Critter in the tree -

ElPolloDiablo said:

Bleach has no staying power. It's completely gone in less than 12 hours.
I have been using BTI-based Mosquito Bits in everything I have water that cannot be drained last year. I haven't seen a mosquito larva since. Unfortunately there's an abandoned house down the road that has become tiger mosquito central and our county government is too busy playing real estate speculator to care about it.

He turned the fountain on, so it's not standing water. I'll probably ask him to drain the water today.

I've been using Summit BTI mosquito bits for a few years now, it kills mosquito larvae and I can say it really works at keeping the mosquito population way down (I have lots of bromeliads). I like how it is environmentally safe also. Walmart sells it here in the summer months, cheapest, but Amazon sells it online.



Peak-a-boo

I'm nervous of using anything I don't know. I'm growing my food organically. This water fountain is near my veg garden bed. Only use if it's absolutely horrible. I still don't spray for the grasshoppers and they are the biggest pest in my garden. But today my nylon net has arrived so I will put it on my nectarine tree.

SoCalGardenNut said:
He turned the fountain on, so it's not standing water. I'll probably ask him to drain the water today.

There's a BTI-based product called Mosquito Dunks which you can just leave floating on the surface of the water. It lasts about a month. Tiger mosquitoes will lay their eggs everywhere there's water, standing or not: I have seen larvae in as little as half a cup of water and most conventional pesticides won't kill them. No small wonder they are so difficult to get rid of.

ElPolloDiablo said:

There's a BTI-based product called Mosquito Dunks which you can just leave floating on the surface of the water. It lasts about a month. Tiger mosquitoes will lay their eggs everywhere there's water, standing or not: I have seen larvae in as little as half a cup of water and most conventional pesticides won't kill them. No small wonder they are so difficult to get rid of.

A few weeks ago I got rid of a small bucket of rain water, there were tons of larvae, I got rid of it in time. Maybe some did hatch but not all.

I didn't think S. Calif had mosquitoes

Mosquito eater


Can you find the mosquito eater in this picture??? Where's Waldo?

We've had so much rain for many months and there is ponding water everywhere. I asked my dh to pick up some Dunks in town so I can break them up, toss them in the ponding water. Otherwise, we will be in for some misery soon! The mosquitoes are hatching now that it's warmed up. BTI is species specific and only harmful to mosquito larva. It's a natural-occurring bacterium found in soils and is supposed to be safe to use around other wildlife and even beneficial insects.

SoCal has been wet, almost Oregon like weather, for the first time in a long while we have no drought anymore.

I have quite a few lizards here, aka mosquito eaters.

Love the anoles!

Unfortunately I live in a swamp, there's no escaping the bloodsuckers. From dusk till dawn the world is theirs. Anything that eats those parasites is A-OK in my book.

Yep those little vampires can ruin an evening in the garden real quick.

Picture of a lizard sunning himself.

On a cherry...

fantastic!
it's good to have the girls back

First bumble of the year for me...


And what I thought was a neat shot of the bee and blossoms together (albeit of beeback):

and the queens are coming out it must be spring, finally

Hurray for spring!!

I watched a big carpenter bee yesterday, it chased everything in its path, mostly wasps. So I stayed out of its way.

Usually I like to post close-ups of the insects, but I liked everything that was going on in this one:

Asa gorgeous pic. All so pretty just lift my spirits . Nice to capture nature at its best

Asa, everything about that picture is... well, perfect!!