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MILKING INDOOR PLANTS. Before you trash the milk contained, add 2 or 3 ounces of warm water to the container, swish it around to pick up the residue of milk, then apply the chalky
solution to indoor plants to help keep the soil sweet (alkaline). House plants loving alkaline soil include African violet, geranium, dracaena, cactus, dieffenbachia, mother-in-law’s tongue, wandering Jew, ferns,
palms, etc. On the other hand, many plants don’t grow in alkaline soil because they prefer acid soil. Don’milk plants such as azalea, citrus (avocado, lemon, lime, orange and pineapple), gardenia and jasmine.
ENDING COCKROACHES. Forget the roach products at the nursery. All you need is
"Twenty-Mule-Team Borax" and your problems are over. You already know where you’ve seen roaches, so you don’t have to guess. Take a teaspoon of the borax and apply it
neatly in a pile in an out-of-the-way place where you’ve seen roaches before. For icing on the cake, drop a pinch of confectioner’s sugar in the pile (dry, of course), and stir it in
with a toothpick. That’s it. Leave the pile alone for a week, then check. Hopefully, you will find some of the pile scattered…not a lot, just some of the granules. It this be the case,
get a dustpan and add the borax to the trash can.
Now, here is how the borax works. The first roach came upon the pile and, as luck would
have it, they ingested a tiny morsel of the borax. Instantly, the borax created a bevy of gas (yes, gas) in the roach’s stomach. Roaches can’t accommodate gas, so the roach
dies in minutes. The second roach comes upon dead roach number one. Roaches are cannibals, so the second roach eats what’s left of roach number one. On and on it goes until the entire roach colony is in limbo.
SOFT TOWELS FOREVER. Remember how soft your facecloths and towels were years
ago? Well, they can be soft again if you work this trick. Into a large plastic basin, pour a quart of kitchen vinegar; any vinegar will do. Now, take your "dark" facecloths (all of
them) and soak them in the vinegar for 3-plus minutes. Put rubber gloves on your hands, and wring the facecloths dry (the vinegar goes back in the basin). Towels are a bit difficult
because they’re larger. Soak one dark towel at a time for a few minutes, then wring it out. Now, put the dark facecloths and dark towels in the clothes-washer, then into the
dryer. When they come out, they will be as soft as when you bought them years ago. Why? The vinegar displaced the calcium which had coated the fibers of your facecloths
and towels. The calcium in the wash water accumulated on the fibers, rendering them hard after repeated washings.
NIGHTTIME BUGS IN FRONT OF THE TV. If you watch TV at night, you’ve probably
seen these critters. They’re tiny, black, and you generally find them flying in front of the television screen at night. You haven’t been able to kill them, but now you can.
The bugs are fungus gnats. They live in the soil of one or more house plants. They feed
on the roots during the day, then take to the air at night, occasionally feeding on plant leaves.
To get rid of these fungus gnats, start by moving house plants outdoors in the shade,
probably in the morning. Now, into a sprinkling can, add one teaspoon of liquid Diazinon to a quart of tepid water. Now, sprinkle the Diazinon solution into each pot so liquid flows
from the base of the pot. Do this just one to each indoor plant. Let the pots drain for a few hours, then return the plants indoors. That ends the bugs flying around at night.
YUKKY HOUSE ODORS. Most everyone knows baking soda absorbs offensive house
odors, but so does used coffee ground. Take the worst odor problem and give used coffee grounds a try. Scatter the grounds on a cookie sheet or pie tin. Spread the grounds out,
then stash the sheet or pie tin where you have the odor. Yes, it even works in closets, refrigerators, freezers and the like. When you throw the grounds away 48 hours later, so goes the odor.
NO MORE RUSTY LETTUCE. If you simply put leaf and head lettuce in the produce tray of the fridge, even healthy lettuce will develop rusty edges. The culprits are fruits in the
refrigerator, especially ripe fruit. Peaches and plums, for example, are among the fruits that release ethylene gas as they mature. Bananas do the same thing, but you don’t
store bananas in the fridge. Right? To stop ethylene gas from rusting the lettuce, just wrap lettuce in clear plastic when you store it in the fridge. Lettuce will stay crisp indefinitely.
CHARCOAL SEIZES HUMIDITY. Some homes have terrible humidity problems in the
summer, especially vacation homes. No matter where you encounter humidity, charcoal will remedy the problem. Find a small bucket or container, filling it with charcoal
briquettes. Set the bucket where you have the humidity problem. As long as you leave the charcoal there, humidity will be absorbed by the briquettes. Eventually, when you
throw the charcoal away, you’ll understand why it works so well. The charcoal will fall apart because of the humidity it absorbed.
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