Arctic Blast in the Garden!

After all the recent rains, you’ve probably noticed that we have lots of critters munching on the leaves of the vegetables and flowers in your garden. And if you read the labels of commercial pesticides and fungicides, you’ve decided that it’s not worth the risk and resigned yourself to sharing the harvest. And that’s a fine decision. But if you’d like to put more lettuce on your plate without poisoning the produce or your garden, try taking your bottle of Arctic Blast outside and using it to reduce and/or eliminate garden pests.
I’ve been using it for the past 2 years to discourage ants from entering the house-I don’t mind them in the garden if they’re not colonizing a favorite planter or right in the middle of the flagstone path. But if they are, I relocate them by spraying the area. If I have a really bad infestation of fire ants (ouch!!) where they’re apt to drive me crazy, I pour Arctic Blast Concentrate down the nest. And it’s working!!
I’ve spayed my Passion Vine that was crawling with aphids. GONE! And a friend uses it against fungus gnats…the critters that fly in your face when you disturb the soil in a pot. GONE! I used it against White Fly last year. I haven’t seen them this year, but last year…GONE!
One of the best garden uses for Arctic Blast is as an antiseptic if you cut yourself with clippers or get a thorn from the roses. Spray immediately! The garden can harbor all manner of nasty bacteria and a cut can become infected rapidly. Arctic Blast contains rubbing alcohol, hydrogen peroxide and castile soap…all can help prevent infection and speed healing.
And if you get bitten by mosquitos or chiggers/no-see-ums, grab the Arctic and spray the bite. It will immediately stop itching and burning so you won’t scratch yourself into a nasty wound. Arctic won’t prevent the bite, but it WILL stop the itching!

Just a moment of Zen: Avoid spraying caterpillars until you’ve identified what butterfly it will become. I found a fierce-looking caterpillar on my kumquat tree and Googled “caterpillar eating citrus” and was able to identify the precursor to a Black Swallowtail. I put the caterpillar right back on the tree and am excitedly awaiting the elegant butterfly it will become…if a bird doesn’t find it first.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 19th, 2010 at 10:43 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.