Winter time brings on the bugs, seemingly at the same time every year. The ants in our area seem to love to visit our kitchen when the first heavy rains hit. Almost everyone has to deal with pests.  Whether indoor or outdoors, we need to think about eco friendly, green alternatives to toxic pesticides. Here are some Winter Pest Control Tips that we have found from trial and error.

Access control – Finding Where Ants are Coming From

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Many of us have read about the mysterious declining population of honey bees due to Colony Collapse Disorder. Since 2006 colonies of commercial bees have been slowly wiped out.

During the winter of 2006-2007, some beekeepers began to report unusually high losses of 30-90 percent of their hives. As many as 50 percent of all affected colonies demonstrated symptoms inconsistent with any known causes of honey bee death:

• Sudden loss of a colony’s worker bee population with very few dead bees found near the colony.
• The queen and brood (young) remained, and the colonies had relatively abundant honey and pollen reserves.

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Saving Money and Energy by Washing Clothes in Cold Water

We use Seventh Generation laundry detergent (Great for those with sensitive skin or allergies) in our washer and noticed that the box suggested saving energy by using cold water for washing all clothes. US Dept of Energy calculates that 90% of energy used in washing clothes goes toward heating the water. Save up to $60 a year by using cold water. If 70% of US households washed their  clothes in cold water, we could provide energy 4.4 million households. In 2012 it was estimated that approximately 40% of homes washed their clothes cold water.

In the old days, you would not think about doing this, but with modern washing machines and improved detergent formulations, it is now feasible to only use cold water to wash clothes.

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