On a recent trip to the home store for some eco-friendly slug and snail treatment (subject for another article), we happened across a product from Green Light called “YardSafe”.  Not a pesticide, it is an insect repellent.  A read of the label told us we needed to give this a shot.  Testing, testing…   YardSafe consists of  “EcoGranules” (trademarked name), which are made from wood waste (saw dust and wood shavings from the furniture industry mostly), and works by impairing “the mental faculties of insect intruders…”.  OK, we’ll bite.We brought our bag home and sprinkled some in the path of an ant trail near our pond.  The ants began to scatter pretty quickly, and in less than an hour had completely diverted from their previous path.  So, we spread some more out, and so far have found we have less flying insects near our fountain, and less ant trails in general, which is impressive given that we live on a hill which appears to be a giant ant colony.Again, this is NOT a pesticide, but a repellent.  It does require re-application, as does any such product.  And it is made from waste products that would otherwise end up in a landfill.  We will continue to test, as we are wont to do.  We’ll let you know how it goes.

Filed under: products on June 21st, 2008