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New York Times
17 hours ago
- Health
- New York Times
How National Park Rangers Protect Themselves From Bugs (and How You Can Too)
Clothing that offers plenty of coverage should be your first line of defense against buzzing, biting pests. The less skin you leave exposed, the fewer bites you'll endure, so if you're venturing into buggy territory, wear long sleeves, long pants, tall socks, and closed-toe shoes. 'That might seem counterintuitive when it's super hot out, but being dressed correctly for the environment that you're going into really can make or break your day,' said Gantt. Park rangers recommend wearing long sleeves and long pants if you plan to explore a buggy area. Everglades National Park for NYT Wirecutter Loose clothing is more effective at preventing bug bites than anything form-fitting, Gantt added. Tight clothes, like workout leggings, lie right against your body and offer only a thin barrier between a mosquito and your skin. Loose-fitting clothes that hang off your body create more distance, so even if a mosquito were to land on you, it would have a harder time finding your skin. A lightweight, long-sleeved shirt is a good option if you're headed to a warm, humid climate. Something made of UPF fabric will help protect you from the sun, as well as any bugs that come your way. Consider the Bluesmiths Kanaha Hydrophopic Shirt or the Patagonia RØ, which Wirecutter's outdoor experts recommend in our guide to beach gear. As with shirts, pants that are loose and lightweight are an ideal choice. Consider Marmot PreCip Eco Pants, Wirecutter's pick for rain pants. They're made of nylon ripstop fabric, a thick material that bugs aren't as likely to pierce. Yet they're breathable enough that you won't feel sweaty or clammy after walking around. Pair your long pants with some tall socks, like these extra-long Farm to Feet Damascus Light Targeted Cushion Crew socks from our guide to hiking socks. 'It's very easy to take preventative measures' when you're visiting an area that's teeming with ticks, explained Pollock. In addition to 'trying to stay away from tall vegetation,' she said she recommends tucking pant legs into a pair of socks to prevent ticks from crawling up your legs. According to Wirecutter's outdoor experts, the Farm to Feet socks offer more coverage and protection than shorter socks. Plus, it's a lot easier to tuck your pants into them. Gantt said her favorite piece of gear to put on when she's surrounded by buzzing pests is an NPS-issued jacket. It's made of layers of tightly hatched mesh that mosquitoes and other small biting bugs, like no-see-ums, can't infiltrate. Though we can't all get kitted out by the NPS, we asked our staff if they owned anything similar. Wirecutter staff writer Evan Dent said he wore The Original: Bug Shirt when he worked in wooded areas as a canoe-trip guide in northern Ontario, and this long-sleeved hoodie is made from densely woven material that bugs can't bite through. Plus, the mesh sleeves and side cut-outs allow cooling breezes to pass through, and the sleeves and waist have drawstring closers that seal the garment from biting pests. It also has a zippered hood, which includes a netted face mesh covering and can fit over a baseball cap. Gantt said that many Everglades rangers and visitors wear headnets when mosquitoes are especially active. Writer Trey French likes to pull on his Sea to Summit Mosquito Head Net when 'things get biblical' on his hikes through the Sierra Nevada mountains. The soft polyester mesh fabric net effectively blocks bugs, keeping them out of your face and, maybe more critically, your mouth. It's treated with an odorless repellent that's effective through 40 washes, and it has an elasticized draw cord that creates a seal to keep bugs out. A head net that fits over a hat can help keep mosquitoes, flies, and other small flying insects out of your face. Everglades National Park for NYT Wirecutter
New York Times
2 days ago
- General
- New York Times
I'm a Huge Bug Wuss. This Chemical-Free Powder Killed Them So I Didn't Have To.
