Green extermination for bugs.

Ron & Lisa give tips on how to protect your home from pesticides when fighting off pest problems in your home.

No more good night. No more sleep tight. Bed bugs are back, exploiting our eco-friendliness to feast on our flesh.

It's only early June and I've already been beaten (and eaten) by a couple of ambitious mosquitoes. I chased them down unsuccessfully and woke up the next morning with their signature red, itchy welts on my legs and feet. While I've had moderate success with natural insect repellents - made from nothing more than citronella oil, cedarwood oil, lemongrass oil, peppermint oil, eucalyptus oil, and water, Quantum receives Skin Deep's approval - I'm most interested in a non-toxic solution to the mosquito-heavy barbeques I suffer through each year. Specifically, is there a way to decrease the mosquito-to-human ratio present in my parents' New England backyard every summer?

Just one question for all you intelligent design advocates; what brainiac gave us the mosquito?

OK, so it’s kind of funny that I, the food editor, am being eaten alive by a mosquito. But I’m not laughing; I’m about to collapse from exhaustion after nearly a week of being woken up every night by the telltale buzz of this voracious little vampire who’s left bites all over my body, undeterred by Eau de Deet (that’s how desperate I am to get some sleep.)

Once awakened, I scratch my arms in a sleepy stupor and wonder how one little creature could cause so much havoc. Also, it’s December; why hasn’t the cold weather killed all the mosquitoes by now?