Thanks, Nancy, for an excellent post about pest killers.  That's the point I
was trying to make in my other post about boric acid and borax.  They work
to kill insects with a mechanism that would not work on humans or other
mammals.
 
Borax, boric acid and diatamaceous earth all work by breaking down the
insects's hard exoskeleton, destroying their "defense mechanism" against
the outside world and causing them to dehydrate.  Humans and ferrets don't
HAVE a hard exoskeleton ..  so it doesn't work this way with us.  It
reminds me of snails and table salt; ordinary table salt sprinkled on a
snail/slug will *kill* it, due to the way snails are built.  Humans and
other mammals can safely eat it (or sprinkle it on their skin) without
major problems, in appropriate size dosages.
 
While neither of these three ingredients is non-toxic (everything is toxic
if eaten in sufficeint quantities), they are safe as long as you take care
not to inhale them, or to ingest large quantities.
 
- Ela
 
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[Posted in FML issue 2307]