Some people fear heights. Some fear public speaking. I fear bugs — to the degree that I once engaged in a 20-minute stare-down with an already dead cockroach in my New York City apartment as I worked up the nerve to dispose of it. When I moved from the city to the Hudson Valley in the spring of 2021, I quickly realized my garage had some arthropodic squatters in the form of cave crickets, so named because they're drawn to dark, moist spaces. You may also know them as camel crickets (for their hump-backed bodies) or spider crickets (because their legs are so long they're often mistaken for giant meaty spiders). Whatever you call them, they're big, ugly, and annoying. Plus, they can chew on fabrics and cardboard, and their droppings can leave stains. Though harmless to people and pets, I found them unsettling to share space with. I tried ignoring the few invaders, keeping an eagle eye on them while I grabbed firewood or plugged in my lawn-mower battery. But over time an occasional lurker turned into several. When my wife uncovered dozens of them amassed behind a sheet of styrofoam I'd left propped against the wall, I realized we had a problem and got serious about extermination tactics. At first, I deployed a can of Raid insect spray. The spasmodic deaths felt cruel. Plus, I hated having to get close enough to spray them, and I didn't like launching chemicals into such an enclosed space. Next I tried glue traps, which didn't work since I most often found the crickets clinging to the garage's walls. Then I came across diatomaceous earth, which seemed like a hands-off, chemical-free solution perfectly suited to someone who, like me, would rather not face their fears. Diatomaceous earth is powdered sedimentary rock made up of the fossilized remains of diatoms (tiny unicellular algae). Under a microscope, diatomaceous earth, often abbreviated as DE, has tons of jagged edges; when DE meets insect exoskeleton, those jagged edges cut right in and the powder gets to work. I chose Harris Food Grade Diatomaceous Earth because it is a good value at about $3.75 per pound and comes with a little applicator. DE works for pest control because it is a desiccant, which means it draws out moisture. In fact, it's a material sometimes used in stone bath mats and other quick-drying bathroom products for just this reason. When the powdered rock touches the bug, rather than poisoning it, it simply dehydrates it, leaving a husk behind. Probably not the nicest way to go if you're a bug, but as a human, it was nice to not have to deal with guts or chemicals in the cleanup process. Powdered diatomaceous earth is composed of fossilized algae. Its many microscopic, jagged edges slice an insect's exoskeleton and dehydrate it. It is safe for mammals (like humans) but may irritate skin, so we recommend wearing gloves when handling it. Jen Gushue/NYT Wirecutter Although I bought a bag of DE from Harris, any non-calcined DE should work. Non-calcined DE is often labeled as food grade (because it's commonly used as an anticaking agent in animal feed) or pesticide grade, which is safe for use around people and pets. Avoid calcined DE, which is often labeled as pool-grade DE for use as a filtering agent. Calcined DE has been heated to harden the diatom fossils, a process that transforms it into a substance that can be very irritating to the lungs, said Cody James Pace, an entomologist and technical services director at Terminix, a global pest-control company. A little of the powdered rock goes a long way, which I did not realize when I set out to use it. Since I was determined to eradicate my cricket problem, I started sprinkling tons of the stuff across thresholds, along walls, and into every dark corner and crevice, like I was Buffy Summers laying down a circle of salt to keep demons at bay. My placement was correct, since I targeted the crickets' access points and frequent routes, but according to Pace, the quantity I used was almost definitely overkill. 'When it comes to pest management, we have this mentality that if a little bit works, a lot must work better,' he said. Not the case. Instead, use only a thin layer of DE, since large piles could actually create a physical barrier that blocks the bug's ability to move across it, said Pace. The idea is to get the insects to walk through the desiccant. 'When they walk through it, they pick it up on their exoskeleton,' he said. 'Then they start grooming themselves and spreading it across their body.' Harris Food Grade Diatomaceous Earth comes with an applicator for easier dispersal. A little goes a long way. Jen Gushue/NYT Wirecutter And as far as I'm concerned, the best part of using DE is its ability to do its job without me. I was more than happy to be a passive participant in the process. After a few weeks, despite overdoing the DE application, I started seeing fewer and fewer crickets. I went from counting a handful at a time to seeing one or two every few days. Then I stopped seeing them entirely. I no longer feared my own garage, knowing the DE was working in the background. Its benefit in my case was twofold, explained Pace. Not only was the DE killing the crickets that were already in my garage, but it was also doing a small part to correct