(R) Mini Duster

I recently discovered the many benefits of diatomaceous earth. I know. Where have I been? I purchased my first Pest Pistol along with a quantity of DE from Earthworks Health and have never looked back. Now I've bought a second unit from Amazon. (The first one's working fine. I just wanted one for upstairs, too.)There's nothing really fancy or complicated about these little (really only mini compared to the professional sized one which holds a half-pound of DE, etc.) puffers. It's a well-made, well-designed plastic accordian unit fitted with a screw-on cap which has a plastic "straw" applicator narrowing to an attached nozzle with a tiny hole in the end. The underside of the cap has a small built in "sifter" to keep a large quantity of powder from clogging the applicator as you "puff."The pest pistol can be used cap facing up or down or angled, depending on your target. I personally found it very useful to practice my skills in the garage before dusting the carpets, nooks and crannies, and cats. There is a slight learning curve depending on your technique. Heavy-handed puffing will result in the "blob" outcome noted by more than one reviewer here. This didn't seem like a big deal to me. I just brush the blobs down into the carpet, or vacuum up the excess.Once you get the hang of things, there's little effort involved. Again, a little practice beforehand will pay dividends. And don't overfill the cannister (two-thirds is fine for me). This works like a little bellows and requires air to function. It may be necessary from time to time to tap the container to loosen the contents a bit. Bakers among you will understand--it's like rapping your flour sifter to clear it.There is, as others have noted, no way to make the pest pistol air-tight when storing DE in it. I think this is a very minor issue. In the mid-south, land of high humidity, I simply store my pest pistol in a large zip-lock bag and it's ready to go at any time. I don't fool with funnels or other gagetry to load the container. I simply spoon DE into the opening with a standard soup spoon out of the silverware drawer. It works fine. (Granted, I might want to find a less casual method if I were using a toxic product. But for food-grade DE? Nah.)Aside from dusting the environment, I have found the pest pistol perfect for dusting my cats. The little applicator can be slid into their fur and "poof," they're puffed. Just be sure the business end isn't actually touching the skin. The end hole in the applicator is super tiny and easily blocked. Just get as close as you can under the fur, without touching skin, give the pistol a squeeze, and then distribute the DE with your hands. I can "do" a cat with about 12-15 strategically placed puffs. A big dog would take more time, but still so worth it. What I love about DE and the pistol application is that even if I overdo things, the surplus DE is distributed by the animals in the places they frequent and gives even more protection from those rascally fleas. Plus it's not a powdered neurotoxin, as most insecticides are, so if it's on the furniture, or the vanity, or my bedsheets, I don't care.The Pest Pistol and diatomaceous earth go together like "love and marriage." I can't imagine one without the other.

Edit: Turn this on the side for easiest control. Should have figured it out earlier, but if you turn it sideways, you can easily control the volume of powder that comes out. Plus it is easy to squeeze like an accordion.Works well after some trial and error. I'm using this for diotomaceous earth for fleas, but also against small black ants. It works upright or upside down, but it takes some practice since upright hardly blows anything out and upside down blows a stream out if you do it with the nozzle horizontal. Most people will want a volume of powder in between those 2 extremes.`When upright, very little powder comes out. To get more, shake it before squeezing to get some powder airborne inside. Something like a sharp shake or two, then squeeze. Or for a bit more, I found that smacking it against my thigh bumps the powder up at the same time the air is blowing out and a good amount comes out.If upside down, angle it upward so that air is sorta skimming powder off the top instead of blowing mostly powder right through the nozzle. If you do it with the nozzle horizontal, a strong stream of powder will get blown out. That might be ok for outdoor use, but for indoors that's a lot of powder. The fuller the container, the steeper the angle has to be.I recommend some kind of respirator or mask when doing this since the powder takes a while to settle. It isn't necessary, but if you use a flashlight while you're doing this, you'll see a lot more powder in the air than you think there is.

I bought this duster after we had a brief problem with tiny ants showing up this summer on one of our kitchen counters. I'd noticed them exiting one of the electrical outlets above the counter. Although we have an annual contract with Terminex and I could have just called to have them come out, I didn't want to be bothered with arranging a time window to be home for their technician. And since it seemed apparent where they were coming from, I decided to try to get rid of the ants myself.I ordered Diatomaceous Earth and this Pest Pistol (sounds like the name of a rock band!) and went to work. One thing I learned is that 5 pounds of diatomaceous earth if a LOT. Unless I come up with some other uses for it, I'm sure it'll last me a couple of lifetimes.This Pest Pistol mini duster is pretty easy to use. Just remove the plastic lid, add some powder, make sure that the tube nozzle is securely pushed into the lid, and give a squeeze to the plastic accordian duster. It's probably obvious when you look at the duster, but in case there's any doubt, you squeeze top and bottom together to deflate the accordian ridges rather than squeezing from side to side.For my purposes with the electrical outlet, it worked perfectly. I simply removed the electrical outlet cover that the ants were coming from, stuck the tip of the spray nozzle a couple of inches into the wall opening, and gave a few good squeezes to the duster while pointing it in different directions inside the wall. Most of the diatomaceous earth puffed into the wall space, with minimal dust coming back out of the uncovered outlet hole. Since it was so simple and quick to do, I went ahead and did a bunch of other outlets just in case. It completely got rid of the ants.While the duster did great with puffing into the wall space, I would have been less thrilled with it if I was using it in an open space -- like in treating carpet or area rugs for fleas. I tried a few sample dustings on an area rug and found that it didn't create anything like a uniform dusting of powder. Instead, it left a heavy concentration in spots and missed others.It's fairly easy to squeeze when operating it. I found that it worked better for me to use both hands. Also, don't fill it all the way or it can't depress enough to puff out the powder.