Basic Guide to Pesticides: Their Characteristics and Hazards
Shirley A. Briggs and the Rachel Carson Council, Hemisphere Publishing Company: a member of the Taylor and Francis Group, 1992
Common-Sense Pest Control: Least Toxic Solutions for your Home, Garden, Pets and Community
William Olkowski, Sheila Daar, and Helga Olkowski, The Taunton Press, 1991
The Bat House Builder's Handbook
Merlin D. Tuttle and Donna L. Hensley, Bat Conservation International, 1993
batinfo@batcon.org
Great Garden Formulas: The Ultimate Book of Mix-it-Yourself Concoctions for Your Garden
Joan Benjamin and Deborah Martin (editors), Rodale Press, 1998Natural Enemies Handbook: The Illustrated Guide to Biological Pest Control
Mary Louise Flint and Steve H. Dreistadt, University of California Press
How to Grow Fresh Air: 50 Houseplants that Purify Your Home or Office
Dr. B.C. Wolverton, Penguin Books, 1996
http://www.wolvertonenvironmental.com/Golden Guides
Golden Press, Golden Books Family Entertainment (formerly Western Publishing Company, Inc.)
Butterflies and Moths - includes color pictures of the caterpillars as well as the adults
Insects - includes many of the insects you are likely to encounter in your garden
Spiders and their Kin - spiders eat more insects per year than birds!
Neem: A Tree for Solving Global Problems
National Academy Press, 1992
The IPM Practitioner: Monitoring the Field of Pest Management, including the annual Directory of Least-Toxic Pest Control Products
Gardens Alive!
5100 Schenley Place, Lawrenceburg IN 47025
Tel: (812) 537-8650 Fax: (812) 537-5108
gardener@gardens-alive.comWOW -- without weeds (formerly called A-maizing Lawn), beneficial insects, Neem-Away, Slug-Out slug flakes, Escar-Go, deer fly Defense Patches, Soap Shield fungicidal soap, Turf-Alive endophytic grass seed, and more.
WOW is a pre-emergent weed control product made from corn gluten meal, a by-product of processing corn for corn starch and syrup, also commonly used to feed animals such as fish, poultry, horses, cattle, and in pet food. Apply it twice a year on lawns to control about 20 broadleaf weeds including dandelions and crabgrass.
Spring application is when the forsythia begins to bloom in your area, or alternatively when crocuses have finished blooming or when the first daffodils or jonquils begin to bloom.
Fall application in most areas is between August 15 - September 15.
Bags are available in 3 sizes: 5-lbs (covers 250-500 sq. foot lawn), 25-lbs (covers 1,500-2,500 sq. foot lawn), and 50-lbs (covers 2,500-5,000 sq. foot lawn). Many Gardens Alive products can now be found in your local Wild Bird Center and Wild Bird Crossing stores.
| ARBICO (Arizona Biological Control, Inc.) P.O. Box 4247 CRB, Tucson AZ 85738-1247 1-800-827-2847 Beneficial insects, cover crop seeds, solar fly traps, and more |
Beneficial Insectary Beneficial insects Rincon-Vitova Beneficial insects |
| Planet Natural P.O. Box 3146, 1612 Gold Ave., Bozeman MT 59772 Tel: (406) 587-5891 Fax: (406) 587-0223 ecostore@ycsi.net Pheramones and traps, beneficial insects, and more |
NeemAura Naturals Neem insect repellant (use instead of DEET products), neem soap, neem creme, and more |
In addition, the local office of the Fish and Wildlife Service (F&WS) should be notified with the relevant details if you see bird kills as a result of lawn service or exterminator spraying. If possible document the scene, take photos, count the dead birds by species if you know which kind of birds are which and write down all the details. If you can, put on rubber gloves, put the bird carcasses in ziploc freezer bags, and freeze them in the freezer for evidence; tell the F&WS officer that you have frozen birds that were killed by pesticides. It is illegal to kill birds through pesticide poisoning. The F&WS will document the case and will ticket the lawn care or exterminating company for breaking the law and this will also help the EPA with the pesticide review process.
Sources of further information
Useful Products:
I lived in an old highrise building with air shafts that connected all the apartments in the building through a hole in the wall in the kitchen and bathroom of each apartment. I taped the 3M furnace filters over the holes in the wall in the kitchen and the bathroom of my apartment and was amazed to see how fast the filters filled up with dust, dirt, mold spores, and whatever other filth was in those air shafts. The filters needed to be changed every two to three weeks -- it was evident when they were full as they started changing from white to dirty gray within a day. It helped in breathing better.
That all changed when I put a breathable dust mite cover on my mattress -- they go on the mattress like a big pillow case and then you put the sheets on top, just like usual. Now I can breathe freely through my nose all night long and wake up ready to start the day. The change has been dramatic. Breathable dust mite mattress covers are available at some Sears stores and Bed, Bath and Beyond stores.
