Note: several people have complained about the smell of this product. Please see the accompanying comments.
Our quaint (real estate lingo for “small”) Upper West Side, New York apartment has a lovely terrace that provides us with glimmering sunset views, breathing room in the big city, a place to entertain our friends and, unfortunately, ants. The little critters have been making themselves known as the weather has warmed up, creating a little creepy crawly trail all the way from the terrace door to the kitchen.
I immediately huffed it over to my corner drugstore, on a mission to find a non-toxic ant killer, but trying not to get my hopes up – this particular New York drugstore chain is not known for their extensive selection. To my surprise, I found a non-toxic ant and roach killer called EcoSmart. (I did some research and found a post about it on altCon from 2007; you can read it here.) I can testify that EcoSmart seems to be working, as the number of ants lurking about has decreased dramatically since I first sprayed. The smell is strong, but not offensive. I would definitely recommend this product to households with pets and/or children, or anyone like me who prefers to play it safe and stay far away from chemical-laden pesticides. Another plus is that, because it’s made with plant oils, the formula is biodegradable, and apparently will not harm fish or wildlife. But at least it seems to work on my (very) unwelcome house guests.
more @ ecosmart.com
RSS
I will right away seize your rss as I can’t find your email subscription link or newsletter service. Do you have any? Please allow me recognize so that I may just subscribe. Thanks.
I bought the EcoSmart organic garden insect killer because of a whitefly infestation on my Meyer lemon tree that I had been trying for months to control with other homemade natural remedies. I was so happy to see that this was available at Home Depot. This stuff DID NOT work at all, and in fact now my ENTIRE tree is infested. I think the whiteflies actually liked it because it’s way worse than it was before I used the product. Very disappointed.
Be very careful with Eco Smart Ant & Roach Killer. We started using this product about a month ago. We were constantly complaining about headaches (husband) and dizziness (me). After a while I figured that my dizziness was always after my husband sprayed this pruduct around the house. We stopped using the spray and both my husband’s headaches and my dizziness were gone. I have no numbers or statistics to prove that this product is harmful but I could asure you that it was getting us sick. Please be careful.
Thank you for offering such an awesome site. It has been a pleasure to read.
The above comments criticizing the product odor are a little dramatic. I find the scent quite pleasing. I’m an organic gardener, and I’ve grown a lot of herbs. The product smells like an herb garden…rosemary and mint. An added benefit is that it won’t mutate your DNA or give you cancer. My only worry is that it will kill off beneficial insects too. Whiteflies are brutal this year in South Florida, so I’ve had to resort to spraying. I will check back here with my results soon.
I too used this product I have Bronchochitis and found myself weak and dizzy along with sleepy from this srpay the smell alone got me i felt my ears were popping restless unable to breathe it kills the flys,ants ects but its not good for me to get the spray on my skin or me breathe it in .its something in that spray where people cant use it .
maybe its time they take that smell out tat spray and just have no odor at all.
I bought this spray yesterday to take care of a roley poley problem. The smell was overwhelming! I woke up to more roley poleys crawling around on the basement floor. I am so frustrated that we had to deal with this horrific smell and we still have a bug problem!
Had bed bug infestation and tried 4 other products including HotShot, RaidMax, Ortho, but to no avail. None had any effect.
Then I stumbled into EcoSmart and for no other reason than it was different I decided to try it and voila, to my utter relief it worked!
Not sure whether it has killed them off but at the very least it’s an effective repellent and so assuming they’re somewhere nearby, I’ll continue to use it for a couple months before I stop to see if they return.
Sure the smell is strong and lingers but to me, it’s the smell of a good night’s sleep.
I used the “ant and roach” killer to try to control a winged/flying ant (although they’re not doing much flying) infestation in my home office. It is definitely making these little pests sluggish and it seems to be killing most of them, as well. I’m really surprised at how much negative reaction there is about the smell. It’s definitely strong, but it beats the hell out of any typical chemical pesticide or cleaner. Last week a house guest was using custom-made, organic tiger balm from an acupuncturist/natropath and that stuff smelled about a 100 times more potent than this stuff does. The spray has a menthol/minty kind of smell like tiger balm or menthol chest rub with a little bit of peppermint. It’s not unpleasant, it’s just apparent. If someone is very sensitive to that kind of odor I can understand how they would hate it or have allergy/asthma issues. I loathe the smell of incense and have respiratory trouble from that, but some people love it. I know people who are sensitive and allergic to all kinds of natural/organic substances – strawberries, peanuts, shrimp, pollen, etc., so it makes sense that some people may have trouble with this product and these ingredients, while others don’t. I also have two cats (one of whom has feline asthma) and it doesn’t seem to have any negative effect on them. They weren’t quick to come over and sniff the area I sprayed (but unless I’m spraying a mist of tuna, they’re not going to be too interested in anything I’m using), but they don’t appear to be in any distress whatsoever. They’re acting completely normal. Anyway, bottom line: This product seems to work for the specific pests I’m trying to eliminate, the smell is tolerable and not that unpleasant and my cats don’t seem to be bothered by it.
NOTE FROM The Alternative Consumer: we have no way of verifying the validity of the following comment.
DO NOT USE THIS PRODUCT!!!! Do not be lured into thinking this is safe because it is labled as organic. Arsenic is organic but should not be sprayed around your house either. I made the mistake of using this product in very limited areas of my kitchen to get rid of some ants. Because I have 3 children and a puppy, I purchased this product because it said it was safe to use around kids and pets. We kept our dog away from the areas sprayed until dried. After being asleep for 3 hrs in the house with the fumes of the product, she was ataxic, unable to stand and support her weight on her legs, couldn’t hold her head up, couldn’t even keep her balance to sit. After we rushed her to the emergency animal hospital, we found out the peppermint oil in the product can be very toxic if inhaled, as stated on the MSDS sheet shown to us by the vet. The children’s hospital here in our city was contacted by the vet, and they were very familiar with this “safe” product also. Thank god our dog lived after being washed and flushed with IV fluids (after many expensive tests), which might not have been the case if she wasn’t a 75lb puppy, vs a 20lb puppy. We washed the product thoroughly off the few areas sprayed, but have continued to take our 7 mo old puppy back to vet due to poor appetite and lethargy since the poisoning. She has lost 8 lbs total, and it has taken a month for her to start acting like herself again. As for the possible peanut allergy post, my dog is not allergic to peanuts as peanutbutter was the only thing keeping her alive for a few weeks while she wouldn’t eat anything else. I only hope no permenent damage was done by this product. I am trying to get ecosmart to reimburse my family for the vet bills, but if they refuse, I do plan to sue. I wish I would have not trusted this company or their product, it would have saved me alot of stress, money and heartache.