Insect Pest Solutions

Is this trap really worth the buzz?

Bye-bye, fruit flies.

Goodbye, flies!

Fruit flies don't stand a chance against this solution.

This smart DIY trick is worth the buzz.

Deter fruit flies! Repel mice! Turn cockroaches away! And more!

Skip that orange tank top.

I'm gifting one to everyone I know with a backyard or patio.

"I was losing sleep and living in constant paranoia thanks to the mice and roaches nibbling at the contents of my pantry, and I knew these pests weren’t going anywhere."

You'll either need some cotton balls or a spray bottle.

Protect your kitchen and your patio table!

Unfortunately, DIY ant repellant isn't likely to work.

If you're looking for a way to get rid of cockroaches without using toxic chemicals, we can help.

I caught *at least* 50 fruit flies this way!

Buh-bye, fruit flies!

Here's a VERY good reason to unplug and put away small appliances that don't get used that often.

It will be especially helpful toward the end of the summer.

Some grain beetles can crawl AND fly! Here's how to prevent them and get rid of them (in case you have them).

Buh-bye, spiders.

Did you know that roaches might like to hang out in your coffee maker?

If you've ever had mice or roaches, you might want to stock up.

It never hurts to be prepared!

Here's what a real expert had to say.

You'll want to do this for your dining table inside and your patio table outside!

Forget those DIY methods!

They might just save your summer!

To start, I feel the need to point out that I’m really talking about a little infestation. Actually, I don’t even like the word infestation — we caught ONE mouse and haven’t seen anything since then. I know what most of you are going to say: There’s no such thing as having just one mouse. But we caught the one and that was it. So there you go, we had one mouse — and it shockingly made me love my kitchen even more. Here’s what happened.

Bed bugs get all the press these days. Comparatively, silverfish (and their cousin the firebrat) are pretty harmless, but man are they ugly. It doesn’t help that they hang out in cold, dark, damp places like the basement or under the bathroom sink. If you’ve spotted one of these lurking in your house, or have an infestation, we have some tips for first preventing their arrival, then getting rid of them.

Ladybugs are cute, right? My daughters and I love them — when they’re outside, that is. But last fall, I experienced a bizarre phenomenon: a minor ladybug infestation in my kitchen! I was a little weirded out by how many there were (maybe a dozen) and the fact that I kept discovering them for months. I was worried they might spread disease or eat through the pantry, so I decided to take my ladybug quandary to the pros.

An $8 roll of contact paper can do wonders for your home. You can use it to upgrade old furniture, modernize shelves, elevate countertops, or even forge a backsplash. For the budget-conscious, it’s almost too good to be true. And, as it turns out, some people say it just might be. Why? Apparently cockroaches love contact paper. “Cockroaches will eat almost anything, far beyond what we think of as food sources,” says Howard Bright, the owner of Anti-Pesto Bug Killers.

Pantry moths are the things nightmares are made of. I would gladly take spider mites in every single one of my houseplants, or a basement crawling with earwigs, over pantry moths any day. Here’s why: Pantry moths lay tiny grayish-white eggs in flour, cereal, pet food, and other dry goods. When the eggs hatch, a wriggling mass of larvae feed on your stone-ground whole wheat flour or whatever, form cocoons, and eventually hatch into adults, who will soon lay more eggs.

I live in a one-bedroom “garden” apartment, which means that I get to have my own front door, porch, and small strip of flower bed. The only downside? The flower bed is under the porch roof, which means it’s constantly damp and shady, and also an ideal mosquito habitat. So this year, after frantically trying to squash a few rogue mosquitoes that snuck indoors while I was carrying in groceries, I’ve decided to get myself some mosquito-repelling plants.

Stacy and her husband found themselves with a very trying kitchen on their hands. After two years of living with not enough storage, poor ventilation, and lots of mice, they decided to take the plunge and create a kitchen that was clean, functional, and easy on the eyes. From Stacy: Our kitchen had a hard life. We bought our home back in 2011, a recent flip after the previous owners had foreclosed.

We’ve received plenty of lice notices from my kids’ schools. Each time I’ve checked their heads diligently, trying very hard not to go to the bad place as I scratch myself into next Tuesday. I’ve never found a thing. Until, one time, I did. A few years ago, my daughter woke up in the middle of the night, complaining her head was itchy. I checked her little noggin and found nothing except for a few bites on her neck.

A few weeks ago, I started noticing small roaches occasionally scuttling around my kitchen. This being an old apartment building in New York City, I wasn’t too shocked. I had dealt with mice and ants in my last apartment and once stepped on a dead rat in the middle of the street (a story for another time), so it only seemed natural that cockroaches would one day appear on my personal docket of NYC vermin to confront. It wasn’t like I had a full-on infestation — or so I thought.

Summer is the best time to eat on your patio — it’s also peak season for bees. “Late summer and early fall is when stinging insect colonies reach their peak population levels,” says Dr. Jim Fredericks, chief entomologist for the National Pest Management Association. Across the United States, we get many different species of bees, including carpenter bees, bumble bees, and honey bees, and we tend to think of yellow jackets as bees, even though they are actually wasps.

Some people may prefer granite over marble. Some like galley kitchens versus open concepts. If there is one thing we can all agree on when it comes to the kitchen, though, it’s that pests and insects do not belong in there. “Eh, I don’t mind all those ants in the pantry,” said no home cook ever. That’s why we’ve been working on a bunch of stories to help you trap, outsmart, and even banish these creepy crawlies from the kitchen.

When my husband and I set up our first gas grill last summer, I had one major fear. I wasn’t afraid we’d overcook everything to a crisp or undercook meats at a dangerous level. And I wasn’t worried about hooking up the propane tank incorrectly. What had me so nervous? The idea of spiders (and spider webs, more specifically) in the burner tubes. Last summer, we got a convertible gas-or-charcoal grill by Char-Broil (cleverly named the Gas2Goal).

Here's how to minimize outdoor flies so you can enjoy dining al fresco.

We hate to be the ones to tell you this, but the kitchen is a prime location for flies. “Flies are attracted to rotting fruit and vegetables, rotting meat, and any other material they can find around your kitchen sink or trash can,” says Chelle Hartzer, an entomologist for Orkin. While most houseflies don’t bite, they can carry bacteria like E. coli and salmonella from one spot to another, contaminating healthy foods and potentially making you sick.

Did you know that the phrase “Pantry Pests” is actually a real term for bugs that like to feed on packaged goods? The technical term includes all sorts of things like Indian meal moths, sawtooth grain beetles, cigarette beetles, and drugstore beetles. The pros know a ton of things about these pests, but as a homeowner (or renter!), all you really need to know is this: They’re going to eat your food.

Fruit flies are a fact of life — especially come summer, when fresh produce is abundant and also spoils faster on your countertop. It’s almost inevitable that you’ll find a few buzzing around your kitchen. They’ll eat anything that’s remotely spoiled, can sneak in through open doors or the tiny holes in your window screens, and multiply swiftly.

You may love lemons, but it turns out that ants do not!

The first time I saw a palmetto bug, chilling on the wall of a New York City apartment, it scared the crap out of me. Not just because it was a bug that was bigger than my thumb (ew!), but because the freakin’ thing could fly! I didn’t think roaches could have wings. It turns out I was wrong. After chatting with Michael Bentley, an entomologist with the National Pest Management Association, I learned a few more things about these all-too-common critters.