Thursday, July 26, 2012

Chigger Patrol


Also known as "bunny patrol" for Stella. This is a little corner of our new meadow in which I am dutifully working on a non-toxic solution for chiggers and mosquitoes. Seriously, if I'm to keep on blogging I'm afraid it'll be all gardening all the time. Regular readers say post it here but I'm not sure how a blog about carnival dogs and/or my own canine relates. Anyway, according to Google University, the organic answer (for the bugs) lies in two other critters: beneficial nematodes (250 million of them to be exact) and bats. Who knew right? Some of you may think (as I did) that Purple Martins might play a role in mosquito consumption but apparently that is a myth created by people who sell Purple Martin bird houses.

So bats it is. This leads me to wonder if my new next door neighbors wouldn't be frightfully concerned were I to show up one weekend and erect a twenty foot tall bat house in the yard. I suppose it would address their mosquito problem as well (bats eat a thousand mosquitoes an hour) but I'm just not positive they'll think of it in the same environmentally sound terms I do so for now, the plan is still in the early stages. They have big dogs too and Stella already sees it as her job to tease the three of them relentlessly through the fence whenever possible. Imagine.

2 comments:

Susan Rose said...

I think installing bat houses is a great idea! The world would be a better place if we all would embrace organic solutions. Commercial enterprise would have to shift to meet the new demands, and the profit might not be as fat, but there would be much less cancer and other ugly stuff.

With Stella, the bats and the bunnies, you'll have a carnival in your back yard. "Carny Dog" will still fit.

Susan Rose said...

...and Stella's big goofy grin is a carnival all by itself. : )