Common-Sense Pest Control: Least-Toxic Solutions for Your Home, Garden, Pets and Community

The authors of this impressive volume are founders of the Bio-Integral Resource Center in Berkeley, Calif., dedicated to nontoxic pest management. Throughout the book, their knowledge of environmentally friendly controls is richly evident. They begin by discussing basic plant, animal and insect names and information on management and natural pest controls--a section which, as they admit, readers may well want to skip, preferring to zero in on whatever particular pest they'd most like to stamp out. A thoroughgoing education follows: we learn nearly everything we'd ever want to know about pests and their control, ranging from indirect treatments to the physical (e.g., hand-removing Japanese beetles) and from the biological (releasing beneficial insects) to the chemical (insecticidal soap and baits). Pests of the home and greenhouse, the body, garden and the lawn are covered in unusual detail. (A section on pests in homes, for example, could serve as the basis for an annual homeowner's checkup.) The squeamish may not wallow in the lore of bugs so generously shared, but they'll marvel at the research that has fed the book--marvel enough, perhaps, to go back and read the introductory chapters. (May)