applying insecticides indoors

mothballs, ticks, maggot therapy

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There's a bit of confusion around the terms used for products that protect us from insect bites. Repellents are really "cloaking devices" (think Star Trek) they don't really repel insects. They work by hiding you from insects like mosquitoes, or ticks, not by "repelling" them; You become "invisible". This works because biting insects and mites use chemical cues on your own skin to locate you and then find a suitable place to bite. Repellents alter these chemical cues so you become less easily detected.

Contact insecticides, like permethrin, on the other hand, are poisonous to insects that come into contact with them. Permethrin is sometimes applied to clothing and outdoor fabrics as long-term protection against biting insects and mites. Use of permethrin this way began with the military that applied it to uniforms to protect soldiers from mosquitoes, other biting flies, and ticks. Permethrin applied to cloth can remain effective even after repeated washings. It does not, however, work like a repellent. (I know, picky, picky!)

Indoor Insecticides I want to expand a little on my comment last month about why you should not use conventional insecticides indoors. Mostly the answer is you don't need to. By following the suggestions in LivingWithBugs you can find alternative control strategies for virtually all indoor pests. The only exceptions might be certain flea sprays and insecticidal soap for indoor plants. Especially avoid sprays and dusts because these tend to get into the air where they can be breathed. Baits are generally ok.

Mothballs. You really should not use mothballs. They have no use that can't be replaced by a least-toxic alternative.

The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) has launched an excellent webpage about ticks and the diseases they can carry [click here].

Here's one for your next dinner party. Certain flies are highly attracted to dead tissue. See the Forensic Entomology page for details. However, there's another use for these flies - maggot therapy. Some deep wounds heal better when certain fly larvae (maggots) are allowed to feed in the wound. The maggots clean out dead tissue and leave behind antibiotics. There is actually a recognized medical therapy that involves placing surface-sterilized fly maggots in wounds that aren't healing well. For more information see the Maggot Therapy Project.

Nuisance Ants This time of the year nuisance ants are showing up in kitchens everywhere. Ants are looking for food and moisture. As their food sources develop outside this summer the ant activity will shift and you may not notice them so much. For now you can use baits to reduce colony size. See this The Natural Handyman article about baiting for nuisance ants.

Gardening Tips One of the best and least-toxic ways of keeping leaf-feeding insects off your garden plants is with row covers. Row cover material is made from a non-woven fabric that allows sunlight and water to pass through but excludes insects like beetles and aphids. The cloth comes in rolls and is simply draped over the plants you want to protect. It is light enough that it won't crush even tender plants. Edges can be held down with rocks or boards. If you are careful the material can be re-used for several seasons. Row covers can also be used as shading in areas where there is too much direct sunlight (not a problem in Oregon!).

Malaria is a parasitic disease transmitted by certain mosquitoes when they bite. Even today, malaria kills millions of people each year mostly in developing, tropical countries. There still is no cure. Until relatively recently the only treatment for malaria was quinine, and related compounds, derived from the bark of the cinchoa tree which grows in tropical forests. This book is about the search for new sources of cinchoa bark in the the mid-nineteenth century. It describes the scientific exploration for a malaria cure in the jungles of South America and Asia.

The book reads like a good historical novel. The author is a freelance magazine and newspaper writer and the story reflects this journalistic perspective.