Mosquito Eliminator

The DIVA's MESH Mosquito Eliminator

I am so sick and tired of these crazy summer mosquitoes!

They keep attacking my precious Baby DIVA and it is making me quite angry. I am not the only one either. Hubbs-to-be has turned into the one man mosquito eliminator! Seriously I am not kidding. The man has gone crazy planning and plotting the demise of every mosquito in the Texas area. So far he has removed any possible breeding grounds for the beasts that are withing a 50 foot perimeter of our home. He then sprayed like mad the surrounding areas of of home to destroy any traces of the beasts that may be lingering. Next hubbs-to-be placed citronella candles at every door way, the smell and glow now invites us in to our warm home each time we come walking up to the entrance. This was followed by the bug light zapper that now adorns our front entry way. Believe it or not, after all of this those hideous beasts still found the sweetness of my Baby DIVA and left their mark on her face again throughout the night. So Hubbs-to-be took it another step farther. Citronella candles reside around Baby DIVA's crib. I washed Baby DIVA every night in Lavender not only to keep her clean and comfortable and sleepy but to help battle those bugs. Was not getting the job done though! We then purchased the Off bug clip on thingy, which I might add was quite difficult to find as EVERY store within a 10 mile radius sold out over the 4th of July weekend and left us hunting like mad to find one. We finally did and clipped it to the crib at night. And guess what? Still that crazy pest left a mark on her cheek.

So now several weeks in to this battle we have finally finally found the right ingredients and perfected of eliminator cocktail and Baby DIVA has made it through the night with no new face bites!! Thanks to my Mother-in-law-to-be, Baby DIVA now truly sleeps like a DIVA with white mesh draped elegantly around her crib, keeping those horrid bugs away from her!! I don't know where they were sneaking in from. We don't see them in the house and they don't attack me or the Hubbs-to-be. I guess we are just not sweet enough! But now we have The DIVA's MESH Mosquito eliminator and it worked totally fabulous!!!

Failed against the beasts who want my Baby DIVA's sweetness

Citronella provides a deterrent but was no match for the horrific beasts!

So now Baby DIVA is protected with MESH and we can all rest better!! Woohoo!!

Tuesday Tidbit

Are we already back at Tuesday again? Wow time sure does fly when your are having fun with Pink Haired Momma and Baby DIVA.

So what goodies do we have to share this week in Tuesday's Tidbit? Well this week Baby DIVA and Pink Haired Momma are going to share something useful for the garden. I have mentioned before my issue with bugs! I do not like them one bit. Gross disgusting little pests. I don't like them in my house or in my garden.

Recently, my planted surprises have begun to sprout and produce the beginnings of a harvest! Woohoo! We actually had fresh spinach leaves this weekend a top our grilled portabella mushroom burgers! Total Yum Fest! Even more yummy because we had homegrown spinach on it! Oh and yummy store bought mozzarella!! Again Woohoo!!

I took notice though that my Broccoli, poor little leaves that have made their way to the surface and out into the open air of Pink Haired momma world, have bite marks all over the leaves. I was so angered because I knew right away it was one of those pesky little critters called an INSECT!!! UGH!

Again I hate them little boogers; but I do not use chemicals in any way to get rid of these beasts. I am highly allergic first off. Secondly, I have a child and pets and thirdly I do not want to put chemicals into the ground where food will grow that my family will eat. Many other reasons apply but these are the three main reasons of my choice.

So what to do about this problem. I stalked the net for my answers (and yes if you have been keeping up with my blog over the last few days you will find a lot of stalking the net has been going on) and I also read (read is a loose term as I have a 6 month old Baby DIVA, reading time is limited to toilet sitting only) various bug and garden books.

Here is what I have come up with. This Tuesday's Tidbit is a fabulous non chemical way to rid those nasty beasts from your garden plants. I will be putting this into play very soon myself. It is...

PEPPER SPRAY

Capsaicin found in peppers is the answer! Little boogers will be heated to the core! ( I do feel a tiny bit of guilt so I will make sure a small bowl of water is placed outside for those "smart bugs" that need a little coolin').

So you take 1/2 cup of finely chopped ground peppers and mix with 1 whole pint of water. Let sit for 24 hours. Drain into spray bottle and then go to town! Spray the soil all around the plants and watch as the pesky beasts pack up their hot little bods and move it on out or fry from the heat!

**Just a little note: Peppers are hot, use gloves when chopping and never ever put your fingers in your eyes or spray this near your face silly! However if a scary person jumps out of the bushes in your backyard and tries to attack you while you are scaring away the pesky beasts this might just be a good thing to spray in THEIR face. Chances are slim you will have to do this though.**

Ants Ants Ants

One of the many joys about Spring and early Summer time here in the South is that, as the warm air begins to embrace our magnificent area, the ants begin to hunt for cooler ground. This results in sugar ants packing up and moving their colonies indoors. And by indoors I mean they are moving inside MY doors, and I am NOT happy about it!!! I have battled these sugar ant issues for many years in many homes. I have even fought the battle with these crawling creatures when I resided on the 9th floor of a high rise condominium many years back (the younger days…oh the stories to share…wait! Wait! getting off track here). These pesky little critters drive me insane!! I am constantly wiping my entire dwelling with my Homemade Cleaning Wipes in hopes of repelling these tiny demons.


