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Calcite-Based Insect Repellent and Deodoriser
First Saturday Lime First Saturday Lime Insect Repellent (20 lb) Review
★★★☆☆ 3.4/5
our editor rating how we score4.6/5 from 8,801 shoppers at Amazon — their number, not ours.
$38–$45
Typical price · 20 lb bag; applied as a dust or barrier in coops, runs, bedding and along structures
Affiliate links — see our disclosure. Commissions never influence verdicts.
The word lime is doing two jobs here. It is a calcium carbonate product, and it is sold and labelled as an insect repellent — not as the soil amendment a low-pH lawn needs.
Our Verdict
Useful on a smallholding and routinely bought for the wrong reason. What it is: 99.9% calcite with a trace of citric acid, in a form the maker describes as insoluble and safe to handle, used as a dusting and barrier product around coops, runs, bedding and damp structural edges where insects travel. People report it doing that job well, and the customer rating is high. What it is not: a liming material you would use to raise lawn pH. Chemically calcite is a liming agent, so it would move pH — but at roughly two dollars a pound it costs more than ten times what agricultural or pelletised lime costs per pound, and correcting a lawn's pH takes tens of pounds per thousand square feet. If your soil test says lime, buy lime sold as lime. Do not let the name route you here.
✅ Pros
- Insoluble, easier and safer to handle than hydrated lime powder
- Very high customer satisfaction for the coop and barn use it is sold for
- Doubles as a deodoriser in damp bedding
- Fully disclosed composition
⚠️ Cons
- Not a lawn product and not sold as a soil amendment despite the name
- More than ten times the cost per pound of agricultural or pelletised lime
- A lawn pH correction is measured in tens of pounds per 1,000 sq ft — this bag is not that
- Does not kill insects; it is a repellent and barrier, so expectations need setting
- Dust control matters during application
Product type
Calcite-Based Insect Repellent and Deodoriser
Active ingredient
Citric acid 0.1%; calcite (calcium carbonate) 99.9%
Price range
$38–$45
Coverage
20 lb bag; applied as a dust or barrier in coops, runs, bedding and along structures
Best for
Dusting coops, runs and bedding, and barrier lines around structures
our editor rating
3.4 out of 5
Where our facts come from
Correctly carries no EPA registration
Adjuvants, dyes, devices and minimum-risk products are not registered pesticides, so an empty registration number here is right rather than missing.
What we found when we read it
Correctly carries NO EPA registration number: this is a FIFRA section 25(b) minimum-risk pesticide, exempt from federal registration. What that means for a reader is worth stating, because 'EPA exempt' reads like a safety endorsement and is closer to the opposite: EPA has NOT reviewed this product's label, its claims or its efficacy. The exemption is granted on the ingredient list, not on evidence that the product works. So there is no label to check and no approved claim to hold it to, which is why our review of it rests on what the chemistry can physically do rather than on any label promise. Ingredients are citric acid 0.1% and calcite 99.9%, both eligible for the minimum-risk exemption. No registration number could be found for the product, which is consistent with 25(b) status. Checked 2026-08-03.
Where this page and the container disagree, the container wins — the label is the legal authority on rates and restrictions. How to read one yourself.
Where This Product Matters
Matched against each state's actual disease, weed and pest pressure.
Alabama
Alabama hub →Fire ants (they entered the country at Mobile, and Alabama has lived with them longest)
Arkansas
Arkansas hub →Fire ants
California
California hub →Red imported fire ants, a quarantined pest since arriving in 1998 — infesting Orange, Los Angeles, Riverside, San Bernardino and to a lesser extent San Diego counties, with the regulated area covering Orange County and portions of Los Angeles and Riverside rather than the state; CDFA runs a reporting hotline for finds outside it
Florida
Florida hub →Red imported fire ants, plus the less common native tropical fire ant — UF/IFAS records mounds in open sunny lawns and nesting under patio slabs, sidewalk edges and electrical boxes
Georgia
Georgia hub →Fire ants (statewide, mounds year-round)
Louisiana
Louisiana hub →Fire ants
Mississippi
Mississippi hub →Fire ants
Nevada
Nevada hub →Ants
New Mexico
New Mexico hub →Red imported fire ants in isolated instances only, with Dona Ana County under quarantine: nursery stock, sod, soil, baled hay and straw, and soil-moving equipment leaving the county must be certified free of the pest
North Carolina
North Carolina hub →Red imported fire ants, with NCDA&CS running its own quarantine that restricts moving plant products from infested areas into non-infested ones; NC State records only Solenopsis invicta here, with no hybrid
Oklahoma
Oklahoma hub →Fire ants (southeastern counties)
South Carolina
South Carolina hub →Imported fire ants, which Clemson treats on a two-bait-per-year calendar rather than on demand
Tennessee
Tennessee hub →Imported fire ants, first confirmed as an isolated Shelby County infestation in 1948 and now covered by a Tennessee Department of Agriculture quarantine whose county list is reissued as the range moves; UT Extension publishes the two-step bait method as SP419
Texas
Texas hub →Fire ants
Virginia
Virginia hub →Imported fire ants, including the hybrid Virginia Tech publishes on separately, under a VDACS quarantine that has expanded in 2019, 2022 and again on 27 May 2025 and now covers 18 counties and 15 independent cities rather than the whole state
Common questions
Common Questions
How much does First Saturday Lime First Saturday Lime Insect Repellent (20 lb) cost?
First Saturday Lime First Saturday Lime Insect Repellent (20 lb) typically runs $38–$45, covering 20 lb bag; applied as a dust or barrier in coops, runs, bedding and along structures.
What does First Saturday Lime First Saturday Lime Insect Repellent (20 lb) treat?
First Saturday Lime First Saturday Lime Insect Repellent (20 lb) targets Fire ants.
What is the active ingredient in First Saturday Lime First Saturday Lime Insect Repellent (20 lb)?
Citric acid 0.1%; calcite (calcium carbonate) 99.9%.
What is the biggest downside of First Saturday Lime First Saturday Lime Insect Repellent (20 lb)?
Not a lawn product and not sold as a soil amendment despite the name
Real feedback
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