Barooooo! Guess who? It’s me Lindsey back with another new Bark Report. This time, I want to bark at you all about an icky subject, natural home remedies controlling pest insects bugs in and around your RV. (Sorry no significant others will be covered in this report.)
For me, they provide a good, quick protein snack. Catching a fly in the air is a fun game. Snap, snap, snap. Who’s faster? Another favorite of mine is rolling on the crawly kind to see if it can survive a corgi back scratch. Neither are a favorite of Mom, so I will have to give you her words of wisdom keeping our moving house pest free.
First off I got to say, if you find one of them stink bugs, by all means don’t squish it in the house. Mom grabs it with something with a paper towel and puts it outside or in a sealed jar. You can suck them up with a vacuum but be sure to dump it immediately. Warning, if you squish one, it’s a nasty smell for humans. It’s the smell that keeps on giving. Phew! I rolled on one in PA and got a long soapy bath and lots of a Perfect Coat coconut freshening spray. In my mind, the bug smelled better.
Use a spray of 2 cups water to 10 drops mint oil to keep those bugs away! Mild dish soapy water kills them. Garlic repels them. ( Not just for vampires!) Mix 2 cups water and four tsp garlic powder. The little stinkers come in through vents or small holes. I sometimes get lucky and find them when Mom brings in the slide rooms. Try rubbing your door, windows and vent screens with a strong smelling dryer sheet daily until the problem is fixed.
Next one to bark about is ants. You know those teenie, weenie, tiny little things that build mounds and make it look like the earth is moving? Well, a cool way is to sprinkle grits (yes you heard me right. The stuff all good Southerners eat for breakfast.) around all the ant mounds. They take it back to the impress their queen, eat it and POOF! Exploding ants! It expands when they eat it. The industrious ones that survive will move the colony but you just keep sprinkling, and they continue until all gone.
Sprinkle garlic between any decking or bricks to keep them off your patio. You don’t want to step on those guys cuz they get mad and bite.
Oh, I did forget to mention if you get ants inside your moving house, bay leaves help discourage them. Rabbit trail. We had someone time because the mints were left on a window ledge. The teeny tiny little buggers came right in between the slide-out room like a small army invasion with a trail right into that little tin. Mom put some whole bay leaves around the seals and ledge where they were coming in. Got rid of our tin of ant covered mints too. (Cucumber peel works too,) You can use in cabinets or tuck around slide room rubber seals. It will last about a month. They get crusty and dry when it’s time to change them.
Yo, check it out. Put a line of cayenne, or spray soapy water around entrance points. Ants won’t cross it. I guess they don’t want to be clean and don’t like spicy food. Go figure!
Okay, so all you Harry Potter fans remember Ron Weasley and his fear of spiders? Dude, he just needed a mixture of peppermint oil and water. Spray it around inside and it keeps the spiders out. Just a drop or two and some water in a small spray bottle. Spray around slides, crevices or wherever the little creepy, crawlies comes in. It makes your RV smell good too. Remember to spray where their food source is too. Outside lights attract flies; thus, Spidey shows up.
Mud Daubers, those weird looking waspy things with long legs that like to hang around all your vent areas of your RV. Prevention is best on these bad boys. Good news is they eat spiders. Remove the webs and spiders. Buh-bye. Don’t be cheap. Spend the money and get the dauber screens to put on your outside refrigerator, water heater and furnace vents. If they get in there, you can find a whole nest, and that’s not good. It can impact on your appliance operations.
Now we come to a really nasty bug, roaches. For you northerners, there are two kinds. One is called a German cockroach, and the other is called a palmetto bug. (Palmetto bug is a cockroach on steroids.) They like food and wet areas. Rule number one, clean and clean often and then clean again. Get rid of garbage daily and seal up all food. They don’t like bay leaves, garlic or cucumber slices. Put it in areas where they like to hang out, high places above refrigerator or cabinets.
The best way to keep roaches out is don’t let them in. Duh! If you have lots of pine straw around, roaches like to live in it. It’s common to see in Florida because it helps kill weeds. It’s toxic to kids and furkids, but boric acid, also known commercially as Borax laundry detergent will keep them out. You can sprinkle around your site outside, or above cabinets, slides, refrigerator inside. They’re stupid like ants and take it back to the nest to eat. Clean but dead roaches.
So a few other things roaches don’t like. Catnip. If you’re handy, make little pouches of catnip and put around your RV where you may find them. Your cat could be euphoric if it gets into these! Barooo! Sometimes I just crack me up! Or if you want to forgo that beer, soak 1 or 2 pieces of bread in a coffee can soaked in beer. They no like.
Or there is my favorite, death by dish soap. You have to be quick but spray that bugger with dish soap. Kills them dead.
You know those annoying buzzers that bite you called mosquitoes? Well, they do not like lavender or citronella. Rub some on and it will help keep them off you. A concoction that Paul Harvey says works is to buy a big blue bottle of cheap mouthwash and mix it with 3 cups Epsom Salts and three stale, cheap beer until dissolved. Spray around your site. It will last about 80 days. Mosquitoes and bugs hate it. Of course, I know a lot of humans who hate stale beer and cheap mouthwash too. Also, avoid the scented shampoos, laundry detergent, and fabric softener. Those little buzzers like scents as well as lights.
Got moths? They are a fun game to try to catch. Mom found that dried lemon peel is a natural deterrent for them. You can put some in a cheesecloth and toss or hang in your closet. Aromatic cedar oil(juniper) soaked on a cloth works too.
We need to talk flies. Boy, do they set me to buzzing by dive bombing my head and landing on me when I’m trying to catch some ZZZs. How rude! If they buzz you too, try putting crushed mint or eucalyptus oil on an absorbent cloth around the moving house. It helps deter them. We never leave my food or any people food open, but if you do, an open container of sweet basil and clover nearby will help discourage them.
Lastly, I hear you asking about mice. Hmm, I’m not a cat, but Mom did say that a couple drops of peppermint oil on a cotton ball and placed where ever mice may enter will deter them. ( Is it my imagination or is peppermint a major pest deterrent?) Food for thought for another day. One of Dad’s students even said he heard putting moth balls in your bays or engine area will keep them out.
“Get that camera out if my face! I am trying to take a nap on Mom and Dad’s bed!”
Okay, I’m done. Time to check out the inside of my eyelids. If you want to bark at me below, please do. Until next time,
Lindsey out…..
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