Pests

JayC · Oct 21, 2001

Does anybody have a lady bug problem? Around here every fall and spring the lady bugs seem to "attack" in force. There are thousands every spring and fall. When driving down the road you can actually here them hitting the car--as if it were raining out. Also, does anybody have moles? Those buggers are around here too. I stepped out onto the front yard and sank about 6" into the ground. I saw their "interstate." It goes around the front yard to the back and around the house. I can't believe it. Those things can really work. I was cutting the grass on the tractor around the garden, and when I made a pass and came around I saw I had run over one of them suckers. I'm just glad I didn't have the mulch plug in... /w3tcompact/icons/crazy.gif

TerryinMD · Oct 21, 2001

Oh yeah - got's them all.

We have been plagued this year by moles, voles, mice, woodchucks, deer, feral cats, mosquitos, gnats, fleas, ticks, hornets, yellow jackets, box elder bugs, flea beetles, two varieties of ladybugs, ants, and noisy neighbors.

Usually can easily control anything that has more than two legs. /w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif Have yet to find any effective controls for the two legged variety of pests. Well, anything legal and above the law. /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

Terry

Wheeldog · Oct 21, 2001

Yep, tons of lady bugs here now too. The other pest-of-the-month winner is the common tick. We can't seem to take the dog near the woods without her coming back crawling with them.

Rob

TWINKLE_TOES · Oct 21, 2001

Terry,
feral cats

What the heck is a feral cat????

Al

Anonymous Poster · Oct 22, 2001

Feral cat is commonly thought of as a previous "domestic" cat that has lived on it's own for long enough to decide

"I ain't takin' anymore of this kitty kitty crap and I am now as wild as anything else"

Some people consider feral cats to be only those offspring of domestic cats and bobcats I believe.

Sometimes I've lived or worked where there's a cat that would require a year trying to get it to stick around near you even if you feed it.

del

HR_Mutt · Oct 22, 2001

Syxx_Killer
Ladybugs!!!!
Was away from the house and left the garage door open.....by the time I swept them off the walls,ceiling,& floor there was enough for a bucket full (hey! a tractor project)/w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif
regards
Mutt

Oscar · Oct 22, 2001

H_R Mutt
Had same problem as you did. Left garage door open while outside, and when I came back the ceiling was crawling with them. Not to mention the 1000's of them outside flying around and crawling on the house and barn.

Craig

MossRoad · Oct 22, 2001

Those lady bugs try to come into the house in the fall to winter over. Then they try to get out in the spring. 2 years ago we had the house re-sided. They started coming in through the cracks around the old wood storm windows. You could suck them up with the shop vac, there were so many. This year I put on new storm windows. 3 days ago they returned to try to get in for the winter. I thought it was rain against the glass, but the sun was out. It was ladybugs bouncing off the new storm windows. Only 3 have gotten in the house so far this year.

As far as moles go, killing them with traps is the only method that is effective over the long run. Chemicals and smoke bombs and noise makers only make them dig new tunnels. Check out http://www.themoleman.com/
This guy is the king of mole control.

 MossRoad

jinman · Oct 22, 2001

In the last few days I've seen 1000s of red wasps trying to find a way inside my country cabin. One year I was away for a week and they found a way inside. When I opened the door the place was swarming with hundreds of them. Luckily, red wasps are not that agressive and I was able to get them cleared out without a single sting./w3tcompact/icons/shocked.gif

Also, at the risk of being labelled a raving lunatic, they tell me that you can get rid of moles by putting Wrigley's Juicy Fruit gum down in their trails. I'm told they smell and eat it, which causes them to die because they can't digest it. Having said this, I want you to know that I've never tried it, so don't take this as anything but a rumor./w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif

JimI

Anonymous Poster · Oct 22, 2001

...I've seen 1000s of red wasps trying to find a way inside my country cabin. ...

Jim,

I was wondering where all my stinging bees went...

You can keep them... no extra charge.../w3tcompact/icons/blush.gif/w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif

P.S.- Did you ever buy that carport from "Lone Star Carport"?
{shipping was going to cost about $767. ea. for two!}

Bird · Oct 22, 2001

I don't know anything about Juicy Fruit gum for moles, but I do know that a golf course down on the coast used to give golfers bubble gum and ask them to unwrap it and put it in every gopher hole they found on the course; claimed the gophers would eat it and couldn't digest or pass it and it would kill them. They quit that practice after some of the animal rights folks found out about it and complained that it was cruelty to the gophers.

Bird

StoneHeartFarm · Oct 22, 2001

We got the lady bugs. Had one get in my dust mask while I was sanding drywall last week. Kept feeling something tickling my mouth. Good thing it was just a lady bug, coulda been a bee! /w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif

SHF

JayC · Oct 22, 2001

I cut grass again today. Lots of leaves and ladybugs. Our boat is the shed now for the winter, and had to slide it over so I could get the tractor out to cut. When I moved it over, at least 100 of them dumb bugs fell out of the jackstand. There were so many when I'd step down on the cement I could hear a "crunch." /w3tcompact/icons/crazy.gif They were all over on the tractor so I had to try and get them off. They were on the all around the wheels too. I got most off, but there were a few in the engine too. They got fried to crisp. I couldn't get those. Oh well. Every year alot always groups in the corner in my bedroom. They stay there all winter. They must eventually starve because they never move. They also like to congregate under the light in my room in the cover. They eventually get fried to. A pitty.

Bird · Oct 22, 2001

Things are obviously very different back in the northeast. I always see several, not a lot, of ladybugs in the vegetable garden in the Spring and Summer; don't know where they come from or where they go, but I never even see any of them any other time or place. But now grasshoppers and crickets are another matter./w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif I would have traded with you until I read this thread, but at least I can keep nearly all the grasshoppers and crickets out of the house./w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

Bird

StanInCalif · Oct 22, 2001

It must get worse the farther west you go. I've had to buy ladybugs. I wish I could entice some of those excess beetles in the northeast out here. I have lotsa lucious aphids for them, and if they run out of those, I can offer cottony cushion scale, a major citrus pest, which some ladybird beetles consider a delicacy. It wouldn't bother me a bit if this place was crawling with ladybugs and gopher snakes.

stan

jinman · Oct 25, 2001

John, I haven't bought my carport yet, but I have been busily building my pad on a sloping hillside. I think I may go for the thirty-footer with the storage room on the back. I need all the storage I can get while I build my house. This weekend, I'll be beginning a retainer wall on one side of my pad because all I have for fill is white sand and the low side of the hill I filled is 2-1/2' below the high side. When I get my site finished, I'll compare Lonestar with local suppliers and then make my decision. All of them have similar designs. The shipping cost you mentioned is unbelievable. I'd almost bring them to you for that price./w3tcompact/icons/shocked.gif

JimI

jinman · Oct 25, 2001

Those animal rights folks go a little far about everything. Pretty soon they'll probably be trying to make fishing illegal because it is cruel. Just when you think they can't go further "out there' they come up with some other ridiculous idea. I don't suspect they found too many golf courses that had much sympathy for gophers./w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

JimI

Harv · Oct 25, 2001

Don't know about you fellers, but the attached pictures show the pests that have been annoying the hell out of me lately.

Any suggestions?

Richard · Oct 25, 2001

Harv,
I've been using my vacume on my ladybugs. Your welcome to try that approach, but I think your varments would suffer MUCH more if instead, we simply unleashed the IRS on them.

/w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif

Richard