- 1 hour ago
A $4 bag of diatomaceous earth can replace an $800-a-year pest control habit when you know where to dust it and how to keep it dry. Elias Yoder explains how this soft white mineral from the ground works on ants, roaches, fleas, bed bugs, silverfish, earwigs, slugs, beetles, and more by scratching the insect’s outer shell until it dries out.
He walks through the difference between food grade and pool grade, why food grade is the one used around kitchens, barns, and stored grain, and how old farmers used it in pantries, chicken coops, and grain bins. The video also covers the biggest mistakes: applying too much, letting it get wet, and expecting instant results instead of a slow, sure effect.
You’ll also hear practical pest control guidance for baseboards, wall voids, carpets, bed frames, foundations, and garden beds, plus simple safety notes about dust masks, pets, and bees. It’s a straight-talking home maintenance and natural pest control guide with Amish know-how, off-grid cleaning wisdom, and real-world household use cases.
SEO: ideal for viewers searching for diatomaceous earth for ants, natural pest control, food grade diatomaceous earth, bed bug treatment, flea control, roach control, and Amish home-saving methods. Useful for DIY pest control, homesteading, farm supply, grain storage, and practical home care research.
He walks through the difference between food grade and pool grade, why food grade is the one used around kitchens, barns, and stored grain, and how old farmers used it in pantries, chicken coops, and grain bins. The video also covers the biggest mistakes: applying too much, letting it get wet, and expecting instant results instead of a slow, sure effect.
You’ll also hear practical pest control guidance for baseboards, wall voids, carpets, bed frames, foundations, and garden beds, plus simple safety notes about dust masks, pets, and bees. It’s a straight-talking home maintenance and natural pest control guide with Amish know-how, off-grid cleaning wisdom, and real-world household use cases.
SEO: ideal for viewers searching for diatomaceous earth for ants, natural pest control, food grade diatomaceous earth, bed bug treatment, flea control, roach control, and Amish home-saving methods. Useful for DIY pest control, homesteading, farm supply, grain storage, and practical home care research.
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LifestyleTranscript
00:00The exterminator pulls up in his white truck.
00:03He walks the perimeter,
00:04sprays the chemicals from the canister on his back,
00:07leaves a small piece of paper on your door,
00:10and drives away.
00:12$800 a year,
00:14sometimes $1,000,
00:15sometimes $1,200,
00:17and not just one year,
00:19every year,
00:20forever,
00:21as long as you own that house,
00:23because the ants will be back next month,
00:26and the cockroaches in the spring,
00:28and the fleas with the dog,
00:30and the spiders in the basement,
00:32and the silverfish in the bathroom,
00:34and round and round,
00:36year after year,
00:37with that same white truck pulling up,
00:40and that same canister,
00:42and that same bill.
00:45Now I want you to sit with this.
00:48There is a soft white powder you can buy at a garden store,
00:52or a feed store,
00:53or a hardware store,
00:54for $4 a bag.
00:56Just $4.
00:58It kills the ants.
01:00It kills the roaches.
01:01It kills the fleas,
01:03the bedbugs,
01:04the silverfish,
01:05the earwigs,
01:07the slugs,
01:08the beetles in your stored grain.
01:10Over a hundred kinds of crawling pests,
01:13by the same simple way,
01:15on every one.
01:17It is not a chemical poison.
01:19It is a mineral you dig from the ground.
01:22It is so safe,
01:24the government allows it to be mixed right in with stored grain you eat.
01:28And once it is dusted in the right place and kept dry,
01:32it keeps killing,
01:34not for a week or a month,
01:36but for as long as it sits there.
01:38A $4 bag against an $800 a year service.
01:45My name is Elias Yoda.
01:47I am Amish,
01:49and I farm in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania.
01:52My grandfather taught me about this powder when I was a boy.
01:55He kept a bag of it in the granary,
01:58and another in the chicken coop,
01:59and it has been in our barns and our pantries my whole life.
