Flies are not only a huge nuisance to animals and people alike; they can spread disease.  Flies are attracted to food, trash, and excrement among other things.  I have set out to eliminate our fly problem.

We empty our trash can everyday.  We make sure the lids are on the large trash cans outside.  We purposely rinse our dishes off upon use so that food is not sitting in the sink.  We do not leave the door open, but close it as quickly as possible.

I believe that our main problem is because of the animals we have in the front yard.  Our ducks wanted to spend their day on our front porch.  They were leaving unwanted “presents” for us all over the place.  My husband and Jake drove them down to the lake not far from our home.  Lucky for us, the ducks now enjoy spending their time away from our home.  Then my husband pressure washed the porch.

We also have cats with kittens.  They attract flies, too.  We gave away our last three kittens that were old enough to leave their mother this weekend.  Unfortunately we had a cat just give birth to five more.  She got pregnant so fast that we did not have time to get her fixed.  This is now one of our priorities.

In my research to correct our fly problem, I immediately reached for a book my sister-in-law gave me last year.  It is called, 1001 All-Natural Secrets to a Pest-Free Property, by Dr. Myles Bader.  There are great tips in this book, but sometimes I feel that Dr. Bader really stretches to get 1001 secrets.  I think that the book would have been better if he only attempted to write 501 secrets.  Some of his tips are a little on the silly or completely obvious side.  However, there are great tips to be found in this book and the best part is that they are all-natural.

Diatomaceous earth (DE) are the fossilized remains of diatoms or a hard-shelled algae.  We use it as an all-natural wormer for our larger animals.  Now we are going to feed a small amount to our small animals, too.  Dr. Bader writes, “For cats feed 1/2 teaspoon every week, dogs should get 1/2 tablespoon each week and horses can get 1/4 cup added to each meal.  The flies won’t go near the horse manure.”

This would be a rather simple fix to the problem.  You can purchase garden grade DE at a good gardening store.  I buy DE from Producer’s Co-op in Bryan, Texas.  If you are not comfortable feeding DE to your animals, you can sprinkle it on the problem areas of your yard or barn.  It should be effective in eliminating your fly problem.

Borax can be sprinkled into your clean garbage cans.  According to this book, flies hate some of my favorite essential oils.  Oils of lavender, peppermint, and eucalyptus help repel flies.  I put some drops of the different oils on cotton balls and put them in different parts of our house where the flies were the most bothersome.

After a little while, I did notice that the flies were not buzzing around me.  My mom asked me, “Where did the flies go?”  She should not have asked because then they started bothering us again.  I wonder if the oil only initially affected them and should be reapplied every hour.

I hope that you are not enduring an invasion of the flies on your property.  It is not fun.  Flies are not called pests for nothing.  If you are unlucky like us, I hope that you find these tips useful.  Until the diatomaceous earth has a chance to work for us, I will be armed with my faithful fly swatter.

Early Sunday morning I woke up with the worst sore throat I have had since I was a little girl.  It hurt so bad that I decided to get up at this insane hour of the night to gargle water.  Before bed I gargled with warm sea salt water, but now I wanted to try something else.  I had read about Grapefruit Seed Extract (GSE) in the Beeyoutiful magazine.  They sell it, but call it Grapefruit Seed Crush.  I had found some in a health food store.  It is called The Original GSE Liquid Concentrate by NutriBiotic.

I warmed up some water and added three drops.  You can hardly taste it in the water.  I gargled for a few times and then I used the rest of the mixture as a nasal rinse.  Like the sea salt, you can feel the tingle of the grapefruit seed extract working.  Hoping for the best, I went back to bed breathing a little easier as I tried to get a few more hours of sleep.

When I woke up, the ache in my throat was gone.  My tonsils were not bothering me anymore.  I was only aware of their presence.  I gargled one more time and performed the nasal rinse before going to church.  I have not needed to again.

In addition to the grapefruit seed extract and the supplements mentioned above, I put my family on the following regimen.  Before bed, I heated up water with eucalyptus and peppermint oil.  We took turns in five minute intervals breathing in the steam.  I combined eucalyptus oil with olive oil for rubbing into one’s chest and the soles of one’s feet.

Everyone is on the mend.  We prevented a full-blown illness from striking our family.  Out of stubbornness, my family refuses to try the grapefruit seed extract.  It is their loss because I am the only one fully recovered.

If you don’t have any grapefruit seed extract, then it is a worthwhile investment in keeping your family healthy and away from the doctor’s office.  You will be able to avoid being put on antibiotics.  It zapped my sore throat and stuffy nose.  It also has the ability to zap internal parasites.  It is certainly something that I will continue reading about and researching.  Grapefruit Seed Extract is my new  friend.

Please remember that I am not a doctor or giving medical advice.  I am just sharing my experience with grapefruit seed extract.  The one thing that I do know is that you must dilute the GSE before use.  Do NOT use it full strength.

Luckily the Texas coast went unscathed this hurricane season so far.  However, the speculation of a bad flu epidemic are rampant.  A  local school has shut down because of the flu.  Reports of swine flu are everywhere.  As a mom, I feel responsible for being prepared to cope with a potential virus.  But what exactly should one really do?

