Are home remedies (boererate) effective and safe?
For centuries, people have turned to natural remedies to fight common ailments like influenza, toothache, etc and the trend continues! Not only are home remedies used for personal use, but they are also used in the home and garden to get rid of unwanted pests. As appealing as the notion of natural remedies is for some, however, not all such remedies are safe or effective.
Unfortunately, the man on the street does not always realize that certain chemicals used daily in our homes are sometimes more harmful to us, our pets as well as the environment.
Here are some points to keep in mind when considering home remedies.
LD50 (or lethal dosage) is the value scale used in toxicity studies to indicate the impact of substrates on various organisms. This indicates the amount of substrate in mg, per kilogram of body mass required to kill 50 % of a tested population. Remember, the lower the value, the more harmful the product.
Salt is often recommended as a remedy to kill snails, however, the LD50 value of salt is 3 000 mg / kg but the LD50 value of Scatterkill for Snails is 4 000 mg / kg. Scatterkill for Snails is therefore less toxic than salt.
Both salt and diesel can be successfully used as herbicides and are considered harmless by some. As mentioned in the previous paragraph, salt has a LD50 value of 3 000 mg / kg and that of diesel is 490 mg / kg. When we compare these values with that of a common herbicide such as Protek’s Clear All which has a LD50 value of more than 5 000mg/kg, we should take note that salt and diesel are much more toxic to humans, pets and the environment than Clear All.
Alphathrin is a general home insecticide for indoor and outdoor use. With a LD50 value of 4 959 mg / kg, it is once again less toxic than baking soda with a LD50 value of 3 360 mg / kg for controlling cockroaches. Outside the home, Alphathrin is also less toxic than dishwashing liquid (LD50 of 2,000 mg/kg) and vinegar (LD50 of 3 300 mg) regularly recommended.
Home remedies can be effective to a certain extent, but it is important that we notice that they are often more harmful to humans, pets and the environment than registered herbicides and insecticides.