02:04Today, I am going to tell you what it is,
02:07exactly how to use it,
02:09the things that make it fail,
02:11the things to keep your family safe around it,
02:14and why a whole industry that makes its money on the monthly visit
02:19will never knock on your door to recommend it.
02:23Before I go further,
02:24for the folks who want all of this,
02:27every method I have shown on this channel
02:29and the ones I have not gotten to yet,
02:32all in one place,
02:34I have put it together in a book at my website,
02:38EliasYoder.com.
02:39I will not push it again in the video.
02:42If you want it, it is there.
02:45Now let me show you the powder.
02:47Let me first tell you what this powder is,
02:50because once you understand it,
02:52the rest of the video makes simple sense.
02:55It is called Diatomaceous Earth,
02:57which is a long, fancy name.
03:00What it is in plain language
03:02is a mineral you dig from the ground,
03:04a soft, chalky white earth,
03:08mined out of certain deposits
03:09the way you might mine clay or chalk.
03:13When they grind it fine,
03:15it becomes a flower-soft powder,
03:17light and dusty,
03:19that pours through your fingers
03:21and feels like talc.
03:23You can put your hand right in the bag.
03:25No gloves needed,
03:27no burning,
03:28no smell.
03:29It looks and feels like nothing.
03:32To you and me,
03:34it is harmless dust.
03:36But here is the marvel of it,
03:38and this is what does the work.
03:40Under a magnifying glass,
03:43those soft white particles
03:44are not soft at all.
03:46They are tiny, hard, jagged,
03:50sharp-edged little fragments,
03:52sharp as broken glass
03:54at the scale of a small creature.
03:57Soft as flour to us,
03:59sharp as broken glass to an insect.
04:02That is the whole secret
04:04of how it kills.
04:06When a beetle or an ant or a roach
04:09walks across a thin dusting
04:11of this powder,
04:12the sharp little fragments
04:14scratch through the waxy coating
04:16on its outer shell,
04:18the layer that holds the moisture
04:20inside the creature's body.
04:22With that coating cut,
04:24the moisture in the insect
04:25leaks out,
04:26and it dries up and dies.
04:29It is not poisoned.
04:30It is not made sick.
04:32The powder simply scratches
04:34its outer skin
04:35until it cannot hold its water,
04:38and it dehydrates.
04:40And here is the part
04:41that makes the chemical pesticide companies
04:44nervous.
04:45Bugs can build up resistance
04:47to poisons
04:48over many generations.
04:50The strong ones survive and breed,
04:53and after a while,
04:54the spray that worked 10 years ago
04:56does not work anymore.
04:58But you cannot build up resistance
05:01to a tiny piece of glass.
05:03A creature cannot grow itself
05:05thicker than a sharp edge
05:07that simply scratches its skin.
05:09There is no clever way
05:11around the powder.
05:12It works the same on the bug
05:14the spray has stopped working on.
05:17The physics do not negotiate.
05:20That is what diatomaceous earth is.
05:23A soft, white mineral
05:25from the ground
05:25that to us is harmless dust,
05:28and to a bug
05:29is a field of broken glass.
05:32Now let me tell you
05:33what it works on,
05:35plainly,
05:35because the list is long
05:37and folks should know.
05:39It works on ants,
05:41the little ones
05:42marching across your kitchen counter,
05:44the carpenter ants in the wood,
05:46the fire ants by the porch.
05:49It works on cockroaches,
05:51both the small ones
05:52and the large kind.
05:54It works on fleas,
05:56on a dog's bedding,
05:58on a carpet,
05:59on the dust in the corners
06:00where they hide.
06:01It works on bed bugs,
06:04and this one matters
06:05because bed bugs
06:07have become very hard
06:08to kill with the chemicals.
06:10They have grown resistant
06:11to the sprays
06:12in most cities.
06:14They have not grown resistant
06:16to broken glass.
06:18It works on silverfish
06:20in the bathroom,
06:21earwigs in the basement,
06:24centipedes and millipedes,
06:26crickets that come in
06:27for the winter,
06:28slugs on the garden bed,
06:30spider mites on the house plant,
06:33ticks in the high grass
06:35by the kennel,
06:36weevils and beetles
06:38in stored flour
06:39and stored grain.
