The Use Of Borax

Carpet beetles, aka woolly bears, are dreadful pests and you don't need a carpet to get them. Equally at home in wooden floors as they are in rugs, carpet beetles can plague households and can be very difficult to get rid of.

If you are diagnosed as having a carpet beetle infestation, the first thing to do is to wash or dry clean everything you can. Segregate your clean clothes and cover them in plastic or cloth garment covers - cloth ones are preferable. You can even use hypoallergenic pillow cases that have zips at one end. These are excellent for storing jumpers and 'foldables', as they protect, but allow the fibres to breathe.

The next step is to buy some Borax.

Borax is a naturally occuring mineral, widely used in detergents, water softeners, soaps, disinfectants, and pesticides. It used to be readily available, but is now becoming increasingly difficult to find, partly due to low demand.

Borax is a very safe substance with low toxicity for humans and household pets, however it can still pose health hazards and should be used with care.

Registered in 1983 for control of cockroaches, ants, grain weevils and several beetles, it has also been used as an herbicide along rights-of-way, as a fungicide for citrus, as a wood preservative / fire retardant, and even as an insect repellent in insulation.

If you are going to use Borax on your floors, you should patch-test them first to make sure that no adverse reaction occurs.

The powder may be injected into cracks and crevices, where it forms a fine layer of dust. Insects travel through the Borax, which adheres to their legs. The poison is ingested when the insects groom themselves resulting in death three to ten days later.

As long as the Borax is not allowed to become wet, its continuous presence ensures that any hatching insects are exposed and die. Many insecticidal applications can be effective for more than a year.

SDA Pest Control, "Long Acre", Bluntisham Road, Needingworth, St. Ives, Cambridgeshire
01480 465684