Well let me be clear, I am not a doctor nor do I have a medical background.  I am not giving medical advice.  I am only speaking on the need to prepare for a flu outbreak.  I have researched the subject to my satisfaction and I thought I would share how I am preparing my home.

Prevention:

• I have purchased Vitamin D3.  It is an anti-viral powerhouse.  It helps your body avoid the flu and/or help treat someone with it.

• I have Astragalus.  It is an herb that helps your body boost your immune system.  When any of us starts to feel bad at all or like we are getting something, we start taking Astragalus.  A pharmacist told my mom to take it instead of Airborne when traveling on a plane.  An important note is not to take it if a fever or infection is present.

• Vitamin C is an old standby that helps prevent the flu and colds.

Treatment:

• Garlic is an absolute must.  It is a natural antibiotic.  I use garlic in capsule form, but it is actually better to use raw cloves of garlic.  However for my family, the capsules do not taste bad or smell and are easier to use.  If my children ever have an ear ache, I squeeze the garlic capsule into their ear and plug the ear with a cotton ball.  You can squeeze it directly on your tonsils if they are inflamed.  You can also swallow the capsules.

• Sea Salt dissolved in warm water makes a great mouth rinse.  Just gargle if you have a sore throat.  Snort it up your nostril to help relieve sinus congestion.

• Oscillococcinum is a homeopathic remedy to be used at the first sign of flu.  Follow the instructions on the box and take as recommended.

• Essential Oils offer a wide variety of remedies.  Breathing in the steam from boiling water with a few drops of peppermint oil and eucalyptus oil help clear nasal and chest congestion.  You can also add a few drops of eucalyptus or tea tree oil to olive oil and massage it in to the soles of someone’s feet or chest.  Oregano, tea tree, eucalyptus, peppermint oils are ones I use to fight an illness.

Not only do I have these on hand, but I also have ibuprofen, soup, and other fluids.  Who wants to run to the store when you feel sick?  If the flu is as widespread and bad as they are predicting, then there won’t be anything to buy when you get there.  Don’t over-react, but don’t under-react either.  Just try to be ready for whatever may come.  These are relatively inexpensive items that you will most likely use throughout the year.  I would love to throw away the oscillococcinum when it expires than not have it when I need it.  Wouldn’t you?

I am praying for the health of our families during this flu season made even more frightening with the presence of the swine flu strain.  Don’t be scared; be prepared.

For more information, you can read “Swine Flu: Prevention and Treatment.”  In this article, they have a dosing chart as well as other ideas and supplements.
I really recommend the book, Smart Medicine for a Healthier Child, by Janet Zand, Rachel Walton, and Bob Rountree.  It is a “practical A-to-Z reference to natural and conventional treatments for infants and children.”
Dr. Mercola has a website with tons of information and articles on health, but specifically the flu.

First make sure that you have these supplies.  You need a clean and empty 5 gallon bucket with a lid.  You need a medium sized pot, a long handled spoon, a grater, and a measuring cup.  You also need access to the kitchen sink.  Now for the ingredients.  You need a bar of laundry soap.  I use Zote because the local grocery store carries it.  Fels Naptha, Kirk’s Hardwater Castile, or Ivory are acceptable soaps.  You just don’t want anything heavily perfumed.  You need borax and washing soda.  These are fairly easy to find on the cleaning aisle.

Grate the bar of soap into the pot.  The soap looks like mozarella cheese so my kids and I tease each other with reminders.  “Don’t eat the soap.”  “Hey, remember that is not cheese.”  Now add 4 cups of hot water and turn on the burner to a medium low heat.  Stir with your spoon until the soap has melted.  This is the longest part of the process.

It really does look like mozzarella cheese.

In your 5 gallon bucket, put a cup of washing soda and a 1/2 cup of borax.  Now pour in your melted soap mixture and stir.  You also have the option of adding any essential oils at this point.  I chose Eucalyptus and Lavender.  I used 25-30 drops of each.  The use of essential oils is completely optional.  I buy mine from a company called Beeyoutiful.  I saw from their catalog that they now have lemon oil which I want to try.

When the powder has dissolved, add hot tap water.  Fill halfway and then stir.  Fill all the way and then stir.  Put on the lid and allow it to sit for a day.  It will almost turn into a gel.  At this point, you can pour into an empty laundry detergent container.  Fill it halfway with water and shake.  It needs to be diluted in order to flow through the built-in nozzle of the bottle.  Or, you can fill the container with only your detergent.  Pour out half of what you would usually use because it is concentrated at this point.  Or, you can just scoop out about 1/4 cup of detergent from the 5 gallon bucket for each load.

Filling the bucket with hot water from the tap.

As the water is flowing into your washing machine, add the detergent and let dilute before putting in your clothes.  I have begun doing the latter.  It just works better in the area I have.  Also the kids know one scoop does the job instead of eyeballing the amount they pour into the machine.  If I am washing a load of whites, I will occasionally add hydrogen peroxide to the water to help brighten the whites.  It is much gentler than bleach.  If my clothes are extremely smelly like wet, moldy towels, I will also add some white vinegar.

Using this recipe for laundry detergent is very inexpensive and easy to make.  My children could make it by themselves.  Regardless if you dilute the detergent or use less in its concentrated form, the recipe yields the equivalent of 10 gallons of laundry detergent for about $2.00.  You cannot beat that.  I urge all homemakers to try it.