Customer Reviews

1001 All-natural Secrets to a Pest-free Property

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

First the good. This book provides some very interesting cures for pest problems that I haven't found elsewhere and that may very well work as indicated.

Now the bad. This book provides some cures that are just plain wrong and may even be dangerous. For example, on page 23 Dr. Bader refers to Sevin as an organic insecticide containing pyrethrums and diatomaceous earth -- It's not, actually it's a synthetic insecticide containing carbaryl. On page 22 Dr. Bader refers to diatomaceous earth as safe. It's actually quite dangerous if it's inhaled -- which is easy to do since it's a dust. Dr. Bader also refers to Rotenone as a low toxicity insecticide to humans on page 339 -- wrong again -- it's one of the highest toxicity organic insecticides. The list goes on and on. I also wonder why, as a doctor of preventive care, he refers to tobacco and tobacco smoke so much.

To sum up -- there are some great ideas in this book, but it's not one that I'd recommend because of the faulty and even dangerous statements that it makes about certain cures. Better choices might be Jerry Baker's books, especially his old ones like Plants are Like People or The Impatient Gardener. Sharon Lovejoys book Trowel and Error, or Jeff Gillman's book The Truth about Garden Remedies. All of these books offer a bit more explanation about possible cures and the research in these books is significantly better (especially Gillman's book which includes many references and where the author talks about trials that he has conducted himself).

I bought this book hoping to find some cures to insect and disease problems on my plants. What I found instead was poor editing, information that seems to come from the top of the authors head, and drawings that are amaturish at best.

Information in this book usually comes in poorly organized one sentence long blurbs that don't supply data on where the information originally came from or how likely the cure is to work, which is important since there seem to be about thirty "cures" for each problem. I guess the author just expects us to keep trying the wacky cures (some of which do include poisons)until one works - if any of them really do.

I did try a few of the cures including a wierd baking soda mixture, and a citrus spray. Neither of them worked. If the author had actually tried these cures I would think that he would have provided more information on them - In other words I doubt that the author tried these cures himself.

As a doctor I like the idea of safer cures. This book misidentifies certain practices as cures, misspells simple words, and gets the facts wrong about the safety of many cures and chemicals (what he thinks is in Sevin would be particularly amusing - if it weren't so potentially dangerous). I strongly recommend avoiding this book.

Dr. R

TV hype is misleading-its not worth the money for following reasons:
1. If you have to go to multiple stores to buy a half dozen ingredients for 1 spray, it will occur to you to just buy 1 spray. Isn't it like buying 5 batteries to recharge one?
2 He spends a lot of pages telling you why he loves various pests rather than how you rid yourself of them. I got it for frogs. Nothing on that but a lot about why toads are good.
3.Rid yourself of ants by leaving tainted cat food in the bushes. Hmm. Isn't the reason you would have cat food that you have a cat?
4. Some suggestions were downright hilarious- I live in Hawaii and have bamboo around every side of the premises. I guarantee that it does nothing to discourage mosquitoes howevermany dragonflies may like the bamboo. And the notion crows may be deterred by socks that look like humans? In fairness, I did not climb trees to hang them because I would hear crows laughing.

I should have just listened to my Aunt Thelma and used the Blue Cheer soap and water combo to keep bugs away. She always said to spray your garden, fruit trees, and around the base of your house and it would keep the insects and spiders away. I feel like I paid $25 for the same advice that I got free from her. My biggest complaint is that the same solutions are repeated over and over and over again. This book would only be 1/3 the size if the author had only put each "tip" in once -- and 1/3 again smaller if he had used a font size that was smaller and left out the dumb drawings. Also whoever proofed this book did a lousy job. Ex.: "If you spray areas where they frequent with a soapy solution you can get ride of them that way as well." Just silly errors that should have been caught and are very distracting. At the price you pay for this book you shouldn't have to worry about typos. Sometimes the same tip is even listed twice under the same category. Obviously I was very disappointed.

Although there are a ton of great ideas in this book, it's a difficult book to read due to the lack of an editorial staff.

It is not "all-natural" as the title implies.

Simple spelling errors, grammatical errors, and a lack of organization all give this book 2 stars.

I think it "bugs" me (pun intended) also that he calls spiders insects. "Spiders are beneficial insects and are welcome in most homes." p.46 I know I'm being picky, but it irks me that someone that has studied zoology would make an error like that.

Keith

The "cures" didn't get rid of spiders or water bugs, (roaches), but there were fewer of them.

Am hoping that there is a residual effect with some of the products.

Every homeowner should own this book. Protecting your home and investment should be protected from unwanted critters and varments with natural methods, not pesticides and herbicides. If you have children and pets, using toxins will put their health and well-being at severe risk. These chemicals can cause serious physical and mental damage.

I have had excellent results from using his techniques, not to mention saving a lot of money.

John Sherman, PhD

So far everything I've tried has worked. Especialy the amonia for skunks and lemon juice for fleas.

I purchased this book about a year ago and lended it to someone. Could not get it back. So, I purchased it again. This time I used to to battle our ant problem.

He has good ideas; they work; they are simple.

Highly recommend this book

Although some items listed in book are hard to find.
Info. in book worked for me. I got rid of flies.