the conditions that were attracting them in the first place. The crickets were seeking a dark, moist environment, and the DE may have been sucking the moisture out of the air, potentially enough to make it a little less attractive to the insect cave-dwellers. For this reason, if you're experiencing an infestation due to moisture, Pace also suggested setting up a moisture monitor and employing a dehumidifier. While DE worked for my garage, it's admittedly not the most elegant pest-control solution, and it can be messy, a drawback that we note in our guide to the best ant killers. DE is, after all, a powder, so you need to dust it everywhere the insects are — not great for an indoor living space, especially if you have pets or kids running around, who might agitate the powder. And the hands-off action may not be for everyone. Relative to some poisons, it's a slow-acting substance, but it's great for long-term control. 'As long as that diatomaceous earth stays dry, it will always be effective,' said Pace. Harris suggests reapplying once a week for a month to control infestations, but I didn't have to reapply nearly as often. Though it's pretty innocuous to people and other mammals, DE's drying action can irritate the skin, eyes, and mucous membranes. Pace recommends wearing gloves and eye protection as you lay it down and avoiding leaving large piles that could be kicked up into the air. If any gets on your skin, wash with soap and water; if it causes eye irritation, flush your eyes immediately with clean water, per the Missouri Poison Center. Food-grade DE is not harmful if ingested. It's been a few years since the fateful styrofoam incident, and I truly can't remember the last time I saw a cave cricket in my house. I still redust with DE periodically, especially after I clean out my garage, taking care to focus on the thresholds. Pace says cave crickets lay eggs in the spring and grow over a few months, so I'll be keeping my eyes peeled over the next few weeks. And if I do see any, I'll sprinkle a little more DE and walk away. It'll do its thing. This article was edited by Katie Okamoto and Maxine Builder. We've found dehumidifiers that are easy to live with and effectively reduce ambient moisture in your home.
New York Times
3 days ago
- Health
- New York Times
If You Love Moths (and You Should), Replace Your Porch Light With Something Better
If you care about the environment, you should care about moths. 'Without them, we would disappear from this planet in short order,' says Doug Tallamy, entomologist and author of several books about creating insect-friendly backyards. That's because insects, including moths, pollinate plants and feed other animals, especially birds and bats, which makes them a key part of the ecosystem. Moth caterpillars make up most of the diet of young birds, so without moths, there would be fewer chickadees, robins, and bluebirds in yards and parks. Bird populations are on the decline already; the United States has lost about 3 billion birds in the past 50 years. The world, meanwhile, is experiencing a massive decline in insect populations. 'Light pollution is one of the major causes of insect decline,' said Tallamy, alongside other factors including habitat loss and pesticides. Scientists believe that in nature, nighttime insects orient themselves to the ultraviolet light from the moon. In artificial lights, it's the blue wavelengths that mislead them. Left: My porch lamp at full white brightness. Right: Adjusting it to a warm yellow or orange doesn't impact how clearly I can see but saves a lot of moth lives. Grant Clauser/NYT Wirecutter So simply changing your lights from white and blue wavelengths to yellow ones can save countless insect lives. After I switched my front and back porches from bright white to orangey-yellow, I stopped seeing insects swirling around my lamps like a mosh pit. And there's evidence to back up the theory: A 2016 study presented at the American Association for the Advancement of Science conference showed that warm-toned LED lights attracted significantly fewer insects than incandescent or fluorescent lights. Smart bulbs allow you to turn down the blue wavelengths, offering your moth friends a yellow light that is still bright enough for you to see by but won't turn your lamp into a Death Star. You can opt for either white tone-adjustable bulbs, which allow you to tune the light from cool white to warmer hues, or 100% color-adjustable bulbs, which are capable of producing millions of colors. The color-adjustment feature looks slightly different in each smart-bulb app. Choose either a warm yellow or a white that's less than 3,000 K. WiZ app for iOS, LIFX app for iOS, Wyze app for iOS Not all smart-bulb apps display color temperatures (as the app for our top-pick WiZ bulb does), but if yours does, it's best to select 3,000 K or lower, as the DarkSky Project, an advocacy group focused on the effects of light pollution on humans and wildlife, recommends. However, a warm yellow or orange light isn't the best for reading. When I want to sit outside in the evening to read a book, I use the Wirecutter-recommended Glocusent Bookmark Style Reading Light for supplemental light and leave the porch light in bug-safe mode.
