Pests. Please read through the useful hints, tips and how to guides below.

To repel

500 g salt | 1 L water | 10 kg bran or sawdust | 4 or 5 L molasses

Mix till crumbly and spread around plants and shrubs you wish to protect from ants.

1 teaspoon Cond crystals | 1 tablespoon epsom salts | 1 bucket water

Mix together and spray plants regularly. Each week tip a few cups of the mixture around the base of the plant.

garlic

Grow garlic in amongst roses and other plants to repel aphids.

honey

Gently remove the sting, taking care not to squeeze more poison into the wound. Dab on some honey.

To repel and protect

bright or metallic fabric or foil

Birds peck at screens and beat themselves against windows because they mistake their reflections in the glass for an invading bird. Suspend a small bright piece of fabric or something similar in the centre of the screen attached with strong dark thread. Strips of foil tied along a length of string and hung under a verandah will discourage birds from nesting there.

plastic or metal sheet

Trace a lifelike silhouette of a hawk on a stiff piece of sheet and cut out. Suspend on strong fishing line above fruit trees or wherever birds are a nuisance.

silver milk-bottle tops

String milk-bottle tops on strong fishing line and suspend from fruit trees to startle birds.

basil

Try growing basil in pots wherever flies are a nuisance.

garlic

Leave crushed cloves of garlic around to repel flies.

flower pot | dry grass | coin

Plug hole in a medium flower pot, then fill with dry grass or damp hay. Place upside-down in likely places and prop up slightly on a small coin. Each week or so shake contents into fire, replace grass and repeat. Earwigs will soon gather in this ideal home again.

folded newspaper or cardboard box

Leave in the garden to attract earwigs then in the morning tip the lot into the fire.

25 cm lengths of garden hose

Leave these in the garden to attract earwigs, then knock them out of the hose over a fire.

borax | sugar

Mix equal parts to a thin paste and leave in a lid or saucer in infested areas. Warning: ensure pets and children can not get at it - borax is poisonous.

To repel

creosote
Dip a rag in creosote (available from hardware or some paint shops) and leave it where mosquitoes are a problem.

To repel

Sprinkle sawdust around seedlings. Snails will not crawl over it because it sticks to them.

lime salt

Mix together and sprinkle around plants troubled by snails; it will kill them. Do not put it near lime-hating plants though.

lime | bran | soot

Mix together equal parts and sprinkle around plants or garden beds to kill snails.

Wasp stings

baking soda
Gently remove the sting if it has been left in one of the wounds then apply a strong paste of baking soda to relieve the sting.