Bugs Bugs Bugs

[sukie175 0]

Thank you for putting my mind to rest

[Kathryn41 3,205]

Yep, bugs - the plague of the South, too. I have had a two year running battle with fire ants in the yard - that can of ant killer is never far from my hot little hands. I think I have succeeded - no new mounds in our yard this year. Fire ants are bad news - small and really sting when they bite - and I discovered I am sensitive to their bite - my joints swell up as well as the skin and the sting breaks open and refuses to heal. Grrrr!

What helped keep the regular ants out of the house was putting a layer of diatamaceous earth (available at garden centres and many hardware stores in the gardening section) around the sill and foundations of the house. It worked. We had ants inside the last two summers but this summer nary a one except along a window sill on the other side of the house that I missed. It is safe to use and biologically friendly as well as effective. It is also relatively inexpensive.

We had planned to build an outdoor enclosure so my cats could get some fresh air outside until I got here and discovered all of the horrible creepy crawlies that are around. I am not used to poisonous bugs but we have a number here including black widows and brown recluse spiders. We also have poisonous snakes and although I don't mind snakes I am glad not to have to decide if one is poisonous or not because I haven't seen any here. Plus, there are serious tick-bourne diseases here fatal to cats. Needless to say, they don't have their enclosure.

Now I am battling Japanese Beetles that are trying to devour all of the plants in our garden. I have seeded the yard with beneficial nematodes and milkyspore to eat next years grubs but still have to deal with this years' beetles. I am at the point of taking a badminton racket outside to swat them hard.

One 'wasp' that really frightened me last year until I found out they don't sting and are harmless are cicada killers - they are huge! look like yellow jackets and they attack you - only because they can't sting and they seem to think if they can intimidate you you will stay away from the ground where they lay their eggs:-). I have learned to like them but they look ferocious.

Bugs, brrrrrrrrrrr!!

Edited June 11, 2006 by Kathryn41

[sukie175 0]

Yeh we were thinking about doing the same for our cats, but our bugs and snakes are the same as yours, so we forgot that idea!

[Ban Hammer 13,335]

chiggers - try preparation h on the bites, also menthol listerine works. best thing to find is chig away, usually at wal mart or a local drug store. clear fingernail polish works too - it don't have to be clear, just most people don't want to be covered in purple or red polka dots!

chiggers are not usually spread evenly in the yard, they form clumps. get some 1'x1' squares of cardboard, spray paint one side black, set them out black side up and wait. in about 30 min the chiggers will climb on top of the cardboard, showing you where the concentrations of them are, so you can spot spray.

i have a 25 gallon tow behind sprayer for my riding mower, i just load it up with about 24 gallons of water and one quart of any dishwashing liquid and run it around and spray the whole yard, the soap smothers them.

fire ants - every time it rains, they move their nest. make it a habit to go out looking in the yard for them after every rain. you can try a broadcast or drop spreader with poison in your yard to eliminate them but that gets expensive. don't try the gas on the nest and light it routine - that just kills the grass and sucks the gas right back out of the ground.

cicada killers (aka ground hornets) can sting, although i've read on some sites that the males cannot, only the females can. but usually one of them buzzing around makes anyone run

[Girona40 0]

A lot of the bugs here are a nightmare - I love to potter in the garden but they are all around my face, up my nose, in my eyes, around my ears and if the little beggers bite I swell up like a balloon!

Well, this evening I went for a bike ride with my husband and put a Bounce sheet in my cap - he did too. We weren't bothered by one bug! We sat outside, when we got back, at the side of the pool with a glass of wine and our Bounce sheets still in our caps and, again, no bugs. My son and his girlfriend were covered in them!

Try it - it worked for us! I was really surprised - thought it was an old-wives tale.

[CanGal 1]

One 'wasp' that really frightened me last year until I found out they don't sting and are harmless are cicada killers - they are huge! look like yellow jackets and they attack you - only because they can't sting and they seem to think if they can intimidate you you will stay away from the ground where they lay their eggs:-). I have learned to like them but they look ferocious.

Bugs, brrrrrrrrrrr!!

I hate those things!! They freakin scare me. As for the black widows, I've only seen one when I came down in the summer of 2004. Found it on a telephone pole. As for brown recluse spiders. I've seen a few of those this past year. Those freak me out too. I hate spiders. My husband also told me that there are these huge red and black fuzzy ants here and if I ever see when to steer away from it. Well what did he think? I'd go up and pet it?? :-p .... I hope to never see one. As for snakes, I've heard so much about people encounters with snakes of all kinds. I'd rather not encounter one at all ever. I hope God heard me on that one lol.

[Ban Hammer 13,335]

A lot of the bugs here are a nightmare - I love to potter in the garden but they are all around my face, up my nose, in my eyes, around my ears and if the little beggers bite I swell up like a balloon!

Well, this evening I went for a bike ride with my husband and put a Bounce sheet in my cap - he did too. We weren't bothered by one bug! We sat outside, when we got back, at the side of the pool with a glass of wine and our Bounce sheets still in our caps and, again, no bugs. My son and his girlfriend were covered in them!

Try it - it worked for us! I was really surprised - thought it was an old-wives tale.

avon's skin so soft...i forgot about that one. it's supposed to repell chiggers too, along with bounce

One 'wasp' that really frightened me last year until I found out they don't sting and are harmless are cicada killers - they are huge! look like yellow jackets and they attack you - only because they can't sting and they seem to think if they can intimidate you you will stay away from the ground where they lay their eggs:-). I have learned to like them but they look ferocious.

Bugs, brrrrrrrrrrr!!

I hate those things!! They freakin scare me. As for the black widows, I've only seen one when I came down in the summer of 2004. Found it on a telephone pole. As for brown recluse spiders. I've seen a few of those this past year. Those freak me out too. I hate spiders. My husband also told me that there are these huge red and black fuzzy ants here and if I ever see when to steer away from it. Well what did he think? I'd go up and pet it?? :-p .... I hope to never see one. As for snakes, I've heard so much about people encounters with snakes of all kinds. I'd rather not encounter one at all ever. I hope God heard me on that one lol.

brown recluses and black widows are scary. my advice - get a cat - that's the purpose with mine, to seek and destroy spiders.

the ant he was telling you about was a velvet ant. not really an ant, it's a wingless wasp. and jeesh they can sting!

more on snakes later

[CanGal 1]

lol well if a cat could ward off all the scary bugs yay. Sad thing is , is thta i'm highly allergic to cats

[iceyspots 0]

The mosquitos are not really bad here in Algeria, they are a billion times worse in Michigan.

However the beetles and crickets here in Algeria are so huge it's absoloutely frightening... they are about two inches long...

::shudders::

::Crawls back into hole::

[almaty 19]

hi sister icey............

i agree that most bugs are chopf##ks

[iceyspots 0]

omg yes especially killer african bugs!!

[MichelleandCraig 1]

Bugs are chops..heheheheheh that made me laugh... Thanks Dean m.

[iceyspots 0]

[almaty 19]

the stalker is back i see

[iceyspots 0]

yea ....... i miss sooki......