Debugging Your Kitchen

Warm weather brings about bugs. Kitchens become meccas for ants, flies and the occasional roach family. Many home chefs have to deal with this by product of higher temps. It is annoying but luckily can be brought under control with the right products.

The dilemma facing many a home owner is how to humanely get rid of these "visitors." Sure, you can use commercial ant sprays but do you want to? Insecticides have strong and always chemical ingredients. These require gloves because of their strength as well as diluting the powder or liquid with the recommended amount of water. Some leave a powdery white residue that could prove to be harmful to children and animals.Ant bait ,used for lure, is a granular sugar like substance that are filled with poison. A more humane and safer way to go is using natural repellents.Lemon juice works well. The sugar loving insects will be repulsed by the fruit's intense sourness.Another natural cure is cinnamon. You would think the spice's musky sweetness would attract them but that' s quite the opposite. Home chefs scatter it along with ground cloves around doorways and windows. Cinnamon oil can also be used. You can also use freshly picked peppermint leaves along with peppermint oil to repel them.

Roaches are year round and even worse to get rid of than ants.Again you can use roach spray and traps. There is the classic Raid which comes in sprays and foggers, It and similar products have a chemical known as pyrethroids which cause paralysis in bugs.Other chemicals used are carbamates and organophospates which render certain amino acids inactive. These cause the bugs to die.One dosing may be great however home chefs need to be very aware that constant use of these insecticides can cause problems in humans and companion animals.Again the best path is the all natural one.A better idea is putting cedar chips in the corners of your kitchen. A classic that has worked for decades is the bay leaf. You can buy them in your store's spice section and strew the leaves where the walls meet the floor.Flies are not so much in a summer kitchen but they are  a problem at outdoor picnics and barbecues. The easiest is having electronic pest devices on the tables. These emit a high pitch sound that scares the bugs away from the food.

Don't let the bugs of summer bug your cooking. Use all natural  remedies to get rid of these critters.It makes for easier and cleaner work.