New York Times
22-05-2025
- General
- New York Times
I Went to War With Fungus Gnats. This Is the Secret Weapon That Helped Me Win.
When a flying bug comes my way, rational thought goes out the window. With high-pitched squeals and eyes shut, I'll bat the air, hoping to hit a line drive with the helpless creature. But more often than not, it's a swing and a miss. So you can imagine my horror when my indoor plants became infested with hundreds, if not thousands, of fungus gnats in the summer of 2020. My batting average was as low as my mental state as I unsuccessfully feuded against a swarm of tiny flies for weeks. When I thought I had finally gotten rid of them, a new platoon would emerge, ready to pick a fight. Desperation kicked in when every method I tried failed, from insecticides to homemade traps. Until, at last, I hit a walk-off grand slam by staking Garsum Fruit Fly Sticky Traps at the base of each plant. Once they were installed, it took only a few days to strike out the entire army of gnats without breaking a sweat. Since then, these sticky traps have been permanently nestled in the soil of my houseplants and clipped onto the fruit bowls in my kitchen as a frontline defense for keeping unwelcome bugs from invading my home. These sticky fly traps are designed to attract and capture insects that land or crawl onto the surface. Within a week of installing the sticky traps, my coworker Megan Beauchamp managed to capture several gnats hanging around her African violet. Megan Beauchamp/NYT Wirecutter Though fungus gnats are harmless to humans, they can wreak havoc on plants. The larvae live in soil and feed on fungi, organic matter, and occasionally a plant's roots, which can cause a once-thriving anthurium to go dry, lose its vigor, and even decay. It doesn't help that fungus gnats can reproduce surprisingly quickly. Mated females lay 100 to 200 microscopic eggs at a time, and they hatch a mere four to six days later, according to information published by Utah State University Extension and Utah Plant Pest Diagnostic Laboratory. Once the larvae are born, they'll feed (on soil and plant roots) for about 15 days before spinning into a cocoon to transition into adulthood — a speedy five-to-six-day turnaround. In a fit of desperation, I used the adhesive side of a sticky note as my weapon of choice against these gnats, which worked on a small scale, but it led me to believe something better might already be on the market. I was right, and a quick TikTok search pointed me toward my beloved sticky traps — hundreds of videos confirmed their lethal capabilities. The fungus gnats were finally outmatched. A week after I put in the Garsum sticky traps, the flies were completely eradicated — aside from the proof of their lifeless corpses stuck onto the traps. The paper lining keeps the adhesive material from sticking until you're ready to use them. Maki Yazawa/NYT Wirecutter The yellow traps are designed to attract (due to the bright color) and capture (thanks to the super-sticky adhesive) any insect that lands or crawls onto them. They're long-lasting, durable, UV-resistant, and waterproof, so they're ideal for indoor or outdoor use (although I've only used them inside). They come in various designs with simple cutout silhouettes of butterflies, birds, and succulents and, on average, are about the size of an index card. The bottom portion of the trap has a pointed triangular shape, which makes it easier to stake it into the ground or a potted plant. But if you're having trouble inserting one, I've found that piercing the soil first with a butter knife or the plastic mini shovel tool that comes with the traps works well. To install, simply peel off the paper lining on both sides of the trap to reveal the adhesive material. Then, position it upright in the soil so that it's not too close to the plant's stems and leaves but close enough to get in the way of an insect's flight path. These highly effective sticky traps caught dozens of pesky bugs at a time. Even though I don't consider myself the murderous type, I marveled at the sight of the lifeless gnats pinned to the sticky surface. It was as oddly satisfying as taking in the infamous Gum Wall at Pike Place Market in Seattle — equally gross and gratifying. Left: The plants that were affected by the 2020 gnat infestation, after the sticky traps successfully eradicated the bugs. Right: The sticky