Archive for Lawn and Garden
How to Get Rid of Ants
In general, I don’t like killing bugs. If I can simply send them back out into the world, so much the better. We periodically get ants in the house where I live. If one ant finds our cat food dish or a pizza box sitting on the counter, suddenly 20 ants, then 50, then too many ants to count are marching through the house on the way to the first ant’s discovery. You can never squish or drown ants fast enough to stop the dozens more that also learned about food. Poisons treat the problem, but not the source. The best way to cut off a steady stream of ants is to find where they are entering and seal it off. I do this with baby powder. Think about all those bad horror movies with voodoo where they pour brick dust across an entrance to keep out enemies. Baby powder works the same way by blocking the ants scent trail. Ants already in your house walk around lost until they die, unable to find their way back to the colony. Ants outside your house won’t ever come in because they hit a dead end at the baby powder. Using this method of prevention often takes detective work to see where ants came from – if you put baby powder at the wrong opening, they’ll just keep coming.
Anyone got a favorite method of eliminating ants?
ants, baby powderHow to Plant a Tree
The rules for tree planting vary by climate, but the basics are the same. While the nursery you purchase trees from should have some instructions, it’s always good to double check with other experts before proceeding. The Virgina Forestry service offers some good information on planting a variety of trees depending on how they were packaged for delivery from the nursery, including balled and burlapped trees, bare-rooted trees, and container trees. Before you start digging a hole in your yard, review the steps on how to plant a tree to make sure your tree gets a long healthy life.