06:41That is a long list
06:43and it is real.
06:45The government registered
06:46this powder as a pesticide
06:48more than 60 years ago,
06:51back in 1960,
06:53long enough
06:54that nobody can pretend
06:55it is new or unproven.
06:58It is what the organic farmers
07:00use on their crops
07:01because it leaves
07:02no chemical behind,
07:04and it is the same powder
07:06some folks mix right in
07:08with their stored grain
07:09at a small dose
07:10to keep the weevils
07:12out of the wheat
07:13without poisoning the wheat.
07:16That is how safe it is
07:17when you have the right kind.
07:20We will get to the right kind
07:22in a moment
07:22because that part matters.
07:25Let me also be honest
07:27about its honest limits
07:29because I will not let you
07:30think it is magic.
07:32It is best on the soft-bodied creatures
07:35and the smaller ones
07:37ants, fleas, bedbugs,
07:40soft caterpillars.
07:41It dries them up
07:43in a day or two.
07:44On the bigger,
07:46harder-shelled fellows,
07:47like a full-grown beetle
07:49or a tough cockroach,
07:50it takes longer,
07:52three days,
07:53a week,
07:54sometimes more,
07:55because they have
07:56more shell to grind through
07:58and more moisture to lose.
08:01So you do not sprinkle it down
08:03and expect the floor
08:04to be covered in dead bugs
08:06by morning.
08:07It is slow,
08:08but it is sure,
08:09and the ones that crawl across it
08:12do not crawl long.
08:14And it does not kill insect eggs.
08:18It kills the living bug
08:20that walks through it.
08:21Eggs hatch
08:22and become living bugs
08:24which then walk through the powder
08:26which kills them.
08:28So for fast-breeding creatures,
08:30you leave the powder in place
08:32for a few weeks
08:33through more than one
08:35of their hatching cycles,
08:37and you keep at it
08:38until they are gone.
08:40Patience,
08:41not panic.
08:42And the most important limit of all,
08:46the one that ruins
08:48most people's first try.
08:50Wet powder does nothing.
08:53Dew,
08:54rain,
08:55mopping,
08:56spraying,
08:57even high humidity
08:59in a closed bathroom.
09:00Water clumps the powder together
09:03and dulls those sharp little edges,
09:05and then it does nothing at all.
09:09Dry,
09:10it stays alive forever.
09:12Wet,
09:13it goes to sleep.
09:15We will come back to this
09:17when I show you how to use it.
09:19Now,
09:20here is the one thing
09:21that matters most
09:22about which bag you buy,
09:24and I will say it plain
09:26because getting this wrong
09:27is the most common mistake.
09:30There are two grades
09:32of diatomaceous earth
09:33sold in this country.
09:35Food grade
09:36and pool grade,
09:38sometimes called
09:39filter grade.
09:41They look almost the same
09:43in the bag,
09:44and they cost about the same,
09:46and the difference between them
09:47is enormous.
09:49Food grade
09:51is the powder,
09:52plain,
09:53ground fine,
09:54with nothing added.
09:56This is the one you want.
09:59It is safe to use
10:00around your kitchen,
10:02around your children,
10:03around your pets.
10:04The government calls it
10:06safe enough
10:07to mix right in with food
10:09at small doses.
10:11This is the one
10:12for pest control.
10:14Pool grade
10:14is the same mineral,
10:16but they have heated it
10:17to a very high temperature
10:18to change its chemistry.
10:20They do this
10:21so it can filter water
10:22in a swimming pool.
10:24That heat treatment
10:25turns it into a form
10:26that is much more dangerous
10:27to breathe,
10:28and the bag may have
10:29other chemicals added besides.
10:32Pool grade
10:33is not for pest control.
10:36Pool grade
10:37is not for indoor use.
10:39Pool grade
10:40you leave
10:41at the pool store.
10:42So when you go to buy it,
10:44you look at the bag,
10:45and the bag must say
10:47food grade.
