Well, the lightning bugs are finally out by my house and the garden is bursting with buds. This all can only mean one thing — mosquito bites, critters munching on the leaves of my plants, and ants contemplating their move to enter my home. What is a green minded homeowner to do?

Fear not eco-warriors! There are plenty of things you can do to keep the bugs where they belong and protect your skin and plants from the biters without harming nature too much.

Much like last year, the slugs are in full force in my garden but I am prepared to stop them from making a meal out of my veggies. Beer. Thats right! Beer. Its all you need to keep the slugs away. They like the hops in the golden liquid and they aren’t even snobs about what kind you buy them. I have trays in my garden which get filled up every now and again. I have also heard some gardeners bury a bottle of beer so the soil is at the lip of the bottle allowing less rain water to get in and the beer lasting longer.

Last year we ended up with a swarm of flies around the house. Turned out they came from a loaf of bread we had purchased at a local bakery — what a mess! We tried fly tape but really the best thing that worked wonders — a jar full of vinegar. They fly in and they don’t fly out. Done!

Mosquitoes in your backyard? Tired of all those itchy bites? We can help that too! I recently purchased Bonide’s Mosquito Beater. Its a bottle you attach to your hose and spray it on. Has very little smell and lasts even after a few rains. It really did work wonders for our swampy backyard which was a breeding ground. And for those bites? Try defending your legs and arms with some lavender essence. Planting lavender in your yard can help too. Whatever you do, steer clear of any product which contains DEET. Its dangerous to you, your kids, and the environment.

Have ants (or may other similarly annoying bugs which manage to get inside) and not really into homemade fixes? I am a bit of a fanatic about what gets sprayed around my cats, but there are some new products out on the market that are less toxic and can be used around cats, dogs, and kids. EcoSMART is the brand I have recently been trying. Works on the spot, but has a bit of a strange smell. Not chemical smell, but sort of a hippie herb-like fragrance. Apparently it doesn’t leave a pesticide residue and so far as I can tell there was nothing to clean up afterwards.

EcoSMART also makes a weed killer that does an incredible job and has been instrumental in helping us get a new home’s yard in shape from all the weeds which came with the seed the builder put down.

There are many many more remedies for summer pests. What is your favorite natural pest control or repellant?

Photo courtesy of Jeff Kubina through Creative Commons License.

Last year, I wrote a couple of posts about green Valentine’s Day gifts — one for kids and one for adults. Both are full of good tips on ways to celebrate the holiday in an eco-friendly way.

But I thought I’d try to find some more fun, green V-day ideas for this year.

Want to tell your sweetie how much you love him/her? Do it with an e-card. No paper, no resources used to deliver it, no ink printed on it. There are LOTS of cards available, from sweet to silly. There should be one that’s perfect for your loved one.

If an e-card isn’t enough, why not do a video tribute? There are also lots of examples of this — try youtube.

A home-cooked meal of your sweetheart’s favorites is also a wonderful way to celebrate the holiday. You took the time to prepare a meal and remembered important foods.

This tip was in last year’s list, but bears repeating — if you want to buy flowers, make sure they are organic.

Or, buy a plant. It can be the gift that keeps on giving. Plants can help purify the air and – with moderate maintenance — won’t die in a week.

Some people give pets for Valentine’s Day. If you want to do that, please head to your local animal shelter or humane society instead of a pet store. These pets will make wonderful additions to any family.

Want to buy some jewelry? This was in last year’s post, but estate jewelry or vintage jewelry is a great option.

If you have kids, handmade Valentine’s are a great treat for family members. My son isn’t the biggest fan of coloring, but if he knows he’s making a card for a family member, he gets a little more prolific.

A sure-fire way to my son’s heart? Sweets. His birthday is right before Valentine’s Day, but I plan on making him some heart-shaped cookies to enjoy on Valentine’s Day. And since he’s been into smoothies lately, we’ll make him a red or pink smoothie (with as many hidden healthful ingredients as possible!)

What are you doing for Valentine’s Day? Any tips you want to share?

I am one of those people who feels guilty about throwing anything away. I’m not a hoarder, but if there’s a way I can re-use something, or find someone else who will re-use it, then that’s what I will do.  Especially when it comes to clothes.

I try to take care of our clothes, so when we outgrow them I can re-sell or donate them without holes, tears or stains. It’s not very easy. Sweaters seem to show age and wear more than other items — at least in my opinion.

They pill up, get stretched easily, fade, fray, get chewed on by insects, etc. For me, the pilling is the worst. What can you do with a pill-y sweater? I’ve been looking for a solution, since I hate to throw clothes away and hate to donate clothing that looks so worn.

Over the past week, I stumbled upon some very creative uses for worn sweaters that I wanted to share. These are all crafty uses. If you aren’t crafty, you might have a friend or acquaintance who is.

Most of these ideas use the torso portion of the sweaters. The areas where I spot most pilling are at the armpits, so the pilled sections aren’t used.

