Know Thine Enemy As You Know Your Own Self

[SuzyRidr2]

Jefffco, I have people walk into the store and ask what we have that will kill all the bees in their back yards. They say they are sick and tired of little Susie stepping on them and getting stung. I want to tell them to put some damn shoes on little Susie's feet, but I tactfully explain that if Susie is stepping on bees in the yard, those bees are likely pollinators that are after the Clover, Dandelion and miscellaneous flowering weeds in your yard and the chemical industry goes to great pains to market chemicals for controlling unwanted insects that will not kill pollinating bees. I tell them, if you want wasp, Hornet or Carpenter bee jet sprays, I've got those, but I don't have a solution for what you ask. If that doesn't work, I tell them, if we kill all the pollinating bees we won't have any food. [space]

[Suzuki Johnny]

Sounds like I need to leave my porch light on all night.

Hey Suzuki Johnny, we had another round of rain come thru tonight. So you might get it in a day or two.

We got another 2 inches today....it will not let up one bit....6 inches last week and another 3 1/2 this week

[jeffcoslacker]

Jefffco, I have people walk into the store and ask what we have that will kill all the bees in their back yards. They say they are sick and tired of little Susie stepping on them and getting stung. I want to tell them to put some damn shoes on little Susie's feet, but I tactfully explain that if Susie is stepping on bees in the yard, those bees are likely pollinators that are after the Clover, Dandelion and miscellaneous flowering weeds in your yard and the chemical industry goes to great pains to market chemicals for controlling unwanted insects that will not kill pollinating bees. I tell them, if you want wasp, Hornet or Carpenter bee jet sprays, I've got those, but I don't have a solution for what you ask. If that doesn't work, I tell them, if we kill all the pollinating bees we won't have any food. [space]

Not unusual for people to want to get rid of the problem directly rather than figure out why it's happening. Yes clover is actually great ground cover and provides bees with a lot of what they need...but if they are a problem, it's the clover you'd want to get rid of, not the bees.

Same with moles. People want to kill the moles. Moles are in your yard usually because your yard is lousy with grubs, which they eat. Get rid of the grubs (which are pests anyway), and the moles will move on. That's easy enough to do, but most people don't understand the connection. So they maybe kill the moles (tough) only to have more appear...and so on...until you deal with the root problem.

[SuzyRidr2]

Jefffco, I have people walk into the store and ask what we have that will kill all the bees in their back yards. They say they are sick and tired of little Susie stepping on them and getting stung. I want to tell them to put some damn shoes on little Susie's feet, but I tactfully explain that if Susie is stepping on bees in the yard, those bees are likely pollinators that are after the Clover, Dandelion and miscellaneous flowering weeds in your yard and the chemical industry goes to great pains to market chemicals for controlling unwanted insects that will not kill pollinating bees. I tell them, if you want wasp, Hornet or Carpenter bee jet sprays, I've got those, but I don't have a solution for what you ask. If that doesn't work, I tell them, if we kill all the pollinating bees we won't have any food. [space]

Not unusual for people to want to get rid of the problem directly rather than figure out why it's happening. Yes clover is actually great ground cover and provides bees with a lot of what they need...but if they are a problem, it's the clover you'd want to get rid of, not the bees.

Same with moles. People want to kill the moles. Moles are in your yard usually because your yard is lousy with grubs, which they eat. Get rid of the grubs (which are pests anyway), and the moles will move on. That's easy enough to do, but most people don't understand the connection. So they maybe kill the moles (tough) only to have more appear...and so on...until you deal with the root problem.

Yep. Killing the grubs has another benefit too. They don't mature, turn into Japanese Beetles and get all over your roses and other flowers. Another thing people don't realize is it's nearly impossible to target and kill a pest insect without killing just as many beneficial ones. Sometimes you're doing more harm than good.

