DG Names.....What's your real name??

Nope. But the developers have built some pretty big homes here!

Re: The Title of the Thread.

My name is Gloria. Actually it is gloriag , but I couldn't use that on Dave's because it is already taken by a gracious lady from Virginia.

Hi, Gloria! Welcome to this forum. - Lynn

Oops, I have been hanging out in this forum too long....did I say I'm Sharon?
Had to change the spelling when I signed up, because Sharon was taken.
.......I think I am on Eleanor's list anyway, maybe.

Thanks Gloria for reminding me.

Thanks for all the kind words. Happy to see the subject back to names. Was a gorgeous day.

Happy to see you, Victor. A glorious day here, too, but i can hear distant thunder. My new roses have buds and I can see color, too.

Apparently you don't get the black flies either, Victor. It would have been a perfect day here without them.

Oh, sorry to hear that, Polly. We don't get them hear but I was ravaged by them in Lake Placid when we visited a number of years ago. That's when I had hair and it was thick and curly. They got in it and ate me alive.

Beautiful in Alabama. A little hot for my taste. The dogwoods and philadelphus blooms are all shredding in the wind. Spring is on its way out.

Roses in buds. I wonder what they will be. I have about 30 new ones this year.

It was great here today, too. Seventy-three degrees. Grass is starting to get green.
AND I only have a little snow left in my yard. YAAAY!
No black flies yet. Do they have a black fly map, like the one for hummingbirds? ;) That way I would know how many days I have to finish raking....

Did you ever hear to put fabric softener sheets in your sleeves so they stick out, and on your head to thwart the black flies? It does help.

I second the great weather comments. There was a lovely breeze with warm and sunny weather.

Mamasita, I was born in Troy but my family moved when I was 5 yrs old, first to PA and when I was 16 to Illinois. When I was 23 I moved to TX. About 15 years ago, my husband took a job in Pleasantville and we spent a year in Brewster before buying this house in Poughkeepsie.

Does it? Does nothing for mosquitoes for me.

Does it work for mosquitoes or deer flies, too? I'm not trying to be funny, we have so many of them, I'd like to know if there is a solution other than putting Off! or Cutter on my skin.

I had heard before that black flies are attracted to blue. This site suggests wearing light colors.

http://www.mainenature.org/blackfly/blackflyinfo.html

I don't have a clue. I just heard this the other day, and tried the fabric softener sheets for the black flies. I can't say it got rid of them, but it helped.

I. pumila seedlings started to bloom April 23. Deerflies get very nasty here in July--no black flies, but mosquitos. I call them all sorts of names, real & imagined.

I was really counting on the dryer sheets this year. In the past two years the mosquitos have decided that I am quite delicious.

Off topic: Candy, I was born in MA, then lived in Endicott, Burnt Hills, Suffern , New Paltz, (Nashville), Poughkeepsie and Hopewell Junction. Both my sons graduated from John Jay. I still consider myself a NYer.

Mamasita, also "Off topic" I'd have to think about that... do I consider my self a NYer, I guess I do even though most of my life has been out of state, I've lived in NY for as long as I ever lived in any of the other 3 states at this point.

About the bugs, I have been using a product called Liquid Net with some pretty good results. It doesn't last very long though. I get one or two deer flies that really seem to love me but my real nemesis at the gnats! Some of them give me a nasty bite that turns painful.

I hate black flies. My eye closed shut once. I had to go get a shot grrrrrrrrrrrrr

Citronella is supposed to deter mosquitos. I found some little plastic bracelet things that supposedly are saturated with citronella. I put them on my wabbit cage because they do bother the rabbit so terribly.

My bunny looks at me and he almost looks like a "Hitler" bunny because of the cluster of black mosquitoes under his nose.

The citronella bracelets don't seem to keep the skeets away from rabbits. What I do for him is go to Walmart and buy about 3 yards of bridal veil to drape over his cage. Dress ed for summer.

He's not getting married though.

Liquid catnip has been pretty good against mosquitoes for me and I am really a magnet.

How do you get the catnip to go into a liquid state? I wonder if a pot of catnip might help.

Comes in a pump spray bottle.

Maybe I need to drape myself in bridal netting soaked in liquid catnip. Then all I'd have to worry about are the cats roaming the neighbor hood!!! Better than mosquitoes.

I wonder how they get it in the bottle? You know availability in rural Alabama is not like NYC, ya know?

Can the catnip be found in local retail stores?

Liquid Net is herbal and has citronella and a variety of other herbs. I think you make an herbal infusion and use that, other wise maybe you'd distill the oils. Supposedly you can just rub the leaves of catnip on your skin for repellent. I don't have that much of it and don't like to 'waste' it on my arms although maybe I will try it this year.

I like that bridal net idea. Wouldn't it be cute in the garden draped over a hat while I garden? Could start a new fashion trend.

mamasita. Send a picture! I can just visualize a beautiful woman draped to the toes in bridal veil embellished with all the neighborhood cats!

woops. I forgot the hat in my vision! Maybe a one with a huge brim embellished with a furry feline!

They all think I'm a little "off" around here, anyway. I have to watch that my husband doesn't have the video camera rolling! It'll be all over the internet!

I bought it in Petsmart.

In the video you'll know it's me - I'll be wearing a tiara!

Come to think of it, one the cat scratching pads came with a spray bottle of liquid cat nip. I bet you could make your own though.

And just where is our sweet Aunt Bett when we need her for a magic potion to keep away flying pests of all kinds? Maybe an asphidity bag would help? Were you ever bitten while wearing that "fragrant" bag, Sharon?

Today it was wasp day for me so I left the potting table and did my potting in the garage and they didn't follow me.

I think Sharran is over in the writers forum brewing up another Aunt Bett story.

Yes, where is Aunt Bett? I just read Sharon's stories today. Delightful way to begin the day.

break time.....

I think if you have some plantain or comfrey either, or both...you can rapid boil them for about 5 minutes, strain, let the liquid cool and just rub it on the skin that bugs can get to. Or, you can add a little oil and beeswax and make a salve.

I am not much help because most bugs don't bother me...don't bite or anything.

The above is also good for poison ivy, though PI doesn't get me either.

You don't see very many bugs dining on comfrey or plantain, so it might work.

Ah geesh, what do I know.....I am just an art teacher who spent the first 16 years with one kind of preventitive concoction or another slathered all over me. at least I didn't stink since neither of the two above have much of a smell. The asphidity bag is another story, but i will send you one if you really want it, Pirl.

Gloria:
Liquid catnip? Boil the catip, strain and save the water to use. The longer you boil the stronger the water will get.

I don't know if that would work on insects, but your cat will love you.