We're more troubled by bees than mosquitoes in our Marietta neighborhood. A freind emailed me about dryer sheets being good bee repellent. The article said golfers carry them in their pockets. I will try them out and let everyone know the results. We have both carpenter bees and those fat buzzing types. They love the flower boxes on our deck.
Juanita
Stolen Homemade Earth Boxes
We have used the Koolaid trick when having company. Cut off a milk jug or use a plastic plate. take a pack of cherry Koolaid, mix it with some sugar and a cup of hot water. stir until the sugar melts. Put the jug or plate out away from your patio/deck. It will attract the bees there instead of your flowers. If it starts to dry out, just add more water. It won't hurt the bees. The Koolaid has a strong smell that will attract them, stronger than flowers.
This worked really good at the school picnics. If it is windy, put a rock or something in it to hold it in place.
What a great idea. We are having a cook out after our daughter's high school graduation on the 30th and will try it.
Speaking of my daughter, I finally got around to asking her to snap some pictures of the new garden area. Unfortunately we failed to get any pictures when it was a big empty crater, but ya'll can get the idea of how deep it is my the number of railroad ties high it is. The ties are very old so should not affect the quality of the food we grow. The plantable area is about 18' X 28'.
Bees don't bother me. Carpenter bees are pests though. Supposedly the males are the ones who buzz you because they are territorial but have no stinger. I'm not going to catch one to find out which is male and which is female.
I heard that dryer sheets were good for mosquito repellent too. I never found them effective but they did make my skin itch (so I got eaten alive and itchy skin too). Also the Avon Skin So Soft didn't work. Hard to imagine an area of Marietta or GA without mosquitoes.
Maybe dryer sheets will work for bees but I wouldn't count on it especially if you happened to stir up a yellow jacket nest. I can usually go about gardening chores with all kinds of bees buzzing around with no problems. If I disturb their nests, I'm probably going to get stung.
I was in Houston last year and noticed bags of water hanging off the roof of the BBQ shack we were at. Supposedly it was to keep flies away.
That is one big raised bed. Railroad ties eventually will rot out but have been used for a lot of projects.
I agree about the dryer sheets probably not working although I have not tried them yet so can't be sure. They were also supposed to help release lint and pet hair from garments by rubbing them over the garment. I tried that and it did not work well at all. I think that email must have been put out by the Bounce people.
I don't know why we don't have many mosquitoes here. We have a wet weather creek that runs throught the length of our back yard; we are in a subdivision but have a 1.4 acre lot, and there is a lake in the neighborhood. Maybe it is my perspective. I'm originally from New Orleans. Talk about mosquitoes!!!
Bees are a big issue for us all summer. My DH was stung several times last summer by what I believe are wasps that dwell in some old railroad ties we have lining our daylily beds. I suppose we can expect them to set up housekeeping in the new bed, pictured above, made of the same material. We have also had a large nest in the ivy that has now swallowed up our mailbox.
The big fat bees buzz our deck all summer. They think it is their territory and make a concerted effort to drive us away every year. By the end of the summer their population is usually seriously diminished. Or maybe I'm just fooling myself; by the end of the summer they may just not come out as much.
Juanita
I think some people just attract mosquitoes more than others. So if I don't put repellent on I attract all the mosquitoes and my wife has no problem but if I do put on repellent then she might get a couple of bites.
I got stung 3 times a couple of years ago by yellow jackets because I disturbed their nest which I had not noticed. I went out the next evening to find their entrance and sprayed it with wasp and hornet killer - got rid of that nest. Last summer my wife and I helped my parents cut some trees and haul firewood and there were lots of yellow jacket nests around the area where we were working. The neighbor poured gasoline down several of the entrances which got rid of most of the problem and no one got stung.
Our last house had a huge hornet nest in a privet bush next to the front of the house. We let it be and they let us alone - no one got stung. In the winter I cut the nest out, shook any remaining pupae out, and put the nest in the garage for show and tell. Several years later I finally threw the nest out.
Carpenter bees are a real nuisance for boring into wood. Thank goodness we don't have much wood on this house for them to bore into (except the deck and railing).
I am sympathetic to all who have had plants and objects stolen. I have described on the Texas Gardening forum about my bird bath being stolen. One day it was there and next day gone. It still makes me sick! It looked so pretty in a corner of my yard,near the street.And the birds used it.One person has emailed me to say she used Gorilla Glue and was able to make a bird bath safe after her big dog knocked over and broke her's.
Whenever we have something stolen, at first it just doesn't make sense. I wonder, why would they do that? I don't think I could live lying and looking over my shoulder all the time. I guess that is my whole point; why would anybody do that.
To me there is no gain in it.
One of my dearest friend when we grew up turned out to be an inveterate liar and a thief. He lied about things that didn't even matter. One day when we were over at his house he pulled me aside and told me that a guest he had just introduced us to was the daughter of a deposed dictator, but I shouldn't mention it to anyone because it would put her in danger. It was a complete lie. What did he gain by telling me that outrageous lie?
