Despite our best efforts Mosquitoes resist our efforts to do them in. They return every year to bug us and also to transmit serious disease. This will undoubtedly worsen as Global Warming heats up.

Bug Zappers, especially the “eco-friendly” solar powered ones, might seem like a good way to protect your back yard from these pests, the satisfying pop and crackle while meeting their doom seems worth the price alone. But studies have shown they are rarely effective against mosquitoes, of bugs killed maybe 4% tend to be mosquitoes. Mostly, it kills beneficial moths, beetles and other bugs who may actually eat other harmful insects. These bug zappers not only kill off good insects but may contribute to ruining an important food source for songbirds. So, in other words, they are a total rip-off.

So what is the best Green solution to mosquitoes? Mainstream repellents containing DEET diethyl-meta-toluamide tends to be the standard of effective repellent but many people are understandably wary of putting this chemical stew on their skin. One site, Journey to Forever.org,
gives a great recipe for Handmade Organic Mosquito Repellent (HOMeR), that they claim is a very effective means to naturally repel mosquitoes using lemon grass. Another natural repellent that you can buy is oil of lemon-eucalyptus, sold as Repel. Here is a great site, Mosquito.org which has a wealth of info on all things mosquito. Finally, Ecogreentips.com has some good info on some helpful solutions to the mosquito problems for you and your back yard.

SUNWHISPER/24 SOLAR POWERED MULCHING LAWNMOWER $695.00 from Freepowersys.com

Gasoline lawn mowers are slowly on their way out. Not only are they loud and obnoxious but are also a significant source of air pollution. According to one study, cutting grass for an hour with a gasoline powered lawn mower is about the same as that from a 100-mile automobile ride. The 50 or so million people mowing their lawns each weekend in the US with gas-powered mowers can contribute as much as five percent of the nation’s air pollution, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. It would be great if everyone would come to their senses and get rid of their gas-powered mowers today in favor of a push mower, which is the ultimate in green mowers, which not only doesn’t pollute but also gets folks to exercise more.

Sadly, we may have a bit of a wait before that happens. However, many of the new electric mowers are not only significantly less polluting but are about the same pricing as a good gas-powered mower. Better still, check out the solar powered electric mower from Freepowersys, their sunwhisper model, which is in essence a cordless electric Black & Decker mower modified with a small solar array to turn sunlight into power. It is claimed to be easy to use and set up, is quiet, can use anytime of day, has a rear bagger for mulching lawn clippings and best of all uses solar power.

If you are inventive and good with tools you can convert one of these rechargeable electric or even a gas powered mowers to solar power on your own. Here is a good link that can explain how.
Here is another link that explains how someone converted their electric mower to solar - also here a link to a video by the same person that goes into great detail. Finally, we wrote an article last summer on green lawn mowing that is worth a peek.

The new web browser Flock’s Eco-Edition offers interesting possibilities in Green Computing.

It is a free browser that focused on helping people connect, share and explore contemporary websites that have a community emphasis. The Flock Eco-Edition browser comes pre-loaded with carefully selected green content from a variety of sources such as Grist, Ecorazzi, Treehugger, PlanetGreen, National Geographic, Sprig, Environmental News Network and many more. They offer daily updated environmental news, interviews, video, and other rich media. If you find something that is particularly useful, interesting or disturbing you can share it with a built in Flock sidebar that connects your friends from Facebook, Flicker, You Tube and other such sites.

The Flock 2.0 Beta version is built on the Firefox 3.0 browser and takes advantage of the various performance and security enhancement improvements offered by Firefox 3.0

In the Eco-Edition - the Flock people state that “Flock believes in providing users who download the Flock Eco-Edition a means to give back by donating 10% of search proceeds to the environmental charity of choice, as deemed by the voting of the community of Flock’s Eco-Edition users at the end of this year. Flock makes money when people search through the browser. So the more you search via Flock Eco-Edition, the more we’re committing to give back.”

Maybe they are just painting one of their “editions” Green so as to persuade people into switching to their browser but the fact they are promoting Green causes and giving some of their money back to environmental causes can’t be a bad thing. Might be worth giving them an investigation.

Recycled 45 rpm Clock $30.00 at gigglefishgifts.com

Even if your Dad isn’t old enough to get nostalgic over sock hops or rhapsodic with Elvis singles he can appreciate the trend to give new life to old.
These clocks are available in a variety of rock and soul titles, made by Vinylux who have recycled about 200,000 records in a variety of forms including coasters, bowls, ornaments and more. This record clock is made with laser–cut out numbers, aluminum hands, acrylic stand, requires AA battery.

Kitchen Compost Crock $42.00 (white ceramic model) $75.00 (stainless steel model) at RealGoods.com

Maybe you compost in your yard, but what about your kitchen? An utterly depressing and amazing amount of useful nutrients are thrown out by most people everyday. Your banana peels, veggie peelings, etc could be put to far better uses than simply making more methane gas somewhere in some humongous landfill.