Dust mite mattress covers may help some people who snore and other people with some sleep disorders. It sure is worth a try to improve the quality of your sleep, which affects all aspects of your life.
Information on Wildlife:
Organizations:
Relevant Books:
- Pesticides and the Immune System
- Our Stolen Future
- Our Children's Toxic Legacy: How Science and the Law Fail to Protect Us from Pesticides
- Living Downstream: An Ecologist Looks at Cancer and the Environment
- Chemical Exposure and Disease: the Professional and Layperson's Guide to Understanding Cause and Effect
- Tracking the Vanishing Frogs: an Ecological Mystery
- The Forgotten Pollinators
Videos and CD-ROMs:
- San Luis Videos -- IPM in agriculture
- Desert Landscaping: Plants for a Water-Scarce Environment
MCS Travel in Florida is a clearinghouse for least toxic places to live either temporarily or permanently.
Their publication, The Safer Travel Directory: A guide to the least toxic lodgings, lists campgrounds, bed and breakfasts, retreats, inns, apartments, motels, hotels, condos, trailers, and houses, for rent or purchase, and for people who would like to travel without fear of being exposed to toxic substances.
If you know of healthy places to stay, or have an EI-safe house or room to rent or sell contact the director, Nancy Westrom, mcstravel@aol.com. Copies of the directory are available for $14.
What does green mean?
Green rooms, known under a variety of names, are a growing trend in the hospitality industry following the lead of non-smoking rooms. Some rooms are equipped with special HEPA air filtration systems, water filtration systems, non-scented soaps, use of non-scented least-toxic cleaning supplies, cotton bedding, and decreasing use of pesticides (or none at all) throughout the hotel. Other rooms offer variations on these services.
However, it is important to ask questions, because there is a growing group of "green" hotels that have instituted recycling programs and policies to save water and energy. This does not indicate that the hotel is safe for MCS or EI people to visit.
Several hotels where I've had pleasant stayss
I had to go to San Juan, Puerto Rico on a business trip. Many of the hotels were fully booked during that season so I stayed at several of them, moving to another one every few days as rooms became available and reservations permitted. The best hotel I stayed at with regard to my health was the Hampton Inn right near the San Juan airport. If I ever go back to San Juan I will make reservations far in advance and stay there the whole time.
As a result of my positive experience with the Hampton Inn in San Juan, when I traveled to Vermont from Virginia and back on business several times I stayed at a number of Hampton Inns through Pennsylvania and New York state with good results. In the Burlington, Vermont area both Marriott's Fairfield Inn and TownePlace Suites were good choices for me. This is just an anecdotal report as far as my own experience with these hotels recently. These were their regular non-smoking rooms, and not special allergy-sensitive rooms.
Article on the trend towards green rooms in the hospitality industry
Hotels on the web offering green rooms, eco-rooms, allergy-sensitive rooms, or similar services
Call ahead of time and ask about accomodations for your special needs before visiting any of the following hotels; it is important to ask questions as definitions of green rooms vary as well as level of services offered.
- EverGreen Rooms -- extensive list of hotels at this site
- Ecotels -- lists Ecotels in the US, Mexico, Central America, and Asia
- Special Places Lodging
- BedandBreakfast.com -- extensive list of bed and breakfasts at this site -- search with keywords such as "organic"
- Singleton House Bed & Breakfast, Eureka Springs AR
- Organic Gardens Bed & Breakfast, Three Rivers CA
- Riversong Inn, Estes Park CO
- Pride and Joy Environmental Resort, Melbourne FL
- The Natural Place, Deerfield Beach FL
- Delta Organic Farm Bed & Breakfast, Amherst MA
- Bass Cove Farm Bed and Breakfast, Sorrento ME
- Maple Hill Farm Bed & Breakfast Inn, Hallowell ME
- The Yellow Aster Bed & Breakfast, Southwest Harbor ME
- Applebrook Bed & Breakfast, Jefferson NH
- Earth Friendly Bed and Breakfast, Cream Ridge, NJ
- Enchanted Vista Bed & Breakfast, Albuquerque NM
- Best Western Atrium North, Austin TX
- Marriott Northpark Residence Inn, Dallas TX
- Westin Hotel, Seattle WA
- Arbor House Environmental Inn, Madison WI
- Delta Chelsea Inn, Toronto, Canada
- Hotel Baltzar, Malmo, Sweden
This page is available for sponsorship
Donations are greatly appreciated to continue this important educational work
For questions or comments send e-mail, or to send donations
write to:
A Better Way -- IPM Solutions
P.O. Box 128
Winooski, VT 05404, USA
File last modified: March 3, 2002
http://members.aol.com/homeview2/info/