Our Earthkind Review – Keeping Pets & Farm Birds Safe While Maintaining a Pest Free Home
*Disclosure: We were provided with the products seen here in exchange for our fair and honest review, but were in no other way compensated for this post. Some links are, however, affiliate and we may receive compensation if you order through those links. Earthkind is not responsible for the content included here, all opinions are our own and honest. Wag ‘n Woof Pets does not review products we have not tried ourselves.
Living a natural life and running an organic farm are challenging to say the least. It’s my belief that we should live in harmony with nature as much as we can, in order to keep our Earth alive and beautiful. However, it’s sometimes not as easy as it sounds.
I’ve had to learn as I go about how to keep our vegetable garden pest free without using pesticides. That was challenging enough, but when faced with pests invading our home I had to learn even more. The process was not easy. I’ve always been adamantly against poisons to kill mice or bugs, an ongoing argument with the Dadz! I think men prefer to take the easy way of things, and they also don’t worry as much about the potential consequences of those choices.
But even sometimes I get pushed to the limit. We bought our home which soon became our farm as well just over three years ago. The original part of our house was built in 1815 on a stone foundation. Unwanted pests are going to find their way in, and most of them aren’t going to be as cute as the little white ermine we saw in our basement last fall!
Mice are cute too, but the mess they leave behind when they get into your kitchen is anything but. When they show up in your cabinets and drawers, chewing on your utensils and leaving multiple droppings behind, you get desperate. We’ve always had pretty good luck with electronic devices for keeping mice and other larger rodents like chipmunks and squirrels out of the house. What we didn’t know was that those products wear out in time. (We’ve never had a problem, but those devices can sometimes bother smaller pets as well.) We were forced to use traps for a while before we figured that out, but I hated that. I could never feel good about it, and every time we heard those traps snap, I winced. While the electronic devices do work, they are pricey, and they don’t work through walls, so you need them in many rooms. We got new ones which we put in the basement, attic, and main rooms of the house. They’ve been working, but occasionally one or two mice can find their way through, and into the back of the kitchen cabinets.
We needed just a bit more. Also, while those electronic devices also deter spiders, they don’t deter ants and last spring that was another big issue for us. Every day starting in the early spring there were ants crawling around the kitchen sink. I was on the internet trying to find any natural solution I could. We tried many, but nothing worked. I was forced to cave into using poison traps, and again, I hated it. I worried about ants carrying poison around the house, inside and outside where our chickens and guinea hens are as well! Just as bad as that, they didn’t seem to work at first. I only let the Dadz put them in the cellar below the kitchen, and the ants kept coming. When I was at my wit’s end, we put one way in the back of the cabinet under the sink.
One day I walked into the kitchen to wash the dishes, and they were literally covered with ants! Yikes! On top of that, the packaging tells you not to kill the ants because they need to carry the poison back to the nest. Right, what was I supposed to do, wait for them to take over the whole kitchen? They did go away after that, but there was no way I wanted to do any of that again.
I’m not proud of doing any of it and was not happy about any part of it other than the fact that the pests finally got out of my house!! But I knew they could come back.
Thank goodness Earthkind contacted me this spring and asked if we’d like to try their pet-safe, poison-free, natural products. It was not just the aforementioned nightmares that had me on board, but the natural safety of their products.
I don’t want to kill insects that my birds enjoy eating. Truthfully, they are our best natural insect control, but we can’t let them live in the house! So, while they take pretty good care of the outdoors, we need something else inside. I use my own fresh herbs to keep pests out of the chicken coop, so it makes perfect sense to me that the right combination of natural ingredients could keep them out of my house as well.
It is never safe to poison mice or insects if you have pets or farm birds. Our birds will occasionally kill mice as well, and of course your cats or even dogs might kill a rodent or eat a bug! Just the thought of that possibility scares the daylights out of me. On top of that, we must keep our farm birds safe from natural predators as well, so it’s in our best interest to try to keep the owls, hawks, and weasels well fed on a diet of mice if possible! You may never have thought about an owl eating a mouse full of poison green pellets, but it can happen. The ecosystem is a delicate balance and it’s our job as the earth’s stewards to keep that balance going as best we can. Let nature do its thing without interruption as much as possible.
Earthkind finds that balance by using ingredients IN nature to help keep pests OUT of your house. I put a pouch of “Stay Away Ants*” under the kitchen sink, “Stay Away Mice*” in my range drawer (which for some reason was a favorite spot of theirs to get into0, “Stay Away Spiders*” went into the second bathroom where I sometimes see spiders (there are no electronic devices in that corner of the house), and “Stay Away Moths*” upstairs where we store clothes and other items. Not only have I not yet seen any of those pests since doing so, but when I walk in the bathroom or open the doors/drawers where those pouches are, a pleasant aroma wafts to my nose.
The pouches are full of essential oils and herbs like rosemary, lemongrass, and thyme and only plant fibers. There are no chemicals or toxins that can poison your pets or even the wild birds outdoors. There are no known safety risks when used as directed. The pests don’t carry chemicals around while waiting to meet their death, they just stay out of your house!
I love a company with good values that cares about the same things I do. Earthkind was founded by leading pest prevention expert, Kari Warberg Block. All their products are sourced from American farms and designed by artists, scientists, and engineers who care about the earth. They are made in the USA, and the company also provides handicapped individuals with meaningful employment. The products come with a money back guarantee.
