I absolutely love summer, but I hate all the bugs that come with it. There’s ants trying to get into my house, snails eating my plants and aphids poisoning my garden. I’d love to get rid of these bugs easily, but I’m not a fan of using toxic pesticides. About 2 years ago I heard about something called diatomaceous earth and have loved it ever since.
What is it?
Diatomaceous earth (aka DE) is a natural talk-like substance that is made up of fossilised remains of diatoms. It’s a powder that is harmless to humans (if you don’t inhale it) but is lethal to certain bugs like ants, snails, aphids, fleas, cutworms, millipedes and centipedes.
It works because it’s a super fine powder that cuts trough the outer layer of a bug which causes them to dry out.
How to use DE?
It’s quite simple really. You just spread it around on infected areas.
For ants, you can spread some in and around their nest.- If you want to kill bugs that live on your plants you can spray them with water first and then sprinkle the DE over the entire plant (leaves, stem and soil around it).
- If you want to keep snails off a certain plant, just spread some DE around the plant. You don’t even need to put it on the leaves.
- If you cat or dog is infected with fleas, you can just spread the DE over them, though I tried it once and my cat didn’t enjoy it, so I had to revert to a good old toxic flea remedy …
One big note: you need to get food grade DE. That’s the only one that is harmless to humans.
Want some for yourself? You can buy food grade diatomaceous earth on Amazon.com.
