Yard Work 3

Mosquitos are a problem here.  The Asian Tiger Mosquito showed up here in 1999.  The Authorities said it wasn't here yet.  It stunned one back then and kept it intact in a small jar in the refrigerator and tried to tell the Dept Of Natural Recources and the local University that I had one, but no one seemed interested.

So, naturally, a YEAR later the local newspaper headlined "Asian Tiger Mosquitoes Found In Maryland".  Yeah, I knew that. 

Anyway, I have been fighting them ever since.  The little bastards are active in daytime and are hard to detect on your skin.  I happen to be good at detecting them on me, so I have probably killed more of them than the average victim.

This year, I am fighting back.  I'm trapping them.  Well, not the adult females, the offspring.  They lay their eggs in water.  There is a bacteria (Bacillus thuringiensis) that kills the larvae.  It comes in various forms, but I like the small Bt doughnuts of it that you just drop in standing water.

I  set out 5 pots of water with the Bt around the yard last month.  I set one pot without it.  When I see larvae in the untreated pot, I know the the females are laying their eggs in the treated water too.  I dump the untreated water pot every 2 days.   The treated water pots never have live larvae!

I found old black plastic pots that fit a gallon food baggie perfectly.  The dark pot makes the water look good to the female mosquito  The orange landscaping flag is so that I don't lose track of where they are.  The Bt has to be re-added once each month.

Getting the first few generations killed makes a BIG difference.  Already, I can go outside and find only a couple flitting around me and I swat them against my shirt very fast.  Fewer and fewer of them.  They don't travel far, so most of them here are from here.

Two years ago, I could hardly go to the mailbox without a bite.  This year, NONE! 

Minor Yard Work

It rained most of Saturday, was originally forecast to rain most of the afternoon yesterday (but didn't) and is forecast to rain most of today and tomorrow.  On one, we need the rain; it's been a dryish Spring.  On the other hand, I have a lot I need to do at this time of year.  So I took advantage of the rain delay to take care of some minor work, expecting that I won't get much done outside today and Tuesday.

First on the list was the remove the seedheads from the faded Spring bulbs.  Removing the seedheads prevents the plants from spending energy developing the useless seeds.  It matters more to Tulips and Hyacinths than to Daffodils, but I did most of them anyway.  There is a border of Daffodils that still have some flowers blooming, so I will wait on them.

A hedge trimmer does the job nicely.  A string trimmer works even better.  Naturally, both had weak batteries so I set them to charge.

So, noticing that the first mosquitoes of the year are out and about, I decided to set up traps.  I have a lot of cheap black plastic pots that seedlings get shipped in, so I found 4 that 1 gallon plastic bags fit onto perfectly.  If you knock down the 1st few generations of mosquitoes, it makes things better all season.  Between the 4 pots, my 5' lily pond, and a tub in the far back yard, that made 6 traps around the backyard.  Black pots work best; it looks dark and safe to the female mosquitoes.

I use Bt (Bacillus thuringiensis) in water to kill the mosquito larvae.  The stuff works great and is harmless to people, pets, and beneficial insects.  It comes in "doughnut" shape and you can break them apart according to the amount of water to treat.  The pond only needs a 1/4 of one per month; the smaller containers just need a sprinkle of a crushed 1/4.

The female mosquito finds a nice still pot of water and is happy to lay all her eggs there.  She has done her duty.  The Bt kills the larvae, so there are few adults around, so I am happy.   I marked the small pots with an orange landscaping flag so I remember where they are.  Seriously, if I don't sprinkle in some Bt into the pots each month, then I an BREEDING mosquitoes and I would be very unhappy.  So the flags help me remember them.

I moved some fancy hostas from the front yard to a spot under the deck in the backyard last week.  The deer ate most of the fancy hostas in the front the past 2 years.  The hostas survived but smaller each year.  So moving them was essential.  The deer have never jumped the 6' fence in 30 years (I would have noticed plant damage and hoofprints).  So the fancy hostas are safe there.

There are some large hostas in front that the deer never bothered, so I divided each of them in 1/4s and planted them where the fancy ones had been.  Hostas are tough and accept crude divisions well.  I like the new look too.  It brings a uniformity to the front planting near the foundation framed beds (one is 8'x12' and the other is 12'x16').  They are not massed, but individual, so they are each visible from the street.  I do the front yard to make the neighbors jealous; I don't actually spend any time there myself.  LOL!

They looked like this before being divided...

 They they looked like this in the original side after...

But don't worry, they perked right up after some watering.

So the new backyard underdeck hosta bed is planted, alternating 'June' and 'Paul's Glory' with some small ones surrounding them.  But I was 1 Paul's Glory' short.  I thought I would have wait a couple years and divide the largest one to fill the spot, but I realized I had a couple in an old hosta bed along the back fence, so I divided the largest one and moved the division to the empty spot.

Ah...  Completion of symmetry!