Customer Reviews

Dead Snails Leave No Trails: Natural Pest Control for Home and Garden

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1 star:		(2)

 

 

I read the entire book from cover to cover with a highlighter in hand. I could not stop reading (and highlighting). This book was exactly what I was searching for. A complete and natural guide to ridding my garden of those pesky pests. I have used many of Loren's "receipes" and can honestly say they work. I would and do recommend this book to anyone who has a love for gardening, a love for nature, and a hate for destructive pests who get in the way.

This is probably the most handy garden book in my collection for quick reference for a variety of maladies. Although it is small in size it is big on help. The author is a local weatherman in San Diego and many of the garden tidbits included on his televison weather segment are in this book. If you want to know to rid your garden of pests in a "humane" way than this book is for you. The recipes are more on the organic natural method as opposed to insecticides. There are plenty of old recipres for geting rid of those unwanted visitors to your garden. The book also provides good information on the beneficial visitors including some of the lesser known variaties. For example, recently I was being "bugged" by these hovering flies that mimic the flying motion of helicopters and I was trying to think of a way to rid my garden of them. After checking this book again I found out they are Syrphid Flies and actually are great pollinators and beneficial for controling aphids. Besides telling you o f the purpose of the insects or critters there are also mini history lessons on the origins of the visitors to your garden. Like this little tidbit of garden facts there are countless other informative ideas to help you have a better garden. Recommended for garden hobbyists who like to read in the garden after putting in some labor.

I listened to Loren's tips for years on television. It is nice to have so many of them compiled in one handy resource. The tips contained are cost-effective, easy to use, and far better for people and the enviroment. Highly recommended!

This book has great creative ideas to keep your garden pest-free and full of life! Highly recommend.

While the solutions in this book may work, they are largely impractical. Eucalyptus is recommended to discourage ticks from infesting your dogs, and later in the book it is noted that dogs don't like the smell of eucalyptus. As most dog owners will tell you, man's best friend will retaliate by covering up the eucalyptus smell with something they do like, such as eau de feces or dead fish.
The solution for bats taking up residence in the home is to plug their entrance and exit holes. While this will certainly work, as a practical matter it will drive the homeowner nuts as bats can squeeze through a surprisingly small space, and most homes are just not that airtight. Maybe if a person filled their entire attic with foam it would work.
The suggested solution for ground wasp nests is to pour honey on the area to attract skunks who will be attracted by the honey and will break up the wasp nest to get at the wasps, which they also like. Those of you who have dealt with ground wasps are already laughing with glee, visualizing some unsuspecting person approaching a ground wasp nest with a jar of honey. These bees are aggressive and will happily attack the honey wielding interloper and follow him for a considerable distance just to make a point. I suppose one could put the honey into a paper bag an lob it at the nest, leaving only the skunk to deal with later.
For the practical jokers among us, many of these suggestions may be passed along to an unsuspecting mark.

This book provides nice reviews of life cycles of various pests and beneficial speicies, but very little practical, useful information for controlling most of the pests. Very superficial work.