10:49The brand name
10:50Harris
10:51is one most folks know,
10:53and you can find it
10:54at any garden center,
10:55farm supply store,
10:56hardware store,
10:57or you can order it online.
10:59A small four-pound bag
11:02runs about four to eight dollars
11:04and handles a whole house.
11:06A big 50-pound bag
11:08enough to treat a whole farm,
11:10every barn and chicken coop
11:12and garden bed,
11:13runs 20 to 30 dollars.
11:16Food grade
11:17every time.
11:18Get the wrong bag,
11:20and you cause problems
11:21instead of solving them.
11:23Get the right bag,
11:24and you have what
11:25every old farmer
11:27kept in the corner
11:28of the barn.
11:29Now let me show you
11:30exactly how to use it,
11:32because the way you apply it
11:33is the difference
11:34between it working
11:35and it sitting there
11:36doing nothing.
11:37The first and most
11:39important rule,
11:40a thin dusting,
11:42not a pile.
11:44This trips up
11:45nearly everyone
11:46the first time.
11:48New folks dump out
11:49a fat heap,
11:50thinking more is better,
11:52and it is not.
11:54Bugs will see a pile
11:55and walk around it.
11:57What you want
11:58is a barely visible dusting,
12:00the lightest coat,
12:01so the creature
12:02does not even know
12:03it is there
12:04until it has walked
12:05through it.
12:05Think of a fine white film,
12:08not a snow drift.
12:10The easiest way
12:11to get that fine coat
12:13is with what they call
12:14a powder duster,
12:15a little squeeze bottle,
12:17plastic,
12:18with a long tip
12:19that puffs out the powder
12:20in a soft cloud.
12:22They cost a few dollars
12:24at the same place
12:25that sells the powder.
12:26Sometimes the bag
12:27comes with one built in.
12:29You can also tap a powder
12:30out of a clean spice shaker
12:32or even a ketchup-style
12:34squeeze bottle.
12:35Or you can wear
12:36a dust mask
12:37and sprinkle by hand.
12:39But the duster
12:40gives you that fine,
12:42even,
12:42almost invisible layer
12:44that works.
12:45Inside the house,
12:46you put it where the bugs
12:48actually travel and hide,
12:50along the baseboards
12:51in every room,
12:52a thin line
12:54right where the wall
12:54meets the floor,
12:56behind and under
12:57the refrigerator,
12:58the stove,
12:59the dishwasher,
13:00the warm,
13:01dark places
13:02where roaches live,
13:04in the cabinet hinges
13:05and the corners,
13:06especially under the sink,
13:09around door frames
13:10and window frames
13:11where ants come in.
13:12If you have access
13:14inside a wall void,
13:15an outlet cover off,
13:17say,
13:17a little puff in there
13:19does wonders
13:19because there it stays
13:21bone dry forever
13:22and keeps working
13:23for years.
13:25For fleas,
13:26you sprinkle and brush
13:27gently into the carpet,
13:29especially under the furniture
13:30and along the edges of rooms
13:32where the dog sleeps.
13:34Leave it down for a few days,
13:36then vacuum.
13:37For the dog's bedding,
13:39dust a little
13:39into the seams of it.
13:41For the dog itself,
13:42ask your veterinarian first.
13:44Some folks use it
13:46directly on the animal,
13:47but I would have you check
13:48with someone
13:49who knows your dog
13:50because every animal
13:51is different.
13:52For bed bugs,
13:54this is one of the places
13:55this powder is winning
13:56where the chemicals
13:57have stopped working.
13:59You dust it thinly
14:00under the mattress,
14:01into the seams
14:02of the bed frame,
14:04into the joints
14:04of the bed base
14:05and along the baseboards
14:07of the bedroom.
14:08You leave it.
14:09You do not rush it.
14:11The bugs crawl through it
14:13on their nightly travels
14:14and slowly die
14:15over the days that follow.
14:17The pest control men
14:19themselves have started
14:20recommending this
14:21for bed bug strains
14:22that no chemical
14:23will kill anymore.
