Shocking News About Batteries

Did you know that Americans use an average of about eight batteries a year per person? Wow!

Batteries that are thrown away produce most of the heavy metals - dangerous substances like lead, arsenic, zinc, cadmium, copper, and mercury - that are found in household trash. These metals are toxic. They can be harmful to humans and wildlife. When discarded batteries from our trash wind up in landfills, these dangerous metals can seep into the ground water and eventually into the food chain. So, instead of throwing batteries in the trash, we should all take them to a toxic waste disposal area, if at all possible.

Turn off the toys and games (like GameBoys TM) that use batteries when you are not playing with them. That makes the batteries last longer, and you won't need as many of them.

Forty percent of all battery sales are made during the holiday season. Ask for holiday gifts that do not require batteries.

Ask your parents to buy rechargeable batteries and a recharger.

Mosquitoes Don't Like Listerine!

This is for all you happy campers and back yard BBQ people, have a great summer free of the little pests !!! Mosquito Spray....Worth a try I was at a deck party awhile back, and the bugs were having a ball biting everyone. A man at the party sprayed the lawn and deck floor with Listerine, and the little demons disappeared. The next year I filled a 4-ounce spray bottle and used it around my seat whenever I saw mosquitoes. And voila! That worked as well. It worked at a picnic where we sprayed the area around the food table, the children's swing area, and the standing water nearby. During the summer, I don't leave home without it.......Pass it on.

OUR FRIEND'S COMMENTS: I tried this on my deck and around all of my doors. It works - in fact, it killed them instantly. I bought my bottle from Target and it cost me $1.89. It really doesn't take much, and it is a big bottle, too; so it is not as expensive to use as the can of Bug-spray you buy that doesn't last 30 minutes. So, try this, please. It will last a couple of days. Don't spray directly on a wood door (like your front door), but spray around the frame. Spray around the window frames, and even inside the dog house.

Earth Friendly Tips Control Garden Pests

Earth Friendly Tips Control Garden Pests By: Perneet
Protect your organic soil and beneficial insects
While pesticides may eliminate the pest, they most often cause more harm than good. Unfortunately, many home and commercial gardeners are unaware of alternatives to pesticides. That’s because s are a big part of our culture .Reaching for a quick fix—albeit a dangerous fix—is a deep seeded and detrimental habit.

Yet apart from damaging the soil and being a health hazard to people—including our children—pesticides present a major problem. They eradicate species indiscriminately, causing helpful garden co-habitants to disappear along with the harmful ones.

An organic garden with beneficial insects
Indeed, the fact remains that not all insects are unwanted insects. Any kindergartner can tell you that bees help flowers. He or she could also tell you that a ladybug is good luck. But more than just good luck, ladybugs are a highly helpful natural pesticide to have in your garden, feeding on a myriad of insect unwanted insects including aphids if you ever see little alligator like insects around your garden, leave them be! These are the larval stage of ladybugs. Obviously, s are not as intelligent as your average kindergartner—they kill bugs on a wholesale level while upsetting ecosystems and ruining your plants as well as your soil.

Are your garden pests resistant to pesticides?
Commercial farmers today have a strong reliance on pesticides. Large companies sell pesticides to farmers who use them on their crops. Over the years the unwanted insects become resistant to the pesticides and increasingly larger amounts must be used. So it is that the farmer pays more and more money and dumps more and more of them onto his/her crop-our food. The result is a coated crop and a pesticide resistant bug, a crop that is more susceptible to the insect pest.

Birds eat insects!
Encourage birds to come into your garden by placing a bird bath in the garden and by planting plants that will attract birds such as sunflowers. There are even perennial sunflowers that not only attract birds year round but, can also be planted like a hedge and repel deer and other animals. Helianthus maximillani.

Natural pest control is rooted in a vigorous, balanced ecosystem. Years of pesticide use may be so disruptive to a local ecosystem that the land may become unusable after only a few years. They remain in the soil and become more concentrated with each year of use, eventually rendering the soil unable to produce vigorous plants.

Organic alternatives to pesticides
There are many natural, organic alternatives to pesticides that are more long lasting, safe, vigorous and generally effective.

One of the simplest pest control devices is a barrier. By covering a row of crop with a light netting (which allows the sunlight to come through) flying unwanted insects are effectively kept away from the plants. These are generally used for food crops. Cabbage can be protected from flea beetles and green beans from Mexican Bean Beetles. Another simple method of pest control for a small garden is handpicking. Many slugs and Hornworms can be handpicked off of plants with great success. Drop unwanted insects into a dish of soapy water to kill them. Certain moths and bugs can be knocked out of trees with a stick; allow them to fall onto a large piece of cloth so that they can be gathered and, later, submerged in a soapy solution or incinerated.

Beneficial Insects Will Control the Bad Insects
Some insects like the Ladybug and the Green Lacewing are called beneficial because they are the good guys who are on the hunt for the bad guys that are feeding on your plants. Here is a list of beneficial insects, with links to where they are offered by an Earth friendly distributor.