A woman sprays plants with chemicals from pests. (Getty Images) Getty Images Everyday Cheapskate Got creepy-crawly insects like ants, centipedes, cockroaches, silverfish, even -- gasp! -- bedbugs trying to take over your home or garden? Don’t call an exterminator quite yet. I’m confident this is a problem you can fix yourself -- cheaper and faster! If you want to treat your home for insects but don’t want to poison yourself, your pets or the earth, your very best option is to use food-grade diatomaceous earth to get rid of centipedes, bedbugs, ants, silverfish, cockroaches, fleas and all other household creepy-crawlies.
DE is an off-white talc-like powder that is the fossilized remains of marine phytoplankton. If you could look at it through a microscope, you’d see that it resembles shards of glass. When sprinkled on a bug with an exoskeleton (centipedes, bedbugs, ants, cockroaches, fleas, etc.
) or placed strategically so that a bug crawls into it, the DE cuts into the exoskeleton, causing the bug to dehydrate and die. Here’s the most amazing thing about DE: It kills bugs but doesn’t hurt mammals. You and your pets can eat it without harm.
In fact, many people add DE to their daily diet to promote good health. Food-grade DE is readily available at garden centers and hardware stores. Just make certain you are purchasing food-grade diatomaceous earth, not the variety for swimming pools, which has been chemically altered and will not work as a pesticide.
It must be f.