Have bugs???

It is that time of the year when the people from the North begin to migrate to their homes in the South. It is also the season when the insects, spiders, ants, roaches of all kinds, crickets..., begin migrating to their more comfortable digs, YOUR house and business. Therefore, now it is time for you to do all that you can do to ward off these nasties from entry into your home.

I just observed something outside that reminded me of a piece of advice that I received from insecticide representative MANY years ago. We were living in a different house back then and were not old enough to really care about how our exterior property looked. For a few weeks, we had been dealing with spiders, etc in our house. We finally gave up and called for professional help.

As soon as the help arrived, he gave me some instructions that I will never forget. He told me that before he would spray our house, we had to cut down the grasses, weeds, foilage of any kind other than bushes that were nearby our home. He explained that those things were natural harbors for insects, mice, rats, skunks...even SNAKES! As soon as their natural habitation was gone, they would scatter. Yes. Some would still come indoors but many would scamper far away. Once the exterior was clean, the pesticide personnel would return and go to work.

The same man told me that they are oftimes called to spray for pests of all kinds that are lurking in cluttered and dirty homes. They do the same thing then also. Tell the homeowner that there is no sense in spraying, etc until the human habitat is clean and not so cluttered. As long as clutter remains, bugs and mice have access to coziness. The clutter also protects the unwanted guests from coming in contact with the poison.

Today, I watched as a man ate weeds next to his house. I was close enough to him to see LOTS of big brown spiders climb up towards his roof. Others scattered in his grass. Made me thankful that our grass, etc was cut close to the ground around our house. However, we have a large mum and rose bed right against part of our house. Yesterday, when I was weeding it, I noticed more than our fair share of bugs also. Ugh!!! We are just getting close to mum season. Our mums are loaded with buds. I want to wait until after they have bloomed and been enjoyed before I cut them to the ground.

This is also the time of the year when homeowners call on professionals to prepare their homes against mouse invasion. You may want to consider that also. The people who come here look throughout the house and look for any holes that could welcome mice indoors. They then plug them with steel wool. People also put out poisons such as D-Con or mice traps of all kinds including cages that catch the mice so that the homeowner can return the mice to the country and set them free.

Because of the extreme heat that we have been through recently, I have not been able to keep up with my mowing and weed-eating as I normally do. It didn't take long for everything to reach for the skies. So, for the past 2 days whenever it was cool, I mowed and ate weeds, mowed and ate weeds... While I was getting back to nature, I had the opportunity to meet a few insects on our property. I am also a person who truly believes in various changes in nature that are supposed to signal what kind of season we will have following this season. In the past, I have been told that if caterpillars are light-colored, we will have a warm, dry winter. If the caterpillars are thick, dark and wooly, we can expect alot of cold and snow. Hmmm. I am on the fence this time around because I have seen about the same amount of each type. I guess time will have to tell.

I have noticed a huge amount of mosquitoes this year. Some people have told me that that is a sign that it will be a hard winter. Our hedge in the front yard is alive with the loud buzzing of bees and mosquitos. That may be a sign of what is to come also but I do not know.

So, anyway, I recommend that we do whatever we can to prepare our homes for the well-being of our families now. Believe it or not, winter is just around the corner.

VLE-B