Articles tagged “Insects”

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           

Garden Smart with Companion Planting By Josh Peterson IN Home & Garden May 14 2009 Gardening is a popular and incredibly wonderful way to go green. Growing your own food reduces food miles, storage and packaging waste. Another great aspect of gardening is that you can ensure that there are no pesticides used on your crops. + READ MORE

Make All-Natural Pesticide Out of Garlic By Josh Peterson IN Food & Health May 11 2009 You want to be an organic gardener, you really do. You've attracted beneficial insects and birds to watch over your garden. You've planted some marigolds to ward off nematodes. You've even planted gopher purge to, uhm, purge gophers, but you still have whiteflies and aphids everywhere. + READ MORE

Control Pests Through Companion Planting By Josh Peterson IN Home & Garden May 11 2009 One way to control pests in your garden without the use of pesticides is with companion planting. Companion planting is the method of growing plants to repel destructive insects while attracting beneficial insects. + READ MORE

6 Green Steps to a Centipede-Free House By Josh Peterson IN Home & Garden May 8 2009 Red meat, specifically beef, has the highest carbon footprint of any other meat. If you're really interested in cutting down your carbon consumption, reducing the amount of red meat is probably the easiest way to do it. However, many people are staunchly opposed to the thought of not eating beef. + READ MORE

Tell Mosquitoes to Buzz Off, Naturally By David DeFranza IN Travel & Outdoors May 1 2009 Warm weather is finally here and that means one thing: Mosquitoes and other biting insects are ready to swarm. The iching bumps that result from an attack are as much a part of the season as a sun tan or barbeque but, depending on where you live, mosquito bites can be more than just a summer annoyance. Malaria, yellow fever, and West Nile virus are all spread by mosquitoes. Preventing a bite from these insects is clearly important, but who wants to use DEET based repellents known to be harmful to both the environment and our health? + READ MORE

7 Tips for Keeping Pests Out of Your Home Naturally and Effectively By Josh Peterson IN Home & Garden Apr 28 2009 By preventing pests naturally, you'll prevent the need for those nasty pesticides. A recent study has linked pesticides to Parkinson's. As if that's not bad enough, pesticides can kill animals that need not be killed, damage the water supply and cause other illnesses in humans. + READ MORE

How Backyard Beekeeping Benefits Everyone, Plus: 4 Ways to Make Friends with Bees By Nicole Willner IN Home & Garden Apr 22 2009 I remember watching the film My Girl as a young kid and walking out of the theatre frightened by bees...As an adult I learned they are not entirely harmful and in fact are an extremely vital part of our human existence and well being. Some bees supply us with health-promoting honey or beeswax, and mostly all bees take part in pollinating our landscape, a necessary step in the cultivation of our food supply. + READ MORE

Focus on Focus Earth: A Bee Mystery By David DeFranza IN Focus Earth Apr 10 2009 Apiculture, or the maintenance of honey bee hives and colonies by humans, is an ancient art and, over the course of its more than 3,000 year history, it has weathered pests and plagues, setbacks and disasters. Still, in centuries of... + READ MORE

How to Get More Beneficial Insects in Your Garden By Josh Peterson IN Home & Garden Apr 10 2009 Near 70% of all animals are insects and most of those insects are beetles. If you are an animal born on the planet earth, you have, like, a 2/3 shot of being born a beetle. The biologist J.S.B. Haldane often quipped that The Creator had an inordinate fondness for beetles. If The Creator is fond of beetles, then maybe we should learn to live in harmony with them. Now, let?s take that lesson back to the garden, shall we? + READ MORE

Don't Kill Spiders By Josh Peterson IN Travel & Outdoors Apr 9 2009 Spiders are creepy. They have eight legs and a bunch of messed-up looking eyes. They shoot webs out of their hinders and have crazy, bitey mandibles. The kicker: Some spiders are poisonous and can kill you, paralyze you or rot your flesh. That's horrible. No wonder everyone is against spiders. But maybe you shouldn't be. + READ MORE

Green Glossary: Yellow Rain By Mickey Z. IN Travel & Outdoors Apr 6 2009 The Ecology Dictionary gives us the literal scoop. Yellow rain is a "powdery, poisonous, yellow substance reported as dropping from the air in southeast Asia and found to be the excrement of wild honeybees contaminated by a fungal toxin." + READ MORE

Battle Backyard Pests, the Green Way: No Green Thumb Necessary By Sara Novak IN Home & Garden Mar 2 2009 You work so hard to get your garden in order and they come along and destroy all of your progress. So to get back at them why not go out and buy the strongest insecticide poison that you can find? Not so fast, it will do so much more than just kill those insects you recently declared war on. + READ MORE

Nine New Frog Species Discovered: Why You Should Care By Jessica Root IN Travel & Outdoors Feb 3 2009 According to Robin Moore, an amphibian expert working with the environmental group Conservation International, ten new species of amphibians were recently spotted in the mountains of the Darien region in Columbia (on the Panama border). + READ MORE

Use This Eco-Friendly Way to Dethrone Lord Flea (Video) By Josh Peterson IN Home & Garden Nov 25 2008 Nothing is worse than a melodramatic flea king, except perhaps liver damage and cancer. Topical flea killers such as collars, powders, sprays and dusts can harm your pet, your child or even you. + READ MORE

Treat Your Skin Problems Naturally with Tea Tree Oil By Sheila Shaigany IN Food & Health Nov 17 2008 But it didn't take very long for aboriginals to discover the many benefits that tea tree leaves have on the skin. Australians were the first people to press crushed tea tree leaves onto the skin to help heal their cuts, burns and infections. Talk about good instincts! Of course, today we have science to reaffirm those initial instincts-to teach us why Tea Tree Oil promotes a faster healing of the skin. + READ MORE

How to Map Migrating Monarch Butterflies By Brian Merchant IN Travel & Outdoors Nov 4 2008 Every year, Monarch butterflies make their international migration?towards and into Mexico in the fall, and back up to the northern parts of the Midwest in spring. They began their trek south in late summer. + READ MORE

5 Reuses for: Orange Peels By Team Planet Green IN Home & Garden Sep 8 2008 Growing up, my mother always came up with creative ways to reuse household objects - ones that my father would, in typical fashion, refer to as "all junk." Her biggest cause was probably saving orange peels from getting dumped in the trash. Thanks to her eco-friendly instincts back in the day, I can now think of close to 50 different uses for an orange peel, instead of just throwing it away. Here are five of my favorites. + READ MORE

Greensburg Glossary: Pesticides By Team Planet Green IN Food & Health Jul 30 2008 Pesticides are substances that protect plants against molds, fungi, and insects. Some of the many symptoms of pesticide poisoning include: altered personality, memory loss, difficulty concentrating, dizziness, headaches, hyperactivity in children, wheezing cough, liver damage, kidney damage, constipation/diarrhea,... + READ MORE

Surfaces Made of Pao Lope "Floor" Green Enthusiasts By Team Planet Green IN Travel & Outdoors Jun 19 2008 During their tour of the greenest home in Santa Monica, Ed and Rachelle see many pleasing combinations of eco-friendliness and aesthetics. Among these is sustainable flooring made from pao lope. Just what is pao lope and why could it be a green choice for your floors? Read on to find out. + READ MORE

Meet an Expert Dad: Jeremiah McElwee of Whole Foods By Lynda Fassa IN Food & Health Jun 9 2008 My good friend Jeremiah just became a dad--again!Natural Dentist Toothpaste Both the kids' and adults' version of this toothpaste are great, and contain no sodium lauryl sulfate, which can aggravate sensitive gums. + READ MORE