traps protecting plants in our Long Island City, New York, office. Maki Yazawa/NYT Wirecutter The manufacturer says these sticky traps are also effective against other small airborne insects, like whiteflies, aphids, thrips, midges, leaf miners, mosquitoes, and fruit flies. In the five years that I've used the traps, I've also successfully taken on fruit flies, and I've made a habit of clipping a trap onto the side of my fruit bowl to prevent infestations from occurring. You can also prop them up near a trash can for similar results. I clip a sticky trap on my fruit bowl to trap fruit flies. Maki Yazawa/NYT Wirecutter When I'm not dealing with a full-blown infestation, the traps last several months, and I only toss and replace them once they're too polka-dotted with bugs to work effectively. My only qualm with this product is that the sticky material can get on your fingers, but an alcohol-based hand sanitizer or a few drops of vegetable oil can help soften it enough to rinse away. The manufacturer also notes that the glue can melt when exposed to heat, but I've found that briefly refrigerating the traps can help reconstitute the material. Fortunately, the adhesive doesn't inflict damage on a plant's leaves even if you accidentally touch one with a trap. In my experience, I've been able to carefully peel away any stuck-on leaves with minimal damage. Still, the pros far outweigh the cons, and I appreciate how hands-off this extermination method is. Long gone are the days of risking injury while batting flying insects away. If only solving all my critter concerns could be this easy. But a win's a win, and in my book, these sticky traps are a home run. This article was edited by Megan Beauchamp and Maxine Builder. Here's the best gear for killing flies and other common household pests. Our repellent recommendations are EPA approved, backed by experts, and tested by us. Create a bug-free bubble outdoors with these spatial insect repellents. Bug zappers kill the wrong bugs—to control bugs without a spray repellent, use a spatial repellent or a fan instead.
New York Times
20-05-2025
- New York Times
This Robot Vacuum Has a Claw That Tries (and Mostly Fails) to Pick Up Your Socks
The Saros Z70 mostly works like any other robot vacuum-mop combo, sucking up debris and wiping up light grime. But the main attraction is the OmniGrip arm, which promises to grab and sort the type of clutter that robot cleaners, until this point, haven't been able to tidy up on their own. The arm spends most of its time tucked inside the robot, behind a hatch. It's programmed to recognize socks, slippers, small towels, and tissues (that's all, for now), extend the claw, pick up the items, and then drop them off in designated areas. Socks, towels, and tissues go into a cardboard bucket that comes with the robot, and slippers go to another floor-level spot of your choice. Setup took me about 10 minutes. You need to start by sending the robot out on a training run to draw a map of your home's floor plan, a process that's quick and mostly automatic. Then you coach it, through the smartphone app, so that it knows where you've put the sock bin and where you want the slippers to go. Depending on which settings you have enabled, either it'll sort your things as it finds them or you can set it to finish cleaning first and then go on a separate sorting-only run. If it comes across other obstacles, it'll just steer around them. It also has a remote-control mode that lets you peer through the bot's camera, drive up to obstacles, and then tell the claw to do its thing. The claw isn't exactly a piece of heavy-duty precision machinery, but it doesn't strike me as flimsy, either. When it pops out of its hatch, tiny motors whirring, sometimes I stop to marvel at how far robot vacuums have come. Other times it strikes me as cartoonish and over-the-top, and occasionally I shudder, as though I'm gazing upon a techno-dystopian torture device from an H.R. Giger painting. My dog hates it. The Saros Z70 clamps down on socks, tissues, and slippers with a crablike pincer grip and then carries the item to a designated sorting area. Liam McCabe/NYT Wirecutter Down to business: The claw doesn't collect stuff as reliably as advertised. I gave it a few chances to pick up a normal mess that my dog and my 7-year-old leave out on any given day, but it grabbed only about a quarter of the items. If a sock was