Need help keeping your home pest free? Do it the safe and chemical-free way for your pets and the balance of nature as well! Learn more about Earthkind here:
Thank you for the informative article. I will definitely place an order with them.
Also, what electronic device for the mice do you use? I started reading about them this winter and wasn’t too sure what to get. the mice were bad this year so I used the snap traps.
Hi Susan – you’re very welcome! The electronic devices we have are called GoodLife Electro-Vibrawave (ionic/ultrasonic). Those are nice too because they plug right into the wall, but they also have an outlet on the side so you don’t lose the plug in space!
Thank you so much for the information. I will be ordering it.
I live in the middle of 7 acres and my neighbors also have a lot of land – so there are a lot of critters in the woods.
Unfortunately the mice like to be warm when the weather gets cold!
Hope you enjoyed your Easter holiday – does go by too fast.
I’m glad you found something that works for you. We have been having a battle with mice since we moved into our house 11 1/2 years ago. I don’t like it, but we do use the snap traps. For me at least, I know the kill is fairly painless. When we first started, the company we use put glue pads down and I called them right out and told them to take them out. I don’t like killing the mice, but I do not want them to suffer stuck to a pad. Last year after seeing a mouse run across my kitchen floor, I contacted a new exterminator. They have a fencing type system they install around your foundation that prevents the mice from entering. Sadly, the money wasn’t in the budget for that, but they did install bait boxes. I know, I hate it too, but was thorough in questioning regards to killing the mice and the potential for another predator to ingest one! This company has done studies on mice and I’ve been assured 1) the mouse simply falls asleep, 2) the organ in the body that the poison concentrates is typically not eaten by predators and if they do, it is not harmful.
Do I believe this? Mostly. I do take most things with a grain of salt and a modicum of disbelief. Or maybe I just let myself believe it because of the alternative. 🙁
I had to chuckle, because last year – in the middle of the summer and the middle of the day – I had a bookkeeping client over and we were standing in the kitchen, when a mouse ran right in front of us!! That’s when I was really pushed to my limit, because usually they are only a problem in the fall and winter; but they were really bad last summer too.
So I understand why you have made the choice to do what you do in trapping them with the bait boxes (we used those in the past as well). At least you did your research to do it as humanely and safely as possible, and you’re as comfortable as you can be with it.
You might want to consider trying the electronic devices, and the Earthkind as a backup! They have really worked well for us when you get them set up right in the right places.
Because of how our condo is situated, we get all the basement bugs like huge spiders and centipedes. I always feel so bad about killing a living creature.
I hate killing anything too, but I have less problem doing it to bugs. They are so disgusting! LOL
Great review. I’m going to check out that line of products.
Thank you!
This was a fabulous and personal review! I need to check them out. I can’t stand spiders and the fact that their products are safe for pets is wonderful!
Thank you, Caren! I hope you give them a try!
Great review! Got one for those Japanese beetles????
Thanks! I don’t think they do, but I found something that worked on them in my gardens last year. The problem is I can’t remember now what it was, but it might have been the guinea hens!!
Sounds like great products. We have an exterminator for ants, but I can see why you want safe products around the chickens and hens.
Those crazy birds seem to eat just about anything!! 🙂
LOVE this post! Thanks for sharing. Going natural is the only way we want to go, too.
It can sometimes be challenging doing things the natural way, but we think it’s worth it!
Thanks for telling us about Earthkind. We’re always looking for more natural ways to deal with pests.
You’re welcome! Hope this might work for you too!
I am going to try these products!!!! I’ve been wondering what you’ve used in the past (it’s one of those things I keep meaning to ask you about at our get-togethers. Somehow we never get to the subject of pests! lol
Agree Sheryl, lol! I also will definitely try these products for any of those pests! Just don’t be surprised Jan, if I ask you to remind me the name of the product! Natural over pesticides whenever feasible is the only way we should go
Go figure we don’t make it to that subject at our get-togethers! LOL. I won’t be surprised, Lynn, I’m not surprised that anyone forgets anything these days. LOL
Now this is spot on. Everyone needs to deal with pests like this. Our pets and other wonderful critters will thank us.
Have a fabulous day and week. ♥
I’m tempted to try the ant-away behind the kitchen sink since they tend to come in through the kitchen window frame – which is right above the sink – and maybe the mice away just inside the crawl-space door behind the clothes dryer. We haven’t had any of either in quite a while, thankfully, but there’s nothing wrong with preventive measures.
It’s a lot easier to use preventative measures than to deal with them once they’ve already invaded!
That’s fantastic. I love natural ways to solve problems like that.
Oh, we need to get rid of some ants again, thanks for telling us about these!
We hope you’ll give it a try and get rid of your unwanted pests too!
No critters are invited to our house! I’m glad to know about the spider stuff. We do get them and I’m not a fan. LOL!
All those legs are so creepy! LOL
We had some mice, but Mom filled the holes where they were coming in, and cat bro Bert took care of the ones living in the basement. Paws crossed, but we haven’t seen a trace of a mouse in several years now. We only use safe products to get rid of them since you never know if a pet will find and eat a poisoned animal or bug. No poison stuff around here.
We are so glad to hear that! Of course, a good mouser is one of the best natural preventatives. Sam never had much interest in helping us with that issue, though we had cats in the past that did.
oh please keep us informed how the mice-off thingy works… we are on the way to become disneyland …aaaah…
Disneyland….ha ha ha! That was definitely what we were last year.
The spiders seem to love our basement near the windows. We need to give this product a try. Thank you!
You’re welcome! We hope it helps you out!