Sweater pillows — I saw this idea on HGTV. It would probably work best with neutral, adult-sized sweaters. You use the torso portion of the sweater by cutting a straight line across the sweater starting at the bottom sleeves. Turn it inside out, stitch it up, stuff the open end of the sweater (the bottom hem) with a pillow form and hand-stitch it closed. Voila! A cozy looking pillow.

For more in depth directions, look here and here.

Sweater toys — I’m a fan of the blog, The Simple Dollar. He sometimes writes about his wife buying old sweaters at thrift stores in order to make cute little toys for thier kids. This is a cool idea, and I love the idea of making toys for my kids. You could use old buttons for eyes if your kids were older, and you didn’t have to worry about a choking hazard.

Sweater quilts — I read about sweater quilts in a home magazine last month. If you feel a special connection with your sweaters and can’t bear to part with them, then maybe you could look into having an heirloom made out of the special sweaters. I’ve had friends do this with T-shirts as well.

What do you do with your old sweaters?

We are big fans of EnergyStar appliances. When we need an upgrade, we look for the EnergyStar logo and watch and wait for sales or clearances on the items we want/need.

For Christmas, we decided to buy a DVD player for my mother. While looking at the selection at Wal-Mart, we found one that was EnergyStar. I wondered how, exactly could a DVD player qualify for the EnergyStar logo.

It turns out that DVD and Blu-Ray players can sap a good bit of energy. According to EnergyStar’s website, approved electronics use about 35 percent less energy. 

They also have a list of upgrades that you should try to avoid when shopping for new DVD or Blu-Ray players — like home theatres and surround sound.

Who knew?

We went with the EnergyStar DVD player and once she opened it, I noticed that it didn’t have a digital clock display. In fact, there’s no display at all. The box is small, and you have to look at the TV screen to see if it’s loading, playing, pausing, etc. I’m assuming the small size of the player and the lack of display are pretty good energy savers.

Have you discovered any EnergyStar approved items that surprised you?

I believe most of the country is shivering today. We’re located in what most call the “Deep South,” and there’s snow on the ground. The temperature is expected to dip into the single digits this evening.

When it gets like this, many businesses in our area close. More people stay home and crank up the thermostat, and try to forget about the huge bill that will arrive at the end of the month.

There are alternative ways to stay warmer in this super cold weather that won’t break the bank or do more damage to the environment.

Bake. We are cereal for breakfast, sandwich for lunch people. If there are leftovers, we’ll microwave them. Today, I baked something in the oven. Once the meal was out of the oven, we cracked the oven door and let it warm up the house while it cooled down. We got a warm, tasty meal and a warmer home because of this.

Wear layers. I wrote a post on this last winter, but it’s definitely worth writing again. The easiest way to stay warm is to wear several layers of clothes. I’m wearing a long-sleeved t-shirt under a sweatshirt and leggings under my pants. It’s not the prettiest outfit, but it keeps me warm without costing us lots of money. This way, everyone can dress to his or her desired level of warmth.

We also have throw blankets in most rooms. This is mainly because I’m always cold, but my son used one this morning to warm up after frolicking in the snow.

Another option is to lock yourself in a section of your house. We are lucky to live in a house that was added on to. The addition has a bathroom and a door. It also happens to be where we keep all of the toys and a TV. We turned down the heat for the rest of the house, brought in necessities — diapers, water and a space heater – and shut the door.

Our little nook is nice and toasty (possibly a little too toasty for some) and the heat isn’t constantly on.

If your house isn’t laid out this way, you can simply close the vents in rooms that you don’t use and then shut those doors. That way your heater won’t be heating those empty rooms.

Any other tips to help us stay warm without cranking up the thermostat?

Now that the holidays are over, it’s time to start thinking about thank yous. Do you write thank yous? I know a lot of people don’t these days, but we try to. A big reason used to be that we lived so far away from families. We couldn’t say thank you in person, so we sent a short note.

But I know that to many, that just adds another element of waste. This year, I had been thinking about sending out thank you emails to most people, but then I received a sample of some really cool greeting cards from ReProduct. These cards  are called No Waste Greeting Cards and solve the problem of wasting all that paper on cards and envelopes.

That’s because once the recipient recieves your thank you, they can then mail it to Shaw Carpets in a really cool postage paid envelope that’s included with the card. One hundred percent of the card will be recycled to make carpets.

How cool is that?

The envelope is a two-way envelope, similar to Netflix envelopes. You fold it one way to mail it out, and the recipient folds it another way to mail it to Shaw — the postage for this trip is already paid.

Shaw will then use all of the card and envelope to make carpet tiles.

The cards come in packs of 18, and cost $29.95. If thank you notes for presents aren’t your thing, these would make great thank you notes after a job interview.

You can also make custom photo cards. These cost $59.95 for a pack of 20. These would make wonderful baby announcements! Celebrating a new life, without damaging the earth.

We tried these out at Christmas, and thought they were so cool. Have you ever tried anything like this? What did you think? Please let me know.