Summer Has Arrived Along with Cockroaches: Healthy Ways to Deal with Pests

Summer also heralds the season of home pesticide spraying. However, many people don't realize that if you've received a year-long warranty, it means the active and toxic chemical will continue to work for a year, with or without smell. As long as the roaches are dying, the chemical is alive. If you're uncomfortable living in an apartment with toxic chemicals, you should stop spraying, especially if there are human beings living in your home.

Spices: Some manufacturers don't store their spices refrigerated due to lack of space or budget. This exposes the raw material to insects, especially during hot seasons (which is most of the year here). To tackle the issue of Kashrut and flying insects, they put a ball that oxidizes into a toxic gas upon contact with air. Here's how it's done: they place a ball among all the raw material sacks, wrap the materials on the pallet with plastic wrap, place everything in a factory room, and let the gas disperse into powder. The spices remain like this for two to four days. Subsequently, all flying insects are found dead along the plastic. Next, the factory's Kashrut supervisor will use a loop (magnifying glass) to check if they indeed rest in peace, otherwise, the spices will get another dose of gas. From here, the spices go on to grinding and packaging. I wonder: Does the gas dissipate before being packaged? Does anyone verify this? Did any of the gas transfer to other spices stored in the same room? Has anyone tested the cumulative effect on factory workers? Most importantly: Why not require all manufacturers to keep raw materials refrigerated? Or at least mandate them to mark this on the spice packages or jars? Note that having been in gas doesn't prevent pests from penetrating the spice once it's bagged.

Market visit: How pleasant it is to wander in the air-conditioned supermarket and feel like you're at the market. Hence, alongside packaged food, you'll find various bulk foods. But while the family of Adam and Eve rejoices over this colorful celebration, there's also the arthropods guild (insects) overseeing the festivity from the roach's perspective. Furthermore, when the aforementioned family tastes whatever they touch, we end up with nuts, almonds, and dried fruits contaminated with what's been in the human hand and mouth. Be aware; you're bringing this contamination home.

Proper storage conditions: Grains, legumes, nuts, and spices, even in jars or bags, are excellent breeding grounds for insects. It's very upsetting to retrieve a sealed bag of rice from the pantry only to find it has transformed from the plant category to the animal category (in a game of Geography). The solution: store all the above in the refrigerator. Think about it: it's cheaper to buy another fridge than to toss numerous food packages into the trash. The foods still stored in the cupboard, such as crackers, breakfast cereals, sugar, and more, should be kept in an airtight container, and certainly, do not store sugar in a paper bag.

Roaches are gross: If you maintain a clean home, meticulously shut doors and screens 100%, dispose of old items lying in the yard, and yet find roaches occasionally, you can use one of the following methods: one, with a shoe tip (though it's not politically correct, but suffocating them with gas is?), two, sweep them back into the garden. Think for a moment; they're simply lost creatures longing to return to nature.

Want to know more? Purchase the lecture series "Growing Healthy", taught by naturopath Sarah Bar Asher. Available for purchase at the Hidabroot Jewish Campus.

Naturopath Sarah Bar Asher is a journalist, food factory critic, lecturer at the College of Complementary Medicine at the Wingate Institute, and speaker on "Bearing Fruit".