Expert Gardener Creates Effective, Botanical Rodent Repellent

BISMARCK, N.D., Oct. 7 /PRNewswire/ -- "Mint is not that effective at repelling rodents," says Kari Warberg Block, founder and CEO of Earth-Kind, Inc. She should know: to rid her farm buildings of mice without endangering her pets or small children, she tried everything she could think of, including mint, moth balls, and dryer static sheets.

Warberg Block, a master gardener and environmentalist, started experimenting with earth-friendly ways to repel rodents, and finally discovered that clean-smelling balsam fir oil is great at driving rats and mice away. The oil interferes with mice and rats' ability to smell danger, and they panic and flee the premises.

She created the all-natural rodent repellent Fresh Cab™, which uses ground corn cobs soaked in essential botanical oils and packaged in small biodegradable pouches. Then she spent years working with farmers, producers, the USDA, Her State University/NDSU, and the EPA before releasing Fresh Cab™ to retailers in 2007. Since then, Earth-Kind has sold more than 3 million of the rodent repellent pouches, which come in convenient 4-pack boxes.

"Lean, mean, and all about 'green'"

Warberg Block attributes Fresh Cab™'s 90% repeat purchase rate and extremely loyal following to Earth-Kind's insistence on quality. "We're lean, mean, and all about 'green' when it comes to product and service quality," she says. Earth-Kind never sells to "big box" stores because customer service there might fall short of her exacting standards. Instead, Fresh Cab™ is sold at 15,000 home, garden, hardware, and farm and ranch stores throughout the Nation.

"Our company goal is to offer the best product at the best price and to sell only to stores that offer the best customer service to consumers," Warberg Block says. She's proud of the factors that set this product apart from other rodent control products, including:

• EPA REGISTRATION. Fresh Cab™ is the only natural rodent control product so effective and safe that it has been registered with the Fed. EPA for use indoor and in enclosed areas. Getting EPA-registered takes years, and products sold nationwide must be EPA-registered 51 separate times: once at the federal level and once in every state.
• GARDENING CLUB SEAL OF APPROVAL. Fresh Cab™ has been awarded the National Home Gardening Club's member-tested-and-recommended Seal of Approval. Earth-Kind is also a Green America approved vendor.
• 2% CARBON FOOTPRINT. Fresh Cab™ has a proven carbon footprint of only 2%. (The "carbon footprint" of a product or process is the amount of "greenhouse gases," such as CO2, it produces.) To determine Fresh Cab's carbon footprint, Warberg Block used an analysis tool from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) that's sponsored by the EPA's Environmentally Preferable Purchasing Program. Fresh Cab™'s almost unbelievably small carbon footprint reflects only fuel used to get raw botanical products to the manufacturing facility, a small bit of electricity for production, and carbon from semi's to transport to consumers through the retail store.

For more information about Earth-Kind or Fresh Cab™, visit http://www.earth-kind.com.

SOURCE Earth-Kind, Inc.