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Garden Party; What's in your backyard?
Topic Started: Jul 22 2006, 08:18 PM (3,506 Views)
ekny
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In love with a prisoner
;D! Oh my, we be way amused! Loved the taped glasses. I appreciate your expertise, as well as your suggestions (you can imagine just how well: I found two more very attractive [NOT] bumps on my forehead this afternoon, where I didn't even realize I'd been stung 'cause I was still concentrating on the odd 're-stinging' sensations crawling over my scalp all day, silly me). All your guesses about the house, its draftiness, etc were of course correct. But hey! I thought the suit of armor thing was my secret.... Dang.

I am thankfully pretty sure the nest is in or around the pseudo-compost heap, which is a ways from the house, & where I let the Godzilla-Weeds sprout all summer. Cause they do make nests underground, is my understanding. And said ur-compost heap is full of woodsy-pulpy goodness, so it'd be optimal, that whole area.

(And also... I'm Blocking on the whole near-the-house-thing because it's just too scary. But I have had a pest company spraying regularly outside the house for carpenter bees, which I had a few years ago, so have been careful as possible about protecting the house, as it's all wood.)

My ambitious plan is to buy some of that long-range highly toxic bug-spray and spray the crap out of the area from a spot approximately 1/4 mile away, preferably aerial. But not until we've had a hard frost or, depending how scardey-cat I get about it, possibly our first snow.

I like to save the area closer to the house for mice, myself. You know: so the cat can watch them? Which she does for hours if they're stupid enough to come downstairs. (Actually, in her defense, it's possible her methods are so awesomely effective I just don't see any traces when she is on the job: I came home a few years ago to a mysterious blood trail that just... vanished after a few rooms. Looked her over top to bottom, & *she* certainly wasn't hurting. So.) Main thing is, they stay in the attic, where I--doggedly--(since the cat won't & all...) set out traps for them until there are no more horrible sinister scritching noises late at night. (And say, has anyone else noticed it's always late at night? What's up with that?)

Although you know... strangely enough, at the moment, I'm feeling almost fuzzy about the whole Mouse Issue, certainly sanguine. I can't imagine why. Perhaps it's because I never see them until after the trap's snapped, & they never get near me. Huh. How very Mysterious. Presumably some childhood thing. Surely it has nothing to do with the fact that they are NOT YELLOWJACKETS. Nup. No ma'am.

--e
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Loon
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Out of Dorm
Before you start organizing bombing raids on your backyard, you might want to look into poison baiting control methods. It might be cheaper than hiring a crop duster. Not to mention it might not provoke your neighbours into organizing a tar and feathering revival. Although, come to think of it many of those baits tend to be meat based and have a tendency to rot, so maybe not such a good idea after all. In all seriousness though, if you do intend to implement an eradication strategy, choose you season based on when it will be most effective, it will save you from excessive cost and pesticide use. I know that there has been some work on some bio-control agents that make use of bacteria and fungi to specifically target yellowjackets and paper wasps, but I don’t know if they’ve come up with a dispersal mechanism for it yet.

I have been lucky in that I have never had a mice as pests problem. However, I have had a mice as pets problems. I recently spent three months living in a trailer where I slept two feet away from 13 neurotic mice. They ran in their wheels incessantly while you tried to sleep. I couldn’t blame them though, they had stressful day jobs. As working mice it was their responsibility to act as enticing bait for falcons. Problems arose when one male was discovered in the group of what was once thought to be all female mice. This prompted many hours spent scrupulously inspecting mice genitalia and many days engaged in fits of intense paranoia. Oh, the sexy life of biologists…