He also told me he had played the part of "Chopsley", a character on a local late night show in New Orleans called Morgus the Magnificent, starring a radio personality named Sid Noel. Another total lie.
He and my late half-brother were fast friends for many years until he stole a gold watch that my brother had on display in his home that had belonged to his father. Their relationship had previously weathered him borrowing $5,000.00 from my brother after telling him he had the big-C and needed the money for chemotherapy. But it did not weather the gold watch loss. It was too much for my brother. Sad, isn't it.
So sorry about your bird bath. I know the pain of loosing things I have loved and can empathize with you.
Juanita
lilygardener
- your above lying 'friend' sounds like a condition:
schizophrenia at worst, self-aggrandizement at the very least. . .
- saying things to make themselves (or others THEY know)
- sound/seem more important.
Me'thinks there IS a genetic line (several) on my in-law side,
- but they are harmless - so far.
but it CAN be royal pain in the Neck trying to be polite
- knowing you are listening to fabrication of a somewhat loose screw.
yours sounds more dangerous and id steer clear of them if I were you.
I'm not so sure he was dangerous unless we consider the loss of property as a danger. But alas, even though he was only a year younger than me, he died around 15 years ago at only 50. He was very overweight all his life and died of complications of diabetes.
I can't help but remember fondly the child with whom I was such good friends. I don't remember him lying as a child. I think I would have remembered him doing it if he had. I don't understand what happened to him that that need to make his life bigger or more interesting by lying became who he was. I moved out of State and lost communication with him. My brother and he continued on as friends until much later, after the theft of the gold watch, which was never recovered. I think he stole because he became a cocaine addict and needed money to feed his addiction. He had inherited some money as a very young man and I don't think he worked much throuhout his life. His wife, now his widow, is an attorney. She worked but was also addicted. They did not succeed in life as a result. I can't relate to what caused such catastrophic failure in the lives of people who both had big "legs up" in life.
Can't help putting my 2 cents worth in here. I know it's worse in one way when something valuable is stolen because of the cost to replace it but when something of little or no monetary value is stolen it can be pretty bad emotionally.
Years ago someone stole a bag of composted manure from my yard. I couldn't help thinking, "Well, now that's really "petty theft" isn't it? It was cheap and easy to replace but, still, it made me mad.
And then I once had an old nicely rusted wire gate stolen that was leaned against the garage - just for decoration, of very little value. I suspect it was taken for scrap metal. It was just an old unused gate an elderly neighbor gave me but it looked so cool in the garden. I can't replace it. That really made me feel bad.
I think no matter what is stolen you still have that feeling of being violated and the anger can last a long time.
I had such anger over that gate that I finally started telling myself, "Maybe it was taken by someone who was really really poor and they desperately needed the money they could get for the scrap metal." Probably not true but it gradually made me feel better.
I'm sure different people steal for different reasons. Many years ago my mother and step-father gave a ride to my highschool classmate's father to a convention they were all attending. During the convention, the wife of the man, who came the next day and met him there, sat with my mother and bragged how her husband had bought her a gift of expensive perfume and surprised her with it at the event. It was my mother's perfume that he had stolen from the back seat of the car.
I volunteer at a local homeless shelter and nearly all the residents have stolen and been in jail at one time or another. They do it to feed their addictions to alcohol, drugs, or just to eat or have some kind of clothing, shelter, or cigarettes. Many of the residents have physical, mental, emotional, and family background issues. The women are almost always the victims of past physical or sexual abuse. Rarely is there one who does not smoke. The only ones I have know who do not smoke are a few who are simply out of work and have no where else to go. I look at these people very differently from the man in the paragraph above who is simply an ammoral thief.
The perpetrators have different motives but the results are the same for we the victims. I'm sorry about your gate. It is wrong on so many levels to steal. I understand that the value does not have to be great to experiece a sense of great loss.
Juanita
Several years ago I was waiting for a parking valet to bring my car down from the parking garage at work. It was the last day of work before Christmas and I pulled a generous tip from my money clip. When I got home, my money clip was missing. Somehow I managed to lose it after I took the tip out and when I got home. It had about three hundred bucks in it for Christmas shopping and for tips for the parking guys at work and at home as well as for the staff in the highrise where I lived then. Losing $300 bucks hurts anyone, but I concentrated on hoping that whomever found it really needed it. I'm sure that the finder had a better Christmas, whether they needed the funds or not!
Security cameras are a real good thing to have these days.
Yes ma'am. I wish I could afford enought to cover my whole yard. I have a favorite beautiful daylily cultivar named Francis Joiner.. Every year I think someone comes into the yard and takes a little more of the clump. Everything around it is thriving, but I have less and less of it each year.
Juanita