I live north of Houston. We have more insects, snakes, and critters than most places on earth. Just in my area we have spiders (wolf, black widow, brown recluse, among others), roaches, ants (fire and normal), scorpions, centipedes, mosquitoes, and more.

I have successfully used these to combat insects inside my home. My wife does not like the smell of the orange oil, so I use it judiciously inside (laundry room), but outside around the perimeter. My children aren't exposed to toxic chemicals, but the bugs don't cross the perimeter much. Orange oil appears as "expensive" per liter, but it's concentrated, so I mix it in a gallon sprayer with water and spray. I might actually try soaking bay leaves in the water with the orange oil overnight. In this heat and humidity, the resulting water just might be really nasty for insects.

My grandmother swears by spreading cayenne pepper in lieu of bay leaf powder.

I think the market sees an opportunity, despite health risks, to market this stuff as an easy solution, but it's like doctors prescribing antibiotics for everything. It's efficacy is wearing thin as insects develop an immunity. I guess nature knows a thing or two about handling insects, so I appeal to the non-toxic stuff as much as possible.

Cool, glad to hear it's working. I've also used cayenne pepper and cinnamon on ants, and tried cleaning their trail with vinegar. They're the Argentine kind (San Francisco area) which means they are _legion_, so I had limited results.

We use balsamic vinegar (or wine) to lure fruit flies. I make a trap with paper, scissors, tape, a glass, and vinegar. Get a clean glass and fil it with a few cm of vinegar. From the paper cut a funnel with a small hole (2 mm or so) on the bottom. Use the tape to attach the paper to the glass (use more tape if there are open holes cause else they might escape). The paper will slowly get spots from the flies/liquid. Lasts a couple of weeks. Be careful when you toss it away, so that no flies escape.

We zap flies with an electronic zapper (looks like a tennis racket). There's a couple of tricks I learned from it but yeah just make sure you clean up the mess. The zapper resides on the fridge because we got a young human being frolicking around.

Watered down lemon ammonia works great for killing a pheromone trail. Smells OK and it works.

Terro ant baits are boric acid. A couple times a year we get a stream of ants coming into our kitchen near the sink. I have never been able to track down where they come from. They just appear out of cracks in the wall. But in any case, the only way I've effectively gotten rid of them is to put out a couple Terro liquid ant baits on the window sill, and they're gone within a day or two... at least for a few months.

They're coming from outside. They establish routes that are many meters long through all available seams and cracks. Use Amdro ant bait (not 'blocker') in the spring around the structure perimeter when temps get above 10C/50F, avoiding wet weather. They carry the bait back to the nest and wipe it out. Follow the directions scrupulously and be patient; it will take a week. If you have a lawn keep it thick and healthy; ants usually prefer bare ground for nests. It's possible, with good landscaping and aggressive use of a caulking gun (assuming the structure is otherwise in good condition,) to keep them out, but that is often not feasible, and some ants are more industrious than others.

> why are we even having this conversation about insecticides?

It might be the same as when people insist on treating a (viral) cold with antibiotics. Not only are they the wrong kind of treatment, they are also a massive overreaction.

Perhaps boric acid is not the kind of thing you can make massive profits from.