14:24That is how well
14:25it works on that one.
14:28Outside, you dust it lightly
14:29along the foundation
14:30of the house
14:31to make a barrier,
14:32around the base
14:33of garden beds
14:34for slugs,
14:35around the chicken coop
14:36or rabbit hutch,
14:38along the dog kennel
14:39and in fence line cracks.
14:42The big rule outside is
14:43apply it in the morning
14:45after the dew has burned off
14:47and only when no rain
14:49is coming for a day or two.
14:51As I told you before,
14:53wet powder is sleeping powder.
14:55After a rain,
14:56you dust again.
14:57That is the trade
14:58for outdoor work.
15:00For stored grain
15:01or flour or beans,
15:03this is the old farm trick.
15:05You can mix a small amount
15:06of food-grade powder
15:07right into your stored grain,
15:09about a cup to every 50 pounds
15:12or a teaspoon or two
15:13to a five-gallon bucket.
15:15It coats every kernel
15:17with the fine dust
15:18and any weevil
15:19that tries to feed on the grain
15:21crawls through the powder
15:22and dies.
15:24Your grain stays good
15:25for years instead of months
15:27and you eat it just the same.
15:29The body passes a little
15:30of this fine mineral
15:32right through.
15:33That is real,
15:34that is old,
15:35and that is how serious
15:37old-time grain keepers
15:38kept their granaries clean.
15:41Now a few honest safety words
15:43because I will not skip them.
15:45Wear a dust mask
15:47when you are puffing it around
15:48in close quarters.
15:50The powder itself
15:51is not poison.
15:52You could swallow
15:53a spoonful by accident
15:54and your body
15:55would just pass it.
15:57But breathing in
15:58any fine dust
15:59day after day
16:00irritates the inside
16:02of your nose
16:03and your lungs.
16:04So when you are dusting
16:06under a bed
16:06or working in a closed space,
16:09a simple dust mask
16:10from the hardware store
16:11keeps you comfortable.
16:13Outdoors
16:14or in a well-vented room,
16:16it is barely a worry.
16:17Old farmers handled
16:19this stuff barehanded
16:20for generations.
16:21But take the small care.
16:24Keep it away
16:25from where small children
16:26might puff it up
16:27into the air
16:28for the same reason.
16:29Not because it will poison them,
16:31but because a small child
16:33does not need a face
16:34full of dust
16:35of any kind.
16:36It is gentle
16:37on cats and dogs,
16:39more so than nearly
16:40any other pest control
16:41I know.
16:42But it can dry out
16:44their skin
16:44or their paws
16:45if you put it on heavily,
16:47so a thin dusting only.
16:50One more honest word
16:52about the bees.
16:54The powder does not know
16:55a useful insect
16:56from a pest,
16:57and it can harm bees
16:59and other helpful creatures
17:00if you put it directly
17:02on flowers they visit.
17:04So in the garden,
17:05do not dust the blooms.
17:07Dust around the base
17:09of the plant,
17:10on the soil,
17:11on the slug paths,
17:12not on the open flowers
17:14where the bees are working.
17:15The honest gardener
17:17protects the bees
17:18as carefully
17:19as he kills the slugs.
17:21That is the safety.
17:23Sensible, simple,
17:25the same as you would use
17:26with any fine powder
17:27in the house.
17:29Now I want to take a moment
17:30because this is the part
17:32that matters.
17:33Think about what we have
17:34just walked through.
17:36A bag of soft white mineral
17:38dug from the ground,
17:40no chemistry to it,
17:41costs $4.
17:43It kills more than
17:45a hundred kinds
17:45of crawling pests
17:47by the same simple
17:48physical mechanism
17:49with no resistance possible,
17:52with no chemical residue,
17:54safe enough to use
17:55in your kitchen
17:56lasts for years
17:58where it stays dry.
17:59And the exterminator company
18:01down the road
18:02charges your neighbor
18:03$800 a year,
18:05every year,
18:07to come back
18:08month after month
18:09with his sprays
18:10and his canister.
