Green Guru
Advice for the eco-minded.
By Starre Vartan
Is there a natural way to repel yellow jackets? We’ve tried the traps without success.
—Janet Adamski, Brooklyn, NY
Yellow jackets, as anyone who frequents picnics knows, can be pugnacious party guests. But like every bug, these wasps have their niche. Yellow jackets’ impressive aerial abilities enable them to attack and kill garden pests like flies, grubs, and caterpillars for a meal on the go or for a nutritious parcel to take back to the hive. As the population of the nest multiplies by the hundreds and thousands throughout the summer and natural food supplies dwindle, they become more combative, says Eric Mussen, an apiculturist at the University of California-Davis. And because of their numbers, killing individual yellow jackets won’t do much to prevent others from buzzing round your barbecue. Since their nests are often found in underground cavities, locating and destroying them can be difficult, not to mention dangerous.
What will keep the wasps away? Like most insects, they are attracted to the smell of food—in particular, fragrant sweets and meats. Keep snacks and drinks covered and remove them from outdoor areas as soon as you are finished eating. Since yellow jackets have a tremendous sense of smell and remember the location of food for hours, be sure to clean up any crumbs or spills. These preventive measures may do the trick without wiping out the benefits that these bugs can bring to gardens. Commercially available lures or homemade water traps can work, but timing is everything. (If you’re a do-it-yourselfer, try hanging a hunk of lunch meat near the top of a five-gallon bucket of water.) Most people fail to reduce wasp populations with these devices because they use them too late in the summer, when colonies are already in full swing. In areas where the temperature drops below freezing, the yellow jacket lifecycle involves a queen overwintering while the rest of the hive dies. “By killing the queen in the spring you can eliminate a whole nest,” says Mussen.
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How do I find an environmentally sensitive dry cleaner?
—Heidi Keller, Las Vegas, NV
It’s ironic that getting your clothes clean would dirty the air, but that smell emanating from your freshly pressed slacks is perchlorethlyene (a.k.a. PERC), a chemical that has stained the dry cleaning industry. “PERC is a known carcinogen which can cause cancer of the esophagus, bladder, kidneys, and liver, as well as eye and nasal-passage damage, depending on exposure,” says Dimitri Stanich, a spokesperson for the California Air Resources Board. People who work with PERC day in and day out are particularly at risk. The National Institute for Occupational Safety notes that PERC fumes can cause short-term health problems, like dizziness, drowsiness, and loss of coordination. PERC is also found at higher levels in the air surrounding a dry cleaner. Early this year the state of California outlawed the installation of new machines that use PERC and ordered a phaseout of the old ones as well. Other states may follow suit.
Some businesses are now using EPA-recommended PERC alternatives, including liquid CO2 and “wet cleaning,” that can get your garments gleaming without doing damage. If you can’t find a dry cleaner that eschews PERC, make sure to remove clothes from their bags before you bring them into your home so you and your family don’t end up breathing the toxic fumes. One more earth-friendly tip: You can return plastic bags and hangers to most dry cleaners for reuse. To begin your search for a greener cleaner near you, click here.
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What are your tips for an eco-friendly wedding?
—Amy Elsinger, Phoenix, AZ
A happy couple marks the end of a great wedding, but along with the bride and bridegroom’s bliss comes a monster pile of garbage and a hangover-sized cloud of global warming gases from all the energy consumed to get gifts, food, and people to the party on time. The best (and easiest) rule for planning earth-friendly nuptials: Go local. Scout for a location close to the majority of your guests; take advantage of regional and organic wines and beers; hire a caterer who offers fresh produce purchased from nearby farms instead of days-old greens shipped from halfway around the world. All of these initial steps can cut down on how far the basics for your wedding have to travel, thus saving energy (and money), as well as making your celebration distinctive.
Your decorations don’t have to be decadent either. If you’re considering flowers, keep in mind that most of the roses used in bouquets and boutonnieres and to adorn church pews and reception tables are flown here from South America (see “A Rose Is [Not] a Rose,” January-February). This is a long trip for something that’s going to be thrown away at the end of the day, so choose local, in-season flowers instead and opt for organic if available (often these can be found at your farmers’ market). But who says you even have to use flowers? “The whole point of a centerpiece is an interesting focal point, which can be a mix of photographs in silver frames, or heirloom fruits; think about what can double as a favor so you can cut down on leftovers,” says Meghan Meyers, editor of Portovert.com, the online green wedding guide. Meyers also suggests choosing bridesmaids’ dresses that they will actually wear again, including nearby retailers on your gift registry (myregistry.com allows you to list small local stores), and using post-consumer recycled stationery for printed materials (if they’re even necessary).
Send your most vexing questions to greenguru@audubon.org
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