Say Goodbye to Exterminator Bills with SIMPLE Nontoxic Pest Control

Eliminate Insects Non-toxically in Hard-To-Reach Places:  SIMPLE Nontoxic Pest Control to Get Rid of Crickets, Bedbugs, Fleas and More

By Joanie Blaxter, founder of Follow Your Gut

For four months during the summer last year, the only way I could sleep was with ear plugs, I kid you not!  Was it noise from street traffic? A neighbor's dog? Drunken Hell's Angels motorcyclists departing the local bar?

No, the culprit is smaller than the size of my thumb and can live for months in a wall eating nothing, but, according to my insect expert friend, “cellulose!”

Yes, crickets are THAT loud.  Hah, you laugh!  You try sleeping with that piercing screeching in the wall next to your bed.

Spraying poison was not an option. Besides, even if I was okay with the dangerous chemicals, how do you spray Raid inside the wall? Ear plugs, from my perspective, were at least a nontoxic solution.

And then, one day the light bulb appeared over my head saying, “Duuuhhh, Joanie, call Ron!”

The pest control advisor who restored my beauty sleep 

Ron Whitehurst and his wife, Jan Dietrick, run the “oldest, commercial” biological pest control company in the United States, Rincon Vitova Insectaries.

Got an outdoor infestation problem?  This family company  “… produces and distributes insects and other organisms, supplies and tools for biological control of pests.”  They ship all over the U.S. – beneficial spiders, wasps, larvae, ladybugs, you name it, they have it.  And it's just down the road from me.

If anybody would know HOW I could get rid of crickets in my walls without poisoning myself, it would be my entomologist friend Ron!

Ron seemed totally nonplussed by my dilemma and, bless his heart, immediately offered to loan me what he calls a “puffer,” containing a 50/50 mix of diatomaceous earth and boric acid (DE/BA).

The advantage of the puffer is that the powder comes out of a very long and narrow nozzle, enabling you to easily get the spray directly into small cracks where the insect hides.

Ron explained that he uses a combination of diatomaceous earth and boric acid because, together, they work more effectively. The diatomaceous earth scratches the exoskeleton of the insect, allowing the boric acid to be more readily absorbed.

The key is to get the powder far enough inside the space that sooner or later the cricket will walk through the powder. Once that happens, it will die, literally, from drying out.

Woohoo!  It worked!

Blessed sleep followed for at least, oh, maybe three nights… BEFORE ANOTHER CRICKET MOVED IN!

Another frantic run down to Ron's house to borrow the puffer. Another success story followed by an undisturbed night.

And then… you guessed it.

Every cricket who disappeared into the Great Ninja Warrior Cricket Beyond was quickly replaced by another.  This happened five times! 

Two steps to cricket-proof a house

Since cricket “song” is actually the mating call of the males, I needed to find out how these boyz were getting in my walls to begin with.  Carefully examining the outside of my small, ground floor apartment, I saw dozens of small openings around my door and window frames, all beckoning to any randy leg-rubber who happened to be passing by, Romeo, Romeo, come hide here to sing your piercingly loud, romantic songs! 

After spraying as much powder into as many indoor cracks as I could find and all had been quiet on the western front for about a week, to prevent any further critters from crawling in, my landlord caulked the outside holes.  See how airtight it looks now!

I had him focus only, though, on the openings all around my door frame since that was where I'd heard crickets in the walls.

Big mistake.

Fast forward one year to the present, and you guessed it… Not one, but TWO crickets simultaneously began a marathon sing-off in my wall, this time in the area close to my window. Of course.

“If you don't have time to do it right, when will you have time to do it over?”   –John Wooden

You can see the gaps around my window frame here.

I have a caulking gun and a puffer and I'm not afraid to use them!

This time I went ballistic, bought my own puffer online, as well as my own supplies of diatomaceous earth and boric acid, and got my landlord to agree to loan me his caulking gun.

I settled on the very affordable Pest Pistol Mini Duster.

Although not as sturdy as Ron's professional quality one, being made of plastic, my new puffer is, nevertheless, easy to pump, even for my small hands.  The spray is quite adequate and, most importantly, the nozzle, long and flexible enough to reach into those small, awkward cracks.

ATTENTION TRAVELERS!  Since bedbugs are most commonly found in hotels and motels, you might want to check the list above for the cities with the worst rates of bedbug infestations.

***DON'T MISS THIS:  Also, check out Kelly's FREE printable on how to nontoxically eliminate bedbugs, including DIY instructions on how to make an inexpensive bedbug trap.  Click here.