Consider the compost crock as one solution, the Kitchen Compost Crock looks great on your counter and is ideal for holding scraps of food that can eventually make compost for your garden plants. As food prices continue to grow through the roof, a home veggie garden is making more and more sense.

The crock’s interior is glazed so it won’t stain and the filtered lid leaves odors trapped inside. You will need to change the filters every few months, replacement filters are $10.00 for a set of 6. Some users complain of a loose handle on this ceramic model. For a bit more money you can spring for the stainless steel model. Speaking of money, The composting stainless steel crock we reviewed last year seems perhaps a better deal at only 39.00. Check out our previous Great Green Gadgets article here on kitchen composting.

If you house is like ours, we get a ton of junk mail everyday that goes straight to the recycle bin. (actually, its not quite a ton, the average person gets 41 pounds of junk mail a year) Most household waste consists of unsolicited mail and to no one’s surprise most junk mail is discarded unread and unopened. Over 100 million trees are ground up each year to make the paper for junk mail and a lot of junk mail, especially glossy catalogs, are difficult to recycle, as the inks have high concentrations of heavy metals.

Here is some information on free (or even get paid a dollar) ways for you personally to get rid of your junk mail. Some new websites like ProQuo.com and GreenDimes.com will do most of the grunt work for you so it is pretty easy. I signed up with the new site, ProQuo, that makes it easy to get rid of many of the prime culprits, like coupon ads, Credit Cards offers, insurance ads and the like. They also allow you to opt out of catalogs but you have to individually pick which ones you don’t want (and they have an offer to choose to get the catalog if you don’t already get it - which makes me wonder if this is where they hope to get their money from)

They also make it easy to get on the do not call registry (you go to another site) all and all the process was fairly quick and easy (they did require you to give them info like your address and social security number) this made me nervous at first but after investigating them a little, it seemed a legitimate request - you can do it without the social security number but they claim it isn’t as effective. It will take about 3 months to know for sure if this site delivers on its promise. They have some clever videos to promote their site (they must have gotten some serious startup cash to make all these professional promotional videos - but some of them are quite funny. (I liked the medieval junk mail the best)

Another site that looks very promising in stopping junk mail is Green Dimes, I haven’t tried it so I can’t comment too much, but they do offer to pay you a dollar and guarantee results.

If you don’t completely trust these sites with any of your personal information or think they are just out to make a buck off of you some how? I don’t blame you for thinking that way - So here are a couple of sites that give you some useful information on how you can do it all yourself. A wiki on getting rid of junk mail

And a very comprehensive series of articles on the problems of junk mail and how to get rid of it at
ecofuture.com

Looking for an earth friendly way to divide a room? Check out the rollable Bamboo Screen made from eco-friendly bamboo that contains no pesticides or harmful chemicals. Like any good homeowner, you are concerned about what you bring into your house and don’t want something filled with pesticides. This handy screen can partition off part of a room or even hide a computer, wires or something else that you want to keep out of everyone’s eyesight. The earth friendly Bamboo Screen is very sturdy and measures 8 feet in width and 6 feet in height so is perfect for just about every room in your house! Get some privacy in an eco-friendly way with the Bamboo Screen!

$269.00 at Real Goods

The Eva-Dry Dehumidifier can fit even into small places and is perfect for any place where you want to make sure that things stay dry. You can even hang this easy to use gadget inside your closet to make sure that humidity does not ruin your clothes! The energy efficient Eva-Dry Dehumidifier can be used in closets, shelves and even in drawers and recharges quickly on low power when you plug it into any outlet. The Eva-Dry saves energy and protects your clothing and anything else that you want to protect against any type of dampness in the air. Use this earth friendly device anywhere you want to keep items dry and protected.

$42.00 at Gaiam

These new designer-style LED lamps from Yves Behar and EcoCentric, the Leaf Lamp, are touch sensitive for turning on the light as well as the brightness level and color temperature. You can adjust the angle of the light to provide accent lighting and mood settings. Made from 95% recycled materials and use very low energy. Needless to say its a bit pricey but if you must have the ultimate in eco-friendly fashion gadget statements in your office, this might be something to look into.

Available in five colors - polished aluminum, black, white, nickel and red.
From ecocentric.co.uk for £349.00 ($688.00)

Presenting…the Bag Snagger!!, a new tool designed specifically for removing unsightly plastic bags and other litter from trees. There was a great story in the New Yorker a few years ago about a band of guys who would get together on weekends and remove trash from trees. What a great way to spend time with friends, be out in nature and help save the planet!! The basic Bag Snagger has a 12 ft. telescoping fiberglass pole with Snagger attachment allowing you to reach approximately 20 ft. up. There are also extension poles for sale which can increase your reach up to nearly 40 feet.
$250.00 at Reusable Bags