Now that I am the mother of an almost 6 month old Baby DIVA, who I might add, is on the verge of taking off in a full force speedy crawl around the floor of my home any minute now; I totally think the ants are aware of this impending scenario and are using it against me. They seem to have multiplied into the most gigantic colony on the face of the planet here inside my home. They are coming out of the WALLS!!!

I am going CRAZY! Crazy like when you step on the ant hill and all the buggies scatter in all different directions. Well I am feeling a bit like my ant hill has been mashed and I am running every which way to get it back in order.

In between my advanced scrub with my wipey techniques to abolish these beasts, I cannot help but ponder the following question. Are the ants really in a retaliatory mode against me this year, or have I just become a Pink Haired Momma who stalks every area her Baby DIVA has access to like a crazy over involved parent? Upon these ponderings I have officially decided the ants are waging war against me and I must accept the battle and conquer my Land aka my indoors!

Now I know you are probably thinking, “Okay Pink Haired Momma get some buggy ant spray and call it a day”, right? Well my friends not only am I suffering from the nothing that kills anything around my new baby syndrome, that almost all new mother have, I also have an incredibly severe allergy to any kind of bug killing product. Seriously, I do. It makes me devastatingly ill. I cannot be anywhere near any form of chemical used to eliminate creatures of this kind. We truly only use organic and non-harmful methods of elimination for these insect creatures in the Pink Haired Momma’s world.

After some extensive research by Hubbs-to-be, my Mom and myself we have come up with a solution to eradicate these pests in a non-threatening fashion. Hubbs-to-be decorated our yard and every nook and cranny around our house tonight with this wonderful and safe for me and Baby DIVA crawling creature eliminator Diatomaceous Earth. Our yard and all the nooks and crannies are now covered with a film of white powder that I am hoping in the next day or so dissolve away all my buggy problems.

I have provided here a link for you to examine this product at Amazon.com. We had a hard time locating a store here in our area of Texas that could provide us with what we wanted. Hubbs-to-be finally located a small package at a Lowes by his job and we are giving it its trial run before purchasing any more.

I sure hope to provide a fabulous report on this product in the next few days. I imagine myself saying, “Not only is organic, safe, and non-harmful for people, pets, and Baby DIVA; it also KILLED MY ANTS!!!!!”

Tea Tree Oil

I love Tea Tree oil.

I always have. This passion dates back 10 years ago to when I was first introduced to this remarkable oil as a brand new massage therapist (Yep just another hidden talent I have. I am a real life massage therapist I just don't choose to do this as my career anymore ).

I use tea tree oil for everything from brushing my teeth to cleaning the house. It is a great antibacterial, anti fungal anti anything bad and is not too bad of a smell.

I am so dazzled by this oil that I wanted to share my newest trick with you!

About 2 months ago I decided to make homemade baby wipes for Amelia. I took a roll of bounty paper towels and mixed in some water, baby oil, baby soap, and tea tree oil. The wipes came out just fine ( i did use them on her briefly)However I quickly found myself using them in a totally different manner. Don't you just love it when you embark on something and it takes you in a completely unexpected direction.

I begin to clean the counters and window sills and just about any other surface i came in to contact within my house with these wipes. I quickly begin to notice that my house smelled lovely, there seemed to be no bugs entering the house (natural repellent) and I felt germ free.

These wipes live happily under the kitchen sink in an air tight Tupperware container and they are brought out whenever I feel the need to call them to duty. The tea tree not only sterilizes but is a natural bug repellent as well, and the smell is quite pleasant. So now not only is my house super clean and disinfected, but it also is pest free. This is double great because I have a fantastic allergy to all bug repellents and chemicals and can not use them at all.

So in light of the Swine Flu and all its glory I thought that after 2 months and the success I have encountered I would share this great oil with you and you too can be disinfected and bug repelled in a cheap and easy way.

If you have never been exposed to Tea Tree oil her are some links for you to study up on:

my favorite brand of essential oils
http://www.auracacia.com/

Wikipedia says

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tea_tree_oil

Cool and informative site

http://www.teatreewonders.com/natural-healing.html

And if you would like to make your own baby/cleaning wipes here is the recipe i used:

2 TBSP Baby liquid soap
2 TBSP baby oil

5 Drops Tea Tree Oil
2 Cups Water
1 roll of bounty paper towels (seem to work the best)

Cut the roll of paper towels in half and remove the cardboard liner (recycle using in crafts or compost)
You may want to unroll further to allow ease when retrieving wipes with ease later on

Place paper towels in a air tight container

Mix the above ingredients together until well blended and then pour over paper towels

Make sure paper towels are fully saturated

Then place the air tight lid on container and use wipes whenever needed.