NPC Sea World Education Centre

NPC SEA WORLD EDUCATION CENTRE

A division of the South African Association for Marine Biological Research

Leave a little dish of Bicarbonate of Soda on a shelf in your refrigerator, it will absorb any smells and leave your refrigerator smelling fresh.

Mix one cup of vinegar with one cup of water and put it into a spray bottle. The vinegar disinfects and deodorizes and it is cheap. The smell disappears once it dries.
In the bathroom : Use it on the bathtub, tiles, toilet, sink. Use pure vinegar in the toilet bowl. Use undiluted vinegar under the toilet rim. Mop the floor with vinegar and water solution.
In the kitchen: Cleans the stovetop, appliances, countertops and floor.
In the laundry: use vinegar as a natural fabric softener. Add ½ cup of vinegar to the rinse cycle. Vinegar breaks down the detergent more effectively and is kind to sensitive skin.

Lemon juice dissolves soap scum and hard water deposits.
Mix lemon juice with vinegar or bicarb to make a cleaning paste to shine brass and copper.
Cut a lemon in half and sprinkle salt onto the cut section to scrub dishes, surfaces and stains.
Mix 1 cup of olive oil with ½ cup of lemon juice to make a furniture polish for your hardwood furniture.
Place lemon peel in the garbage can to freshen the bin.

Soda water applied quickly to urine and blood on the carpet will remove the stain and smell.

For ants: sprinkle red chilli powder, paprika, dried peppermint, borax or even talcum powder where ants are found entering in the home.
For fishmoths: air clothes well in the sun, use sachets of lavender or cedar chips, and Epsom salts placed in the bottom of drawers is also a good deterrent.
For fleas: give pets Brewer´s yeast and garlic pills.
For cockroaches: Mix borax with icing sugar. Put mixture into lids in the cupboards.

For slugs and snails: the best option is to ´import´ carnivorous snails from some one´s indigenous garden, but these are hard to come by. If you aren´t too squeamish, squash the offending beasties or pour half a cup of black caffeinated coffee on them. Scattering crushed egg shell around seedlings works very well. A saucer of beer is highly attractive to snails so use this to attract the little beasties and then dispose of them.
An easy all purpose garlic spray for repelling insects from plants can be made by mixing half a cup of finely chopped garlic with 500ml water. Let this mixture stand for an hour, strain, pour into a spray bottle and spray the plants.
Use compost and mulch to improve plant and soil health which will reduce the need for pesticides and fertilisers.
Use plants that repel insects. Some herbs and flowers including basil, mint, garlic, marigolds and chrysanthemums mixed in with other plants help.
Use disease and pest resistant plants. This is where it pays to go indigenous as these plants are able to withstand many of the diseases and pests which exotic plants cannot do.
For weeds: pull out by hand; spray vinegar onto the leaves of larger weeds, making sure to coat the leaves evenly. This works best on hot, sunny days and the weeds should die in a week or two. Alternatively a hot salty solution also works well.

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