Keeping Garden Pests Away

Some gardeners use mothballs in the landscape to deter squirrels, chipmunks, mice, snakes, and other critters. This practice is an illegal use of a registered pesticide and can cause damage or death to humans and pets.

The National Pesticide Information Center reported that in 2010, 1,514 inquiries were made about mothballs, a 30 percent increase from 2009. Of those, 862 were incidents such as toxic exposure, including 617 reports of misapplications. Nearly 200 incidents involved children younger than the age of 5, placing mothballs’ main chemical, naphthalene, at the top of the “25 active ingredients for incidents.”

According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, naphthalene can cause multiple problems when inhaled or ingested, such as cataracts, anemia, liver damage, and in infants, neurological disorders.

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