h wrote:
wrote in message
...
On Aug 14, 5:45 pm, "
wrote:
I've got a silverfish and cricket problem in the house. I've read
that diatomaceous earth is good for killing insects.

But I saw some sites say that if you breathe DE, then you might
have
serious lung problems. Then I saw some sites say that there are
different types of DE - you want the "food grade" type, which
apparently is safe for humans, and is even used in flour and
Bisquick. Is that true?

keep your house clean; as long as it don't look ( and smell) like a
pigpen, insect infestation won't be an issue.

Not sure how keeping your house "clean" helps with crickets and
silverfish. The former eat mostly plants and the latter attack books
and natural fiber clothing. I worked in a library with a massive
silverfish problem, and there was no food allowed anywhere near the
stacks. Now if we're talking roaches or ants, cleanliness is
certainly the issue, but not so much for silverfish and crickets.
Besides, many cultures view crickets as good luck.

Then there are "palmetto bugs", which is the euphemism for Florida
cockroaches, which are quite sizeable and _very_ different from the
pathetic little things that Northerners call "cockroaches". A
palmetto bug will eat just about _anything_. I've seen them eat
paint, plaster, styrofoam, and the wax on a high voltage transformer
(that latter proved fatal for both the bug and the transformer). One
could argue that cleanliness was the issue if the kitchen was the only
thing they got into, but there were as many of them in the detached
garage and the equally detached workshop as in the kitchen. Oh, and
they fly, _very_ well--I once hit one with a Cessna at 10,000 feet.

--
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--John
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(was jclarke at eye bee em dot net)