18:12How can both those things
18:13be true at once?
18:15They are both true.
18:17So why does almost nobody
18:19know about the powder?
18:21Now I will not tell you
18:23there is a villain in this,
18:24that some pest control president
18:26in a back room
18:27is hiding the bag
18:29from your eyes.
18:30It is simpler
18:31and almost worse
18:32than that.
18:34There is no money
18:35in a one-time
18:36$4 solution.
18:38There is enormous money
18:39in a monthly subscription.
18:41The whole industry,
18:43the trucks,
18:44the canisters,
18:45the door knockers,
18:46the contracts,
18:47is built on you
18:49needing them again
18:50next month.
18:51A powder you dust
18:53once and forget
18:54cannot pay
18:55a salesman's commission.
18:57It cannot fund
18:58an advertisement.
18:59So nobody runs
19:00a commercial for it
19:01and nobody knocks
19:03on your door
19:03to recommend it
19:04and a whole nation
19:06comes to believe
19:07that pest control
19:08is something
19:09only a professional
19:10can do.
19:12That is not a conspiracy.
19:14It is just how
19:15the money flows.
19:17My grandfather
19:18knew about this powder
19:19because his father
19:20showed him
19:21and his father
19:22before him.
19:23The old farmers
19:24always knew.
19:26The bag has been
19:27on the shelf
19:28at the feed store
19:29the whole time.
19:30Most folks
19:31have just never been
19:32told to look for it.
19:34You are being told
19:35now.
19:36So here is what
19:37I want you to do.
19:38This week,
19:39find a feed store,
19:41a garden center,
19:42a farm supply,
19:43or the right shelf
19:44at the hardware store
19:45and ask for
19:47food-grade
19:47diatomaceous earth.
19:49Read the bag.
19:51Make sure it says
19:52food-grade.
19:53A four-pound bag
19:55for the house,
19:56four to eight dollars.
19:57Pick up a little
19:58plastic powder duster
20:00while you were there,
20:01two or three dollars.
20:02Wear a dust mask
20:04and dust a fine,
20:06barely visible layer
20:07along the baseboards
20:09in your kitchen,
20:10behind your refrigerator,
20:12under your stove,
20:13around your sink cabinet,
20:15into the corners
20:16of your basement,
20:17and along the outside
20:19foundation of your house.
20:20If you have a pet,
20:22lightly into the carpet
20:24where it sleeps,
20:25and let it sit a few days
20:26before you vacuum.
20:28If you keep chickens
20:29or rabbits,
20:30a thin dusting
20:31in the coop.
20:32If you store grain
20:34or flour,
20:35a small spoonful
20:36stirred through.
20:37And then,
20:39and this is the hardest part
20:40for impatient folks,
20:42leave it alone.
20:44Two days,
20:46four days,
20:47a week,
20:48two weeks.
20:49The bugs will cross it.
20:51They will die.
20:52They will not come back
20:54to a dusted house
20:55the same way
20:56because the powder
20:57is still working
20:58when they try.
21:00And then,
21:01tell me in the comments below,
21:03what pest has been costing you
21:05the most over the years?
21:07Ants?
21:08Roaches?
21:09Fleas?
21:11Bedbugs?
21:12Silverfish?
21:13And once you have tried this,
21:15come back and tell me
21:16what happened
21:17over the next two weeks.
21:19Because the stories
21:20you all share
21:21teach the new folks
21:22more than I ever could.
21:24I read every single one.
21:27Next time,
21:29since we have spoken
21:29of pests in the house,
21:31I am going to show you
21:32the old way
21:33my people keep mice
21:35and rats
21:36out of the granary
21:37and the home.
21:38The simple traps,
21:40the doorway tricks,
21:41and the small habits
21:43that mean you never
21:44have a mouse problem
21:45in the first place.
21:47It is the natural
21:48next step
21:49after today.
21:51Until then,
21:53find the bag,
21:54dust a thin line,
21:56keep it dry,
21:57and let the old
21:58farmer's powder
22:00do the work
22:01the chemicals can't.