Deer and rabbits may be cute little animals we enjoy seeing, but don’t let them fool you. They are naturally going to want to eat everything that they can, so letting them roam in your lawn or garden might not be the best idea as they can really wreak havoc. The August edition of Bottom Line Personal magazine says to keep deer out, you can use large shrubs on the perimeter of your yard or a simple black mesh fence that’s about 8 feet high (that is a deer’s approximate vertical leap). Also, deer are often scared away by criss-crossed wires from tree to tree (at 8 feet). For rabbits, the fence only needs to be 2 feet above the ground and 6 inches below it. You can also control deer by smart planting. Although a deer’s diet varies with the region and the year, there are several plants that are completely safe in your yard. Ferns are considered deer resistant along with jasmine, rosemary, junipers, iris, daffodils and calla lilies. Deer also avoid vines and rhododendrons.
Everyone loves lady bugs except when they invade your home by the thousands. A friend of mine recently had a lady bug infestation and dug up this page for ways to manage it. The best plan is to stop them before they get in by sealing all cracks and potential entry points, particularly spaces around doors, windows and siding. But if the bugs are already in your home, poisons are of limited value and your best bet is to use a vacuum. Lady bugs are not killed when they are vacuumed up so the page recommends changing the bag often. An alternative method involves putting a nylon stocking over the hose and securing with a rubber band. As the bugs are captured, you can discard the nylon and replace with another one. Clever! Read how to eliminate the top five summertime pests here.
There is nothing more annoying than a bunch of bloodthirsty mosquitoes roaming around your backyard. The army of them that joined my family’s July 4th celebration was far too much to fend off with a small bottle of bug spray. We desperately needed some added protection. I now know that Blue Rhino’s SkeeterVac could have really helped us avoid our backyard bug problems. This device traps biting insects by acting as a false host site. Evidently, mosquitoes are attracted to humans and pets by the CO2, moisture and heat from our breath and by body odor. The SkeeterVac emits a scented CO2 lure that represents a potential host site to a mosquito. (The amount of lure that is emitted can be adjusted manually). Once the bugs land on the device, they are captured on a sticky trap or by a vacuum fan. There, they quickly dehydrate and die, never to bother you or your family again.
I'll never forget the time my wife and I were dive-bombed by a bat while we were in bed at a lake house. We spent the entire night cowering under the sheets. This was several years ago so this article from Old House Journal on how to rid a home of bats is long overdue for me. Before you panic at the sight of a bat, let it be known that bats are not a threat to your personal safety—less than one percent have rabies—but bats should never be allowed to enter interior living quarters. The article documents the entire procedure of eliminating bats from a home in great detail, particularly useful for owners of older homes.
I do declare that the first Sunday in June to officially be Bug Your Mom Day. As people who read my blogs know, I live in Florida but for you Northerners the bugs really are not out in full force until June. So, June makes sense for us as a nation to start thinking about bugs. Moms and dads need to be extra diligent in checking their kids for ticks or other bug bites as well as checking the pets for fleas, mites, etc. This diligence also means wearing bug repellent (and sunscreen if you really want to be safe). As a kid, I remember not really caring if I got bit by a mosquito or a bee or even the occasional Orb spider, but my mom sure did. Many bugs carry diseases from Lyme disease to malaria to West Nile, not to mention bacteria and other germs they may be transporting from the last animal or person they bit.
P.S. The reason I called this Bug Your Mom Day instead of Bug Your Parents Day is nobody really cares if you bug your dad.
I drive on the highway in Central Florida, which means I get bombarded with the “love bug” (Plecia nearctica) just about everywhere I go.
Don’t cry for me nearctica.
The truth is I never felt you.
All through your wild days
Your mad existence.
You fly into my windshield
I clean your carcass.
I digress, but did you even know I could sing like Madonna? The simple truth is I spend too much time adding windshield wiper fluid to my car’s reservoir. To prevent making a big mess, I usually keep a funnel in the trunk but it sure does roll around (and things that go bump in the trunk are not something my wife likes to hear). A week ago I saw a funnel that lays completely flat so I can set it on top of the spare tire under the rug in my trunk. Not a bad idea. If I changed my own oil I guess I would use it even more. And it's green. And not spilling fluid, including motor oil and other engine fluids, may just be "green" in other ways.
Every Monday morning I put out my recycling and grit my teeth. I hate it. I am all for the saving of the planet and its natural resources. It is the little industrious man in the brand new Toyota Sienna Minivan taking the aluminum from my and all of my neighbors' recycling bins a block ahead of the city’s recycling truck. The way I see it, if I had put my cans in with my trash because I was lazy or didn’t care about the environment then he would have every right to take the cans from my garbage container. But since I sort the recyclables and put them in a bin specifically for the recycling truck, I believe he is stealing as well as harming the environment. Here is why: The aluminum(arguably the most expensive item in the recycling bins) is used to offset the cost of my refuse bill. Without the aluminum, it may cost more to pick up the recycling than the materials themselves. If the city loses money, my bills go up. Second, by having both his minivan and the city truck stopping at every recycle bin in my neighborhood, he is putting more carbon in the atmosphere by burning fossil fuels.
I am sure every neighborhood in America has one of these “canners” and if they picked up the cans that were in the ditches or even in the garbage cans themselves I have no issue with it as they are helping recover more cans. But taking cans that would have been recycled from the recycling bins is just plain wrong. Now, would you call the police to report this crime? Individually, my cans are only small change every week. But if I estimated that everyone in my neighborhood recycled as many cans as I did, this recycler makes more on Monday than I make all week. And there are other pickup days in other parts of the city. If I wasn’t morally opposed to stealing, I’d be rich. So, give me some ideas on what we can do to stop these thieves.