[jeffcoslacker]

Jefffco, I have people walk into the store and ask what we have that will kill all the bees in their back yards. They say they are sick and tired of little Susie stepping on them and getting stung. I want to tell them to put some damn shoes on little Susie's feet, but I tactfully explain that if Susie is stepping on bees in the yard, those bees are likely pollinators that are after the Clover, Dandelion and miscellaneous flowering weeds in your yard and the chemical industry goes to great pains to market chemicals for controlling unwanted insects that will not kill pollinating bees. I tell them, if you want wasp, Hornet or Carpenter bee jet sprays, I've got those, but I don't have a solution for what you ask. If that doesn't work, I tell them, if we kill all the pollinating bees we won't have any food. [space]

Not unusual for people to want to get rid of the problem directly rather than figure out why it's happening. Yes clover is actually great ground cover and provides bees with a lot of what they need...but if they are a problem, it's the clover you'd want to get rid of, not the bees.

Same with moles. People want to kill the moles. Moles are in your yard usually because your yard is lousy with grubs, which they eat. Get rid of the grubs (which are pests anyway), and the moles will move on. That's easy enough to do, but most people don't understand the connection. So they maybe kill the moles (tough) only to have more appear...and so on...until you deal with the root problem.

Yep. Killing the grubs has another benefit too. They don't mature, turn into Japanese Beetles and get all over your roses and other flowers. Another thing people don't realize is it's nearly impossible to target and kill a pest insect without killing just as many beneficial ones. Sometimes you're doing more harm than good.

Especially if you have a setup like I got here, where everything drains into the pond first, and only the overflow makes it out during hard rains...anything I'd put on the ground would end up in there eventually, in high levels. A lot of insecticides are really harmful to things that live in water, I don't wanna kill my frogs and little fish and stuff. Even the giant snapping turtle has a place in the chain. I have Egrets that come and eat little frogs and snails too. I try to keep it clean for all those guys...

[Herb]

We are having problems with gophers, they have killed 2 of my wife's rose bushes and a bunch of other flowers/bulbs.

I am afraid to use poisons because we have a cat that is a hunter. We lost one cat that got a poisoned gopher, from a neighbor's yard, and it poisoned him.

We have been planting Marigolds because we have been told that gophers don't like them, and it seems to be helping where the Marigolds are, but not the rest of the yard. Besides that, every time I find a mound I dig down and find the hole and use gopher gassers on the run. We seem to be getting a handle on them, this year, next year will probably be another challenge.

[RoadKing]

Same with moles. People want to kill the moles. Moles are in your yard usually because your yard is lousy with grubs, which they eat. Get rid of the grubs (which are pests anyway), and the moles will move on. That's easy enough to do, but most people don't understand the connection. So they maybe kill the moles (tough) only to have more appear...and so on...until you deal with the root problem.

"until you deal with the root problem"

Pun intended I am sure and very well done. Reminds me of that pun thread Gordon (?) had every weekday morning on the old board. BatMan always had some great contributions.

When I was a young fool my ol lady had a garden out back with considerable corn. At times you could see the corn being pulled down into the ground. Funny for us to watch. I'd sit out there on a kitchen chair, water hose running in one of the holes, using my .44 Ruger carbine to play whack a mole, gopher, whatever.

[jeffcoslacker]

Same with moles. People want to kill the moles. Moles are in your yard usually because your yard is lousy with grubs, which they eat. Get rid of the grubs (which are pests anyway), and the moles will move on. That's easy enough to do, but most people don't understand the connection. So they maybe kill the moles (tough) only to have more appear...and so on...until you deal with the root problem.

"until you deal with the root problem"

Pun intended I am sure and very well done.

Actually it wasn't, but after seeing what I'd written it did occur that it could come across that way...but even there is a problem of the type I'm talking about here...moles often get the blame for cutting off plants below the soil line and killing them...again, that's grubs doing that. People don't see grubs, they just notice the plant damage around the time they start noticing the mole tunnels, and they think there's a connection. There is, but not the way they think...