooray for roach motel bait things!
Now I have an even worse problem that I am afraid will be more of a challenge for me. :angry:
Big headed ants, have twice invaded my Blaberus containers ( this week) and seem to be stealing scraps from them.
Quite a while ago, I made the mistake of leaving small containers of crickets on the porch and in the laundry room where I keep the roaches and other arthropods( a couple of times
). These ants will very quickly kill and dismember crickets, taking their parts out of the screen, or any holes in the lids of the containers.The ants never bothered the roaches before now, and don't seem to have done any damage to them, but I am sure they will dismember them if they run out of scraps.
I am afraid to use baits for them because they can enter the roaches homes. I have all my containers raised on a set of cube style shelving that is made out of metal that is coated with some sort of smooth black paint. I thought that the ants may not have been able to access the containers that way, but I found out that they can easily get into the containers.
The first time I saw a trail of ants coming out of a small Blaberus container that has vaseline around the rim and the inside of the lid. The lid is modified with metal screen that I fastened with a low temp glue gun similar to many of my containers. I quickly opened the container to find the roaches intact and shook and hand picked the ants out until I saw no more. My father suggested vinegar to deter them, so I wiped down all my containers, the whole rack, and the table that it is on with white vinegar.
I thought that it was working, but they came back yesterday and I tested the vinegar by wiping a line of it right through the path of ants, leaving the vinegar soaked paper towel in their way. Those ants didn't seem to be bothered by that much.
I have also wiped a very thin layer of vaseline all over the metal bars of the shelving, but I have seen ants walking on that as well.
Now, I am trying to control them by going and hand killing all of them a few times a day.
I am afraid to bait the ants that are close to the house or indoors with the slow acting pesticide because I am afraid that they will share it with the roaches, but I will put bait outdoors if it will draw the ants away.
Now, the ants are distracted by some dog food that I put out to draw them away from my pets. Maybe they won't enter the containers anymore, but I am afraid anyway.
I read that these ants have a very widespread colony that can cover at least the whole property. I have also noticed that they have entrances just about everywhere in the yard, and the neighbors' yards too. They seem to get very abundant once a year and I would like to avoid them this time around.
Does anyone have any suggestions on how to deter them from getting my pets, without poisoning the pets? Even if it sounds like a wives tale, or ineffective, I will try it. Anything has to be better than what I am doing now.
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