Seed Spreader Bx2200

[Junkman]

Do you use a insecticide such as Frontline Plus on your dogs also? I have been using Frontline Plus for the past 2 years with good results. It works well on the dogs, but I do find ticks walking on me after being out cutting the grass or doing other things outside. Here in N.E. CT, if we have a warm day in February where the temperatures get into the 50's, the ticks will come out for that day! My wife told me this evening, that the fleas have already started to be a problem according to her customers. She runs a pet shop, so we hear about them first hand.

 

[SCDolphin]

Heck I have so many chiggers on my property in SC, I have named it " Chigger Acres".

Nothing like a good scratch.

 

[TresCrows]

I cannot believe I am still on this computer--oh well--I need a life I guess /forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif. My neighbor is a vet. I let my wife and her take care of all that. They are on some type of preventative for ticks and such in season. I am not much for dosing my dogs with poison though. I would rather put it on the ticks. Also it keeps them off me and the wife person (most important) /forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif. I worry that it might harm all the harmless and beneficial garter snakes and such but I see no evidence that they are fewer in number around here so I think I am not hurting them.
One way of spreading granular materials is to mix it in with a pellatized fertilizer when you put it out. This seems to help the finer materials continue to flow and turns two jobs into one /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif.
Seems to work for me but your results may vary. One thing, Kansas is very nearly a desert with very long periods of little or no rain. I wonder if my method would work as well back home in rainy Louisiana. I suspect more applications would be required than the two a year I currently do. here I usually hit them like early Spring and again after the Spring rains end which is very nearly exactly the last day of June here when the rain simply vanishes save for a stray storm here or there. J

 

[gsganzer]

We can help y'all with your tick and chigger problem. Just tell me where to mail a batch of our fire ants. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

I declared a "holy war" on the fireants in my yard and had almost all the mounds "zapped" a few years ago. Unfortunately, this caused the tick population to reach record levels. (You're wife won't be too happy when she finds a tick crawling on the bed sheets!!!)

It turns out that the fireants help control the ticks, so now I'm in a quandary. Do I continue controlling the fireants (that I hate as much as a root canal), and allow the ticks to come back (which the wife hates just as much)? Or do I adopt the "scorched earth" policy and nuke the whole yard with diazinon to ice everything with six legs?

I need to spend some time in the "war room" (bathroom)planning my attack.

 

[Poppa]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( <font color="blue"> I declared a "holy war" on the fireants in my yard and had almost all the mounds "zapped" a few years ago. Unfortunately, this caused the tick population to reach record levels... It turns out that the fireants help control the ticks, so now I'm in a quandary.
</font> )</font>

A QUANDRY!!! Good Gravy man, I thought I had it bad with some crickets and mice. Sounds to me like your Jihad is nothing compared to the full blown war already going on in your yard. My advice would be to either never go outside or RUN!

Between reading the posts about chiggers, ticks and fire ants you can bet I won't be complaining about a couple of crickets or Black Widow spiders anymore.

Gotta go scratch /forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif /forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif /forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif

Mike

 

[gsganzer]

The bug problem certainly keeps us entertained. There's nothing like watching a redneck devising ways to kill fireants. It's like the old joke: How do you know when a redneck's about to kill himself? When he yells "Hey y'all! Watch this!"

The fireants, ticks and chiggers are manageable. It's the "mud daubers" that can cause me grief. They always seem to plug up the things that don't need plugging.

 

[TresCrows]

"The fireants, ticks and chiggers are manageable. It's the "mud daubers" that can cause me grief. They always seem to plug up the things that don't need plugging. "

Yep, same here, while there are no fireants in Kansaw there are plenty of those pestiferous mud dubbers. I hate those things more than anything and nothing I have come up with slows there destruction of my property. Coming from La. I know about fireants---NUKE the yard with Diazonon or similar and control the mounds with Amdro.

"Hey, y'all watch this"! /forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif----yep, last time I yelled that I singed all my hair off and the explosion was large enough that in the evening twilight it attracted curious air traffic and rattled windows for some distance. Amazing what a few gallons of gasoline and diesel fuel will do to a pond full of cattails. Holy cow /forums/images/graemlins/crazy.gif. J

 

[Poppa]

What is a mud dauber? And I think you have forgotten to mention them african bees in your list.

Mike

 

[gsganzer]

A mud dauber looks like a hornet. They roll up little balls of mud from nearby puddles and use them to make a little mud nest (about 1" to 3" long x 1/2" wide tunnel) under your eves, car air filter, outdoor electrical panels, hot tub control panels, outdoor light fixtures, water tank pressure switch, air conditioning condensate drain, between the windows and the screen etc. etc. etc. Basically anywhere you don't want one.

Haven't had any run-ins with the african bees, those are still farther south. Yellow jackets, I have plenty of them. Two summers ago I had a record going for the most consecutive weekends to get stung while cutting the grass. Five weekends straight (twice one weekend). They always seemed to get me in the head or back of the neck. I've gotten rid of most of them. BTW: don't buy the economy brand hornet killer, I can p!$$ a stream further then they shoot and it only seems to get them aggitated. The good stuff knocks them out of the air.

 

[Poppa]

Hornets I understand. When I was living in WA state, I found a hornets nest about the size of a honey dew melon right outside the back door. I hate the things so I did the only thing I could think of I called an exterminator. He came out and removed it in about five minutes, made it look easy and me look wimpy. Not to mention a hundred dollars lighter. After he Left I was walking around in the backyard feeling pretty good when I happened to see another nest up in a tree big as a beach ball and twenty yards away from where the original one was.

went back inside and drank beer til winter. /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif

Mike