Wednesday, October 21, 2015

ECOSMART ANT and ROACH KILLER - SAFE but does it really work as advertised?

ECOSMART.COM  Manufactured in Rosewell, Georgia, USA
Active ingredients are peppermint oil, rosemary oil, and 97% other such as water, 2 propanol, wintergreen oil, white mineral oil, etc....

 
We bought a can of this stuff.  We wanted to kill the insects and not sicken and die ourselves.  We didn't want our dog to get sick either.  
 
Unfortunately the "INSTANTLY" part about how it kills ants and roaches is NOT TRUE.  We targeted them and sprayed and watched them flip over and try to live.  Some of them managed to keep running and disappear.  We did spray around the underside of the sinks but have no reason to believe this was a deterrent since a spray can later, we still have the problem.  The INSTANTLY mattered to us.  We wanted the least suffering.  We didn't really want to kill anything but damn, TALKING to the tiny critters about how they had to live OUTSIDE didn't seem to work.
 
When you spray all this OILY stuff out, it smells good if you like intense minty smells.  It also slightly coats your finger from the button.  You can feel the tingle and YOU MUST WASH YOUR HANDS RIGHT AWAY - thoroughly - or you will possibly touch your face, your mouth, your eyes, just as human's do, unthinking.  So we would walk into the kitchen or bathroom at night, grab the bottle, spray, and then wash our hands.  We thought, OK it's only temporary.  But other than the smell, we think this product is a pain in the butt and doesn't really deal with the problem.
 
By the way, before we tried this, we tried the cheap $1 for two boxes of glue attractant, and watched as the insects went into shock that they were so stupid to be stuck and tried to pull their limbs out.  Looking in there, all dead or dying is awful.  Some actually got away amputated... that's how much they wanted to live.  We also mixed up simple boric acid with powdered sugar, but it soon lost it's powder due to humidity.  So what we have now are those "hotels" that say that the insects go in, eat, and take it back to the nest. 
 
We shall see!

We're actually hoping that all the SPIDERS who moved in this summer will eat the other bugs for us, or at least scare them.
 
Review by PATRIOTIC PURCHASE BLOGSPOT
All Rights Reserved

Wednesday, October 14, 2015

OUR PILE OF CHEAP BROKEN CHINESE CRAP - IN THE LANDFILL FOR HUNDREDS OF YEARS

We're tempted to start piling up all the cheap broken Chinese crap we've bought, take a photo of it, and then set it on fire. 

But we won't.

Sufficient to say, we too, though we try NOT to, have bought cheap things that are made in China, even from American based companies and other European countries that import manufactured goods from China.  Sometimes you have to look at the packaging real hard to find out that some or all of the product was made in China.  For instance we've found notations that something was made in China of American made parts.  Or something was made in the United States from China-made parts.  Or something was made in the United States but one part of it - say the lids of a pot - were imported from China.

But whatever it is, the Chinese-made part or the Chinese-made whole, it breaks or falls apart quickly.
And belongs on our pile, for photographing, and setting on fire.

We won't set the stuff on fire.  We won't even make a pile.  WHY NOT?

Because we DO CARE ABOUT THE ENVIRONMENT which means that we put everything we can in the proper recycling bins.  We take batteries to a drop off at the library.  We wait for special events to turn in light bulbs, nail polish, small electronics, etc.  So no smoking toxic fires for us or our neighbors to breath.  And no clutter waiting in the basement.

BUT WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU BUY SOMETHING THAT LASTS ONE USE OF A FEW WEEKS and you throw it into the recycling bin?  At best it gets segregated out and is possibly sold to those who can use some or all of it's parts or remake the plastics and metals.  (In our neighborhood old TV sets are often broken into and smashed before the garbage pick up comes.)  

THE REST GOES INTO LANDFILLS where it can take hundreds of years for the buried items to turn into something resembling dust.  This is true of newspapers.  This is true of hot dogs.  This is particularly true of PLASTICS.   So when you buy crap, it also costs us all in garbage related fees.

