It's still summer (in the Northern hemisphere!) for another month...and summer is sadly the time for indoor pests.  Commercial pest control is full of nasty chemicals, even though there are natural ways to fight off many pests.  Here are some ideas for ridding your home of creepy crawlies, without needing a hazmat suit!                                                                                                                                                       

Remember- the number one rule to keeping many bugs out is keeping the house clean.  So don't let your dirty dishes pile up, sweep, vacuum, etc.

Ants

There are all kinds of ideas on the internet for how to deal with ants naturally- these ones are from Simple Gifts Farm.

Add borax to sugar.  The oft quoted concentration is 50:50 but if you start with that, the ants will not likely be too fond of it.  Start with a much lower concentration of borax – maybe 10% and very gradually increase it to 30-40%.  The objective is to have the ants take as much borax as possible into the nest and they’ll take it if it is sweet.  Put it where you see the ants or on the ant trails. I've used borax successfully in natural ant control experiments. See related suggestions for natural ant control including, vinegar, cinnamon, and even Vicks VapoRub on this Sugar Ant Hotel solution page.

Apparently baby powder or talcum powder is not appreciated.  I’m told if you dust the ants and the trail, they’ll stop coming.

I have used vinegar to destroy their trails and if you can get it close to the source, they’ll get confused and not come in for a while.  I used it at full strength but some folks have diluted it with water.  The other benefit to this of course is that it cleans the counters etc as you wipe out the ant trails.

Cinnamon – from the spice rack – is increasingly being used in garden insect control trials and products.  You might find it of use to dust the outdoor nests.  As an indoor natural ant control I don’t know how it would work but you can only try.  It would likely be more effective as a barrier to stop them from coming indoors so if you can sprinkle it around where you see them coming into the house, you’ll likely have better results.

Black pepper has the same story as above.  I can’t vouch for either of these products.  But if nothing else, your ants will have herbally spicy food to eat.

I’m told that some gardeners have had great luck simply spraying the ant areas – their trail, their entry points etc with insecticidal soap.  Some have reported that ivory soap works very well too.

Bay leaves have been used for centuries for ant control.  Put a leaf or two behind canisters on the counter, in your silver drawer, food shelves, anywhere ants have congregated.  I haven’t had the heart to take any leaves off my bay tree yet but this is reputed to work.  

Whole cloves are supposed to do the same thing.  They’d keep me away for sure.

Peppermint sprayed around the edges of your house and ant entry points will deter ants as will growing peppermint and other mints in your foundation planting.  I caution you against this as you’ll quickly be over-run with mint instead of ants.  But spraying a mint extract or heavy mint tea might help; as long as it leaves a minty smell behind it is strong enough

How about red chili pepper paste or hot curry paste?  Spray it or mix it into a paste and put it on their trails.

Fruit flies

If fruit flies got you down, don't despair- buy apple cider vinegar!  Pour some into a glass, and place a paper funnel over the container.  Fruit flies love the smell and will fly into the glass, but will not find their way back out the funnel (for 4 of 5 fruit flies...).  Then make sure to clean up any ripe fruit droppings- watermelon rinds have been a main culprit in our apartment- and take the trash (or if you are a green superstar, your compost!) nightly for a few days- fruit flies lay their eggs in overripe fruit.

You can also get rid of fruit flies naturally with basil. 

                 Wasps

A great site for natural ideas on how to deal with wasps.

Slugs

Slugs can be a huge pest in any garden.  They're fond of eating plants, shrubs, and mosses, much to any gardener's chagrin.  One great solution?  Fill small bowls with stale beer, and place the bowls strategically in areas of the garden where the slugs are most active.  Slugs apparently like stale beer, so they climb in to drink and they meet their maker (they drown in the liquid).  In our experience, this is highly effective.  According to a great website that discusses other eco-friendly slug-fighting tactics, other liquids that work similarly include grape juice or a tea made from yeast, honey, and water.

For many more green pest solution see Care2's natural pest control  channel.