Thanks for posting that. I always keep DE on hand. All the simple stuff is getting forgotten lately: vinegar, hydrogen peroxide, soap, salt, honey...I’m far from a back-to-nature nut, but the old standbys do work! DE is the best bug killer by far.
My kitchen has always been a battlefield against little critters coming in from the adjacent porch. DE has worked against clover mites, ants, and the carpenter bees that keep trying to eat the porch itself. For pill bugs (which aren’t really insects) I let a few strategically situated spiders live, as long as they stay out of sight; they act as border agents against mites and pillies that get around the DE lines. Anything flies in, I go modern: spray bottle of Lysol or any similar kitchen antibacterial spray cleaner will bring down a fly instantly, and like a shotgun, it never misses.
Problems outside, you need to be wise to nature: find the “good” bugs that counteract the “bad” bugs, and employ them. Likewise the plants that will encourage your “good” bugs and repulse your “bad” bugs.
I put those quote marks there so you understand, I don’t REALLY like any bugs. (Except honeybees!)
“...vinegar, hydrogen peroxide, soap, salt, honey,,,”
We keep 35 or 50% food grade hydrogen peroxided handy. We make our own soap...use it for bathing, washing hair, laundry. We use Redmond RealSalt in the kitchen, local non pasteurized honey, Real Milk and naturally raised stuff from our own garden and/or from a neighbors. We read labels. No polyunsaturated fats, no high fructose corn syrup, no artificial sweeteners, good Amish free range eggs, etc, but we are not fanatics. Organic sugar is still sugar...to be minimized or avoided. And we use coconut oil for all our cooking.