Tiny Game Hunting

Every year Americans use a staggering five hundred million pounds of toxic pesticides in and around their homes, schools, parks, and roads—a growing health risk for people and the environment. But are these poisons really necessary? This book, appealing to the hunter in us all, shows how to triumph in combat with pests without losing the war to toxic chemicals. Tiny Game Hunting, written in a lively and entertaining style and illustrated with detailed drawings, gives more than two hundred tried-and-true ways to control or kill common household and garden pests without using toxic pesticides.

Hilary Dole Klein is a writer living in Santa Barbara and the author of A Guide to Nonsexist Children's Books (1976) and Substituting Ingredients (third edition, 1994), among other books. Adrian M. Wenner is Professor Emeritus of Natural History at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and the author of books, articles, and a chapter in Comparative Psychology of Invertebrates: The Field and Laboratory Study of Insect Behavior (1997).

CONTENTS
Preface to the New Edition
Introduction
'Incredible Insects': The Toxic Tide

PART ONE: Tiny Game Hunting in the Home
The Folly of Pesticides
Home, Toxic Home
Home, Safe Home
Quitting Pesticides for Good and Disposing of Them

Common Pests:
Ants
Bed Bugs
Bees
Clothes Moths and Carpet Beetles
Cockroaches
Fleas
Flies
Houseplant Pests
Lice
Mosquitoes
Pantry Pests
Rats and Mice
Silverfish
Spiders
Termites and Wood-Boring Beetles
Ticks, Chiggers, and Mites

Occasional Invaders:
Asian Lady Beetles
Boxelder Bugs
Centipedes
Cluster Flies
Crickets
Earwigs
Moths
Scorpions

PART TWO: Tiny Game Hunting in the Garden
The Healthy Garden
The Fallacy of Pesticides
Compost
Earthworms
Mulch
Organic Fertilizers
Cover Crops
Companion Planting

The Tactics of Tiny Game Hunting in the Garden:
Handpicking
Hosing
Traps
Barriers
Soaps
Horticultural Oils
Dusts
Biological Controls
Botanicals
Repellents

Allies in the Air and on the Ground:
Bats
Birds Lizards
Snakes
Toads and Frogs

Good Bugs
Mail Order Mercenaries
Green Lacewings
Ladybugs
Mealybug Destroyers
Parasitic Nematodes
Parasitic Wasps
Parasites of Flies
Predatory Mites

Good Bugs Gratis
"True" Bugs
Beetles
A Few Good Flies

Distinguished Native Beneficials
Dragon Flies
Damselflies
Antlions
Fireflies

Honorably Discharged
Praying Mantises

Garden Pests
Chompers
Cabbage Loopers and Imported Cabbageworms
Colorado Potato Beetles
Cucumber Beetles
Cutworms
Fall Webworms and Eastern Tent Caterpillars
Flea Beetles
Grasshoppers
Gypsy Moths
Japanese Beetles
Leafhoppers
Mexican Bean Beetles
Tomato Hornworms

Root Destroyers
June Beetles
Nematodes
Root Maggots
Wireworms (Click Beetles)

Slimers
Slugs and Snails

Suckers
Aphids
Mealybugs
Scale Insects
Spider Mites
Thrips
"True" Bugs
Whiteflies

Tunnelers
Borers
Codling Moths
Corn Earworms
Plum Curculios

Friend or Foe?

Centipedes and Millipedes
Earwigs
Opossums
Sowbugs and Pillbugs
Yellow Jackets and Wasps

Critter Control
Diggers
Gophers
Moles
Foragers
Deer
Dogs
Rabbits
Raccoons
Skunks
Squirrels

Resources and Mail Order
Select Bibliography
Index