After fifteen years of using organic products to maintain our urban farm, we finally gave up the rat bate box. We heard the news of a famous southern California mountain lion that died eating rat bait. After that I felt If I didn't kill any more animals, his death would be worth something.
Then came an unbelievable attack of earwigs! Flying *&(+"^! Earwigs. Several nights were right out of a horror movie. I saw the air was thick with insects but failed to acknowledge that they were earwigs! We were finding them on our bodies and in my hair but I thought they were falling from the trees and maybe jumping off the walls. I didn't know earwigs could fly. One woke me up crawling on me and I found several more that night in the bed. I thought maybe they were nesting in one of my house plants. I decided to drag my big tree out to the patio and check it out.
As soon as I opened the door, earwigs dropped from the door sill into my hair and onto my body. My husband ran to get a can of Raid while I frantically vacuumed hundreds of earwigs up from the floor and walls. We were up most of the night vacuuming as they came ot of hiding in the cracks and door jams. Our pest control company was kind enough to send someone out the next morning.
So after fighting the urge to use pesticide's to keep almost an acre of fruit and garden's looking good I have failed. They sprayed the hard stuff.
We have three nests of birds on our patio. Normally we have blue belly lizard's running all over the walls. I had to watch them die after enjoying a last feast of sprayed insects. The birds are eating the dead one's too. I am just sick over it. The hardest part is looking out to see millions of earwigs filling the air again. They are landing on me on our patio columns and our tress and plants. Spraying did not decrease the number of earwigs or stop them from swarming. I have possibly killed lizards, frogs and maybe some birds too in my bug panic. This is the problem. Most of us grew up in pretty sterile environments and have lived on concrete most or all of our lives. We are terrified of bugs that don't even hurt us. They may pinch you if they get scared but probably not. It is a gross event to go through but if patient for a few days the bugs will usually move on with just a deterrent like soapy water, Rosemary, or neman oil. I hope this is the last time in my life I ever feel the need to spray pesticide. The "best we could" just isn't good enough!