You can answer this with a question. What harm are these creatures doing? If you're allergic to them, then you probably need to get rid of them. If you have carpenter ants or termites eating your house, you need to get rid of them. If these creatures are harming you, you need to deal with them. But most of the time, these creatures aren't doing any harm, and can be helping your garden. Bees pollinate flowers, wasps eat caterpillars, carpenter ants break down rotting wood. We've had wasps as long as we've lived in our house, and they've never hurt anyone.
Even if you do need to get rid of them, there are organic ways to deal with them. We control small ants by using spiders. The half dozen spiders in the downstairs bathroom keep the ants down there under control. I rarely see more than one ant at a time, but I see plenty of ant carcasses under the webs. For roaches and silver fish, boric acid sprinkled in cracks can be very effective. There are even organic methods of dealing with termites. If you need some info, contact me, and I'll be happy to help.
Aren't all those chemicals EPA regulated?
Well, yeah, they all have to be registered with the EPA. However, the EPA is still re-testing some of the older chemicals. In addition, they're always taking pesticides off their acceptable list. Methyl bromide will be withdrawn soon. DDT was the wonder chemical until it was found to cause massive environmental damage. We've only been using these synthetic chemicals for about 50 years. We don't have a complete picture of what the more subtle or longterm effects may be. For me, it's a case of looking at the benefits versus the risks. It's possible to grow better vegetables, bigger flowers and sweeter fruit without synthetic chemicals, so why risk side effects?
The second answer to this question is that the EPA does not require any information on the interactive effects of pesticides. So if you spray glycophosphate to kill your weeds and then some diazinon for the grubs, no one can tell you how those chemicals will interact in your lawn or your body. The EPA is just beginning to look at how some common pesticides interact.
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