Give Cockroaches a Natural Death

The University of Nevada has a great .pdf file that provides lots of ways to win the war against cockroaches using natural methods. Safer and cheaper than calling the Man with a Truck ....

Written by Dr. Robert H. Stauffer, Area Extension Specialist, the tips include:

1. Sprays - such as 2 oz of Dr. Bronner's Peppermint Soap per gallon of water, or 3 ounces of rosemary oil per gallon of water. (Dr.Bronner sells his peppermint soap for $1/oz at his site. You can make your own rosemary oil, an online recipe appears at RecipeSource.)

2. Repellants - roaches apparently hate okra, so putting raw or stewed okra around will repel them, as will stewed cucumber peel or crushed bay leaves.

3. Dusts -- boric acid kills those suckers though it may take 10 days for them to die. Good news - if the boric acid powder stays dry, it remains effective for years. Don't pile it, layer it. The Doc recommends mixing it with food the roaches like: he reports that "they are especially fond of beer" and are quite fond of sweets, grease, and the like. (He provides a long list here.)

Boric acid takes no prisoners: it also kills termites, carpenter ants, palmetto bugs, waterbugs, ants, fleas, and silverfish. For more info on boric acid, Al's Home Improvement Center has lots of detail. There, 2 gallons of boric acid are sold for $16.50.

(I've been told that Boric Acid is essentially what the expensive Sears treatment involves, where they take off all the light switch covers, etc., and spray a white powder behind the walls -- but I don't have confirmation of that.)

4. Baits -- recipes provided include a bowl of epsom salts: once consumed, the roach's digestive system is impacted and it dies. Other baits are provided, they include boric acid and a cute one where you get the roaches drunk on beer and then stomp them to death.

5. Traps -- good one with a greased Gatorade jar filled with temptation for the roaches, others with shaving cream or electrical tape.

Filial Responsibility Law - Adult Kids Sued for Care of Parents

Thirty states have filial responsibility laws. Does yours?

Matthew Paluka explains that they are "...statutes that establish a duty for adult children to care for their indigent elderly parents. When enforced, the statutes can require the adult child to reimburse state programs or institutions that have cared for the indigent parent with either a one-time contribution or installment payments."

Paluka explains that in the past, Medicaid practices have curtailed states from requiring adult children to care for their needy, elderly parents - but his report also discusses the amount of Medicaid funding that would be significantly impacted by Filial Responsibility enforcement.

Recent changes in Medicaid legislation, as described at ElderLawAnswers.com, may result in litigation seeking to enforce these filial responsibility statutes, as nursing homes try and find help to cover care costs and expenses that are not covered by the federal government. The forecast involves lawsuits pitting nursing homes against the kids.

Perhaps elderly parents and children should stop and consider their options now. More information in that regard is also provided at ElderLawAnswers.Com.

See also: Filial Responsibility Laws, Medicaid, and Long Term Care Insurance

Organic Gardening: How-To-Do

Bruce Deuley, who has a morning show on KAHL-AM every weekend, has a fantastic site called Organic Matters providing lots and lots of information on organic gardening.

What's that? "Lawn and garden care without the use of toxic chemicals, pesticides, or herbicides," Deuley explains.

Oodles of tips appear on how to use ordinary, easy to find items - like cornmeal or epsom salts - in your lawn and garden .... Recipes are included. A really good site: it even has podcasts of Deuley's radio shows.