Cut costs: use food-grade diatomaceous earth, linseed seed oil on floors, and turmeric as pesticide

April 16, 3:14 PMSacramento Nutrition ExaminerAnne Hart

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Diatomaceous Earth is the finely ground fossils of prehistoric fresh water diatoms. If you want to chase away that ant, bedbug, flea, or other bug invasion, try sprinkling food grade diatomaceous earth (fossil shell flour, a natural grade diatomite) on the surface where the ants are crawling.

Never breathe it in as it’s destructive to your lungs. So put on your industrial-strength dust mask and put a teaspoon of food grade diatomaceous earth around where the bugs crawl and away from the wind where it might blow into the air you breathe.

Learn more about diatomaceous earth at Perma Guard or at Internet Grocer Diatome or at Planet Natural . If you do a search engine key word search of food grade diatomaceous earth, you’ll find many different Web sites listed selling the fossil flour online. It’s an insecticide, and also at food grade, used to get rid of some types of insects on an animal’s fur. For use of diatomaceous earth with pets such as dogs or cats, see the Wolf Creek Ranch . Diatomaceous earth has many uses with plants and animals. Use only food grade diatomaceous earth.

Make Your Own Hardwood Floor Polishers
If you use commercial detergent on a carpet or clothing, do you ever think about the excess residue it might leave in the item that could make re-soiling easier and the stain more difficult to remove? Would you like a home-made ‘green’ way to clean almost anything using foods, plants, non-edible minerals, alcohol, oils, teas, vinegar, and leavening such as baking soda or cream of tartar? Do you want to polish your hardwood floor or furniture naturally with olive, jojoba, Tung, or linseed oil? Use only a small amount of oil so you won’t slip and slide. Then rub with a soft cloth.

Use linseed oil for hardwood floors. It comes from flax seed. Let your washed floor dry to prevent mildew. Then use only a bit of linseed oil and polish twice.  

You also could use jojoba oil or Tung oil that comes from the Tung trees of China. If you’ve used jojoba oil to moisturize your skin or hair, you know what it can do to polish other objects made from organic cells such as wood. Also see the Green Living Ideas  site for  more ideas on making your own hardwood floor polish. For centuries people have used oils that come from plants to polish hardwood floors, long before commercial products came with the industrial age.

Historically, people cleaned their house with common ingredients found in their kitchens such as vinegar, salt, milk, and spices. In India, turmeric is used to wash hospital floors. It’s also put on the bodies of children itching with chickenpox, is a food staple, and is used to sanitize various objects. Turmeric also is a pesticide. See the article titled Israeli Natural Pesticide Protects Crops with Turmeric.

In another land, India, turmeric has been put to use as a staple for thousands of years in foods and as a disinfectant on skin and on floors. There are natural insect repellents in the turmeric plant. Cinnamon also is used inside the kitchen to chase away ants.

You can clean almost anything with milk, olive or linseed oil, alcohol, vinegar, baking soda, washing soda, spices and natural ingredients found in many kitchens. Milk removes ball point pen stains from your dryer.

Removing Ball Point Pen Ink Stains with Milk
Suppose your ball point pen got loose in your clothes dryer and ink stained the machine and the clothes. How do you get it out? You could try rubbing alcohol, alcohol-based hairspray, or whole milk on a small paint brush.

Finger nail polish remover (acetone) also works. But acetone destroys acetate fabrics. Ingredients found in your home usually work to get out stains made by ball point pen ink. For some people soaking a stain with whole milk works on the inside of clothes dryers and on some fabrics, whereas rubbing alcohol or acetone-based finger nail polish remover (highly flammable) works to dissolve the ball point pen ink.

When it comes to hardwood floors, before the age of commercial products, people used plant-based oils such as flax seed/linseed oil to polish their cleaned hardwood floors.Wash your hardwood floor with a small amount of black tea and a little water, but not too much. Use olive oil, linseed, or beeswax to shine your floors. Olive oil (not extra virgin olive oil) polishes your furniture.

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