Gosh, isn’t that nice? Go ahead, click the photo to see it up close.
Well, come on back from your happy place now, because summer also brings some not-so-good things to NYC. No, not the constant smell of wee…. something worse.
Roaches.
As much as I despise them, I have three cats and a kid who still likes to play on the kitchen floor. Spraying a bunch of poison around
is out of the question.
What else to do?
Here’s some of the all- (or mostly-)natural things I’ve done to get rid of roaches.
Clean up. This one is obvious, but it bears repeating. Of course, I have yet to figure out how to clean behind the stove or fridge, so this can only go so far.
Bay leaves. I’m sure this would work better if I had a bay laurel tree, but dried bay leaves from the supermarket will drive roaches away. They need to replaced fairly often to keep working, though.
Catnip. This works the best of anything I’ve tried so far. I put some into fill-your-own tea bags and then stash them throughout the kitchen.
Spraying soapy water on bugs. Okay. This works — on all bugs, as a matter of fact — but for an incredibly gross reason. Soap dissolves the “glue” that keeps a bug’s exoskeleton together… leaving you with a disassembled insect. Barf.
Borax. (Or boric acid, although it’s more toxic and harder to find.) Mix borax with virtually anything and dump the powder into the cracks and crevices. I’ve tried borax with cocoa powder and sugar, but I’ve seen suggestions for cornstarch, flour, white rice, sweetened condensed milk — one site suggested putting chopped onion in it but I’ll be damned if I’m doing any food prep for bugs.
These have worked for me so far, but I’m constantly collecting more ideas, in case things ever get worse. I hear mint and cedar work well, although I haven’t tried it. Also, cucumber and garlic, but isn’t just leaving bits of food out to spoil?
Fellow New Yorkers (and other city dwellers), have you tried to get rid of bugs in your kitchen? What worked?
For those of you not living on the eastern coast of the US, here’s what you’re missing out on: rain. Rain, more rain, cloudiness, then some downpours, followed by a 30-minute window of sun where you shout, “Holy shit, I see the sun! GET YOUR SHOES ON EVERYONE!” which will immediately be followed by more rain. It’s been going on like this for weeks now — or at least I think it’s been weeks, as without any sun, I have lost any sense of time. (It’s still May, right? Memorial Day soon?)
While I’ve been stuck indoors, fretting over my fire escape plants and hoping an average of 12 minutes’ sun a day will keep everything alive, I stumbled upon this website for Window Farms — “vertical, hydroponic, modular, low-energy, high-yield, edible window gardens, built using low-impact or recycled local materials.”
Here’s the basic idea:
I seriously cannot stop thinking about this. I’m fairly sure it’s completely insane for me to think about building one of these — as I have zero DIY abilities and don’t even own a drill — but COME ON. How frigging cool is that thing? The prototype is growing tomatoes, lettuce, beans, cucumber, okra, basil, arugula and peppers. Okay, okra is kind of gross, but fresh basil! In the middle of winter! How could you not want that?
So, there I was, watching SpongeBob with my kid, when there was an ad for The Topsy Turvy™ Tomato Planter! The Upside Down Tomato Planter!
Gee whiz! It’s topsy AND turvy!
I admit it; I was kind of into the idea, thinking about whether or not I could get away with putting one on my fire escape and not have it be a fire hazard… and then in the middle of their sales pitch was the following line:
“Because the Topsy Turvy™ is upside down, water and nutrients pour directly from the root to the fruit, giving you up to 30 pounds of deliciously ripe tomatoes per plant!”
Fine. Maybe the excess water spills out of the bottom of the pot and onto the leaves. I know my high school biology classes are many many years behind me, but even I know nutrients do not “pour directly” into a tomato just because you’ve hung it upside down, sort of like how one doesn’t spontaneously vomit from standing on one’s head.
Science, people! Simple science! Embrace it, for it is your friend!
I was cleaning out a cabinet when I found a folder full of random magazine pages. Most of the pages were apartment decoration ideas when I was going through a phase where I thought I’d actually ever do anything like that.
Anyway, one of the pages had photos of stuff like this:
You’ll have to envision less orange liquid and more… arty arrangement with a bunch of other flasks.
Maybe it’s just because I’m a science nerd at heart, but I kinda want like, 12 of those and maybe a couple of these too. And maybe this.
I bought arugula and it wilted almost immediately. My broccoli rabe, too. I flung them into the compost bag and bought more yesterday.
This morning, the arugula is… not beyond hope, but it’s no longer salad material. Pesto, maybe.
Now I’m on a mission to find out what the hell is going on. Is my fridge too cold? Too warm? Too… something?
A little research turned up the real culprit: apples.
If you notice that your produce always seems to rot just a few days after you buy it, you might be storing incompatible fruits and veggies together. Those that give off high levels of ethylene gas—a ripening agent—will speed the decay of ethylene-sensitive foods. Keep the two separate.
REFRIGERATE THESE GAS RELEASERS Apples, Apricots, Cantaloupe, Figs, Honeydew
DON’T REFRIGERATE THESE GAS RELEASERS
Avocados, Bananas (unripe), Nectarines, Peaches, Pears, Plums, Tomatoes
KEEP THESE AWAY FROM ALL GAS RELEASERS
Bananas (ripe), Broccoli, Brussels sprouts, Cabbage, Carrots, Cauliflower, Cucumbers, Eggplant, Lettuce and other leafy greens, Parsley, Peas, Peppers, Squash, Sweet potatoes, Watermelon