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"Keep smiling, it makes people wonder what you're up to."
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Cassandra
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The Muppets!
So your solution, loon, is to poison the yellowjackets and buy little wheels for the mice? :lol:

ekny
Oct 6 2007, 08:31 PM
You know, I'm not sure if yellowjackets are available in the UK, I was chatting with a friend about this recently & she seemed mystified as to what they were. They can only sting once: wasps can sting repeatedly. <shiver>
Thanks for the yellowjacket link, ekny. From Wiki, you guys have several different kinds of yellowjacket including our wasp from the UK. You also have lots of other types of wasp besides yellowjackets. And wasps, yellowjackets and hornets can sting several times unlike bees. Think I've got it now. Anyway good luck with your pest and weed control! :)
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Just Another Mad Bad Fan
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G2 landing
Aha! Didn't realise it was Weed you had growing in your back garden ekny. There's a simple solution then - just let the little buggers smoke some - make 'em all mellow and laid back. :lol:
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ekny
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In love with a prisoner
:D Yeah, I wish. The thought of mellow yellow(jackets) is a bit too paradozy for me to wrap my head around. Would that mean they'd sting me in a leisurely fashion? :eek
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Just Another Mad Bad Fan
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G2 landing
No, they won't sting you at all - they'll just sing Donavan songs to you.
I suspect you may prefer to be stung! :D
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ekny
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In love with a prisoner
Uh, no one told me this, of course, but it appears if you've been recently stung, you carry around some kind of poison/tag in your system for awhile. So the yellowjackets can say to their buds next time you're out, hypothetically mowing the grass two weeks after your recent close encounter with said hypothetical yellowjackets, yo! dude, it's back--the thing that endangered us last time. Kill!

...and then they sting you again, just because, ya know, you're you.

Only a few arm-strings this time before newly-sensitized me caught on. But I'm here to tell you, that is definitely IT for the yard until it snows. After which I'm investing in a flame-thrower. Organic my ass. These things are so dead.
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HuskiesFan
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Courtside, Row 1, Seat 1
The Muppets!
ekny
Oct 25 2007, 01:55 PM
After which I'm investing in a flame-thrower. Organic my ass. These things are so dead.


Sorry that it has happened again.... but I love your thinking... :rofl
A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.
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song_stress
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the Mother of all that is FRAP
The Muppets!
Sorry...I didn't know either. Otherwise I would have sent you this
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The Muppet Clock wall ~ does anyone really know what time it is?
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ekny
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In love with a prisoner
Thanks guys, just thought I'd pass that helpful info along to the unscathed among us. *love* the biosuit, it's so me! :D
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Jeanna
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I said SIT IN THAT CHAIR
Bzzt...bzzt...

It's always those damn wasps :guns They're out to get all of us.
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HuskiesFan
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Courtside, Row 1, Seat 1
The Muppets!
Winter in Wisconsin after a fresh snowfall

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A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.
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ekny
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In love with a prisoner
Howdy--anyone see that uh--sky thing last night? I guess an eclipse? My sister called but by the time I got out it was over. I have a memory of someone--Sara maybe?--posting pics of the last one. Just mildly curious! :) Cheers, e.
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Just Another Mad Bad Fan
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G2 landing

I don't think you're going to get too many pics of the eclipse from these shores ekny - I have one word for you - Cloud! Isn't it amazing how cloud hangs about on the outskirts of the days leading up to these "uh-sky things", and then at the crucial moment, they move in. Spoilers clouds are!
Apparently the best chance of clear skies in the UK this morning between 3am and 4am was in north Wales and Pembrokeshire and the Gower Coast towards Swansea. And there was a possibility that it could also have be seen in parts of Lancashire, Devon and Cornwall. But the cloud ruined it for the rest of us - even if we had been up at 4am! :D

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LahbibLover
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I said SIT IN THAT CHAIR
I ran out to see it but alas it was rainy and totally overcast in Houston, so it was a no go here. Chatted with a board friend in Florida and told her about it so she ran to her balcony and said she could see it. She ran to get her telescope and binoculars and by the time she got back to the balcony a huge cloud had also drifted right in front of the eclipse in her area. LOL So we cussed a bit and gave up.

At least aj57 in Canada got a small shot of the damn thing and has posted it in muppet wing. Had to be a bit chilly in the far north but she obviously lived through it.
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