SOME THINGS WE BOUGHT, made in CHINA, that broke fast.

A plunger.  It had a sturdy wood turned handle and we couldn't imagine that the rubbery head of it would break after the second use.  (We're trying to find a garden use for the handle.)

Hair clips - the kind with a spring and teeth - to keep hair back when swimming.  The set of 12 broke the teeth easily.  We got about 2 uses for each clip before it broke.  So badly made actually using them broke them.

Umbrellas.   We lost our $40 at purchase, heavy duty old fashioned American made umbrella.  So after having a few break after one good wind or rain that we had purchased for under $5, we bought $1 ones that did the same.   We're trying to figure out a way to reuse the fabric.

C 2015  Patriotic Purchase BlogSpot  All Rights Reserved


Tuesday, October 6, 2015

IS IT TRUMP VERSUS SANDERS? : RUNNING FOR PRESIDENT FAR AHEAD OF THE ELECTION

We wouldn't be patriotic citizens of the United States of America if we had no interest in the election of our President, if we had no idea who are elected officials are, or if we didn't bother to reach out to them once in a while.

Over the last few months we reached out to a local representative of our City Council over a myriad of problems from street services to graffiti, to the ecology of local parks, and other matters more personal.  This is a City Council member who we elected, someone who we have heard speak at patriotic holiday events and a police picnic in a park.  He's a likeable fellow but his staff must be overwrought.  After we typed out a list of our concerns and personally presented them to a staff member who appeared to be interested in going over the list, making some phone calls that we could not, and a promise of getting back with us in a couple months to go over it, we were stunned when our next visit went so badly.

We had feared that our own business had delayed us in getting back with her and we hoped that all that extra time would mean a better report, but instead IT BECAME CLEAR THAT NOTHING MUCH AT ALL HAD HAPPENED.  She told us to become a member of a local neighborhood watch type web site - a social networking deal - where, apparently, neighbors complain and comment (but don't roll up their sleeves), and claimed (though we have a photocopy showing it right there) that she didn't even have our e-mail address.  First of all referring people out to a social networking community web site EXCLUDES ALL THE PEOPLE - particularly seniors - who do not have typing or computer skills (or whose arthritis prevents them from typing) - cannot afforded or do not have access to computers - and people who simply do not have the time to do so.  Further, she told us to call 311.  We've called 311 and gotten referrals that turned out to be incorrect - real time wasters.

So we are totally turned off.

But we did call back with this one question:  "WHAT IS THE PURPOSE OF A CITY COUNCIL OFFICE and STAFF.  WHY WOULD WE CALL YOU?"

When we originally asked to speak to this elected official in person we were told his office was downtown and he only met with people one day a week.  We feel as if his office staff is not following through and keeping us from him.

SO NO MORE EVENTS WHERE HE WILL APPEAR FOR US... and... we'll see who is running, but we may not vote for him again.

So we note the state of our next Presidential Election here in the United States of America.   We've read hundreds of news reports off our cell phone news aps and in the newspapers and magazines to be as well rounded in our reading as we can be.  It sometimes seems as if the vote will be for Donald Trump or Bernie Sanders.  We're not socialists, but we do think this Capitalist Country, if it really were being run on "Christian" principals, would take care of the entire population including those poorer than us. Is it really going to be CAPITALISM versus SOCIALISM?

We were cheered to see some CITIZEN ACTIVISTS holding signs "Honk if you're for Bernie" on a busy intersection.  We were glad SOMEONE WAS OUT THERE.  But we didn't hear much honking.

Along with DONALD TRUMP it seems that POLITICAL CORRECTNESS is coming into question.  The ultra-rich Trump seems to be unconcerned with what saying something unpopular or in an unpopular way is doing to his reputation.  He's theme seems to be "You can't argue with Success."



C 2015  Patriotic Purchase BlogSpot  All Rights Reserved including International and Internet Rights.