We’ve never had many mosquitoes here but this year I think everyone in Minnesota is complaining about them, us included. So we’re fighting back! We put up eight new birdhouses and have several families of birds already moved in. We have barn and cliff swallows, phoebees, chickadees, and nuthatches, all of which eat bugs. Swallows, especially, eat hundreds of mosquitoes and other not-so-nice bugs every single day. And when they’re feeding a family, that quadruples. So we’re hoping it’ll put a dent in our flying pests pretty soon.
Folks will start arriving for our seminar tomorrow afternoon and evening so we’re getting set. Instead of renting a port-A-potty at $120 a pop for the weekend, Will is putting together an outhouse to use instead. It will smell a whole lot better! And it is a thing of beauty, made from birch plywood (we got it free), home sawn 2x4s and one-inch lumber.
Our onions are popping up and the tomatoes look fantastic. I’m pulling the Wall-O-Waters because many are way out of the top. It’s amazing what heat and rain will do. We’re really ahead of time this year as we usually get cold weather and frosts right up till June 15th.
Well, gotta go. Plenty to do yet and only hours of daylight left. — Jackie
Our mosquito population is the worst we’ve ever seen it here too! We also are counting on the birds to help but boy, they are like fur on you as soon as you step out the door. Bought lots of spray which does work thankfully. Love the outhouse! Have a wonderful time at the seminar. Looking forward to hearing all about it!
Zelda, I will try to convince my dad to leave them alone, to see if the beets grow back. I would be DELIGHTED.
Steve I like your idea; when I had a small 96 cubic foot fish pond in my yard, I bought a type of minnow we can get in my area, called PINKS. They look like miniature koi, each minnow has it’s own markings. Some have white and some dark gray marks, and no two are alike. They overwintered well here in KS, and I could recognize some of them from the year before. Pinks can be bought at aquatic pet shops, and some bait shops. Very inexpensive. I wonder if a couple oxygenating plants would help keep them happier in the barrels? They would give a bit of shade and hiding areas for the fish, too. A small water lily would make the barrels appear more like an overlarge flower pot.
Gen, whether or not your beets will come back depends on what variety they are and how long your growing season is. If you can leave them in place and see what happens as an experiment it would be good information to have. I have finches that have eaten green bean and squash plants down to nubs early in the season, and the plants came back and produced. If you decide to leave some or all of them, please let us know what happens.
thanks Steve I’m going to try the gold fish idea,the shrubs/flower beds are harboring thousands of those suckers which are the size of hummingbirds (lol) we have lots of bats at dusk,geckos at night birds &more birds during the day and none are making a dent.
A good way to help control mosquitoes is to put out several 55 gallon drums full of water in nice shady spots. Then do your best to remove all other standing water. Watch the barrels and when you see mosquitoe larvae swimming around, toss in a few gold fish. If you can scrounge the barrels the only cost is the fish, and they don’t cost much.
We always had a bucket of ashes to scoop on the …. too. My dad said it helped to decompose the solids a lot quicker, and we never had a smelly outhouse. SPIDERS, well that was a different sort of problem.
It’s never happened before, but the deer nibbled on half our beautiful tomato plants last night, and wiped out nearly half of our beets. I don’t suppose the beets will continue to grow and sprout new leaves if all there is is a bit of stubble left above ground, will they? Here I was, dreaming of all those beautiful jars of pickles we intended on canning.
Good luck, and much fun, with the seminar, can’t wait to hear how this one turns out.
Just remember o keep a bucket of old fire place ashes and a scoop so your guests can put in a scoop full of ashes after they use the outhouse. Helps keep the smell and the flies down. :-)
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