anywhere near a piece of furniture — as it often is when you live with a first-grader who reflexively tears off their footwear as soon as they plop down on the couch — the Z70 wouldn't even attempt to pick it up. It's probably a good thing that the robot is smart enough not to snap off its own appendage while driving under a coffee table. But even when I carefully staged a bunch of socks and slippers that didn't seem like they would cause the Z70 any obvious problems, it still worked only about half as often as I thought it should. It didn't accurately identify every piece of detritus, even from its approved-item list. One of my black socks blended in with my navy blue rug, and the Z70 couldn't spot the sock. A Roborock representative told us that the vision system struggles to spot objects on dark carpets in general. The vision system later mistook that same sock for a dog turd, even though it was on a bare wood floor that time. It didn't register my slippers at all. The AI vision system on the Saros Z70 sometimes misidentifies objects, like when it thought my black ankle sock was dog poop (left). You need to spend at least a few minutes coaching the robot through the rich but busy smartphone app (center) to take advantage of all the features. Most of the time, it offers tips along the way (right). Liam McCabe/NYT Wirecutter Then again, it did pick up a Birkenstock sandal, which I guess it had pegged as a slipper (it must be hard to train AI on those subtle differences). It's a positive sign that the arm is strong enough to handle that much weight, and I was impressed when the bot set the sandal down exactly where I had coached it to. The other half of the Birkenstock pair wasn't so lucky, though; it sat sole-side up on the floor, and the Z70 stared at it for a second and then left without attempting to lift it. Sometimes, when the Z70 did identify a sock correctly, the arm just couldn't quite grab it. Considering the slew of cameras and sensors built into the arm and the main chassis, you'd think it would find the right angle, but it's not there yet. The Z70 was also way too conservative around furniture and fixtures for my tastes. It wouldn't even try to pick up socks that were within a foot of my TV stand or toilet, and it balked at grabbing a sock under my dining room table, where there's ample height for the arm to do its thing. Then there are other obstacles that it should have steered clear of but didn't. It promptly tried to pick up a sock next to my dog's wire playpen — and ended up hooking itself to one of the crossbars and not letting go until the front of the bot had risen a few inches off the floor. Occasionally, it just looked lost, twitching in place with its claw hanging out, calling out 'sorting items, sorting items' over and over for about a minute at inconsistent intervals, before retracting its arm and moving on. Here's the claw cavity inside the Saros Z70. It doesn't feel like cheap machinery, though it's not exactly heavy-duty, either. Liam McCabe/NYT Wirecutter I tested it for about three weeks. It remains to be seen whether the claw will hold up over time, what with all its moving parts and all the crevices where dust and grit can gather. My sense is that these robots are not easy to repair. When I've spoken to Roborock representatives about the durability and repairability of the company's products in the past, they've told me that it doesn't plan to offer major replacement parts because it expects customers to upgrade every three years or so anyway. The Z70's arm is very much a work in progress, and Roborock has a big challenge on its hands. Getting the arm tuned correctly, across all the image recognition, mechanical engineering, and choices about risk management and bot behavior, will be quite a feat of engineering. And the solution probably won't come to this first-generation model: In an email, a representative from Roborock said that the company probably won't be able to solve some of the pickup and image-recognition problems with software updates alone. For now, it falls well short of being Roborock's promised panacea for all your floor-level messes. You shouldn't count on Roborock (or any company) to catch up with its promises through software updates over time. It might — but I've seen too many examples of gadget makers not delivering on their promised improvements to navigation systems and other features.
