Helpful tips for July 2016

Source information links: http://lifehacker.com/5583176/draft-keep-your-yard-and-garden-pest-free-with out-harsh-chemicals Companion Plantings: The Natural Way to Garden , http://www.companionplanting.net/ pest-resistant ornamental plants . http://extension.psu.edu/mercer *Deer, slugs, and other garden destroying pests might be a part of our natural world, but that doesn’t mean you have to tolerate them being a natural part of your garden. These tips will keep your plants pest-free without harsh chemicals.P Better living through chemistry has given us off-the-shelf and factory-manufactured solutions for any problem you can imagine. Many people, however, want to forgo using harsh chemicals in their yards and gardens to avoid unnecessary chemical exposure. This guide highlights a variety of ways you can keep your landscaping lush and your gardens unmolested by pests without having to spread toxic paste on anything or use a sprayer that requires an OSHA-approved canister mask to use safely. We’ll start with the easiest solutions that you can apply now-even if you’re a renter-and move onto the more time-consuming solutions that require more advanced planning. For the sake of readability we’ll be referring to the space you’re working on as a “garden” for the rest of the article, but all of these methods work equally as well on landscaping in general. There are three primary groups that want to wreck shop in your garden: mammals (like deer and rabbits), insects (like tomato worms), and gastropods (like garden snails and slugs). You can find heavy artillery for dealing with all three groups on the shelves of your local home and garden store, but before you bust out the poisons and the neurotoxins, let’s take a look at cheap and non-toxic ways to deter pests. Even if you’re not particularly worried about exposing yourself to harsh yard chemicals and you have no pets or small children, you’ve still got at least one great reason for trying natural deterrents first: Poisoning the lower end of the food chain like the slugs and the insects in your yard will keep them away, but it will also deter natural predators like other insects and birds from visiting your yard. Basically you’ll end up ensuring a cycle wherein you have to keep applying chemicals to deal with the problem because you’ve driven away the element of nature that was actually helping you. Bring on the Coffee: Coffee grounds are a great addition to your garden . They add nitrogen to the soil, they increase the acidity for acid loving plants, and, best of all, a wide range of creatures can’t stand coffee grounds. Slugs hate coffee, cats hate coffee; it’s even sometimes an effective olfactory-based repellent for picky deer. What’s that you say? You hate coffee and have no coffee grounds to work with? Stop by your local Starbucks and ask. They have a policy of giving away their mountains of spent grounds for patrons to use for composting and other projects. *Bait, Trap, and Deter the Slugs: Slugs are, in my humble opinion, the most annoying of garden pests. They’re the veritable ninjas of plant destruction. Unless you’re looking for them-and carefully-it’s rare to see slugs at all, yet every night they descend upon your garden and chew the crap out of everything. You can deal with slugs a variety of ways depending on your adversity to killing them or merely redirecting them to your neighbor’s yard.P Coffee grounds, as mentioned above, will deter slugs to a degree. Even more effective, and radically longer lasting, is copper. Slugs and snails hate copper. You can use copper in a variety of forms to keep them away. To keep slugs from crawling up into your potted plants you can put decorative copper tape around the body of the container . You can shield plants on the ground by buying rolls of thin copper sheeting and making rings around the plants you want to protect-when you’re done it’ll look like all your plants are castles in the center of little copper fortresses. Alternatively, you can buy pot scrubbies made of copper mesh-snip the tie in the center of the scrubbie and then uncoil the copper mesh into a long tube to wrap around your plants. If you’re building copper mesh barriers for lots of plants it will likely end up being more economical to just buy a commercial roll of copper gardening mesh . If your attempts to deter slugs are a failure, you’ll have to start trapping them. Slugs are, as one would imagine, as dumb as they look. You can make an effective slug trap with little more than an orange rind or a shallow container and some grape juice or beer. Save the half-rinds from citrus fruits like grape fruit and oranges and place them about your garden. Slugs will flock to the rind. Come morning you can throw the rind in the trash or put it on top of your compost pile to dry them out in the sun and mix them into your compost. You can also put saucers of grape juice or beer around the garden. The slugs will dive in and drown. *Repel Insects with Organic Sprays: There are an abundance of organic recipes online for insect-repelling plant sprays. The majority of them have common ingredients like garlic cloves, hot pepper, and sometimes the essential oil extract of either or both. Mixtures of the two work great for repelling everything from bugs to bunnies. This step-by-step guide will help you make a potent garlic/pepper mix for your plants.P *Deterring the Big Pests If slugs are the most annoying little pests, adorable yet destructive creatures like rabbits and deer are the most annoying big pests. A few deer can reduce a thriving garden patch to waste or a hearty stand of hostas to nubs in a matter of days. Unlike the simple orange-rind traps you use for slugs, you have to be a little trickier with larger pests. *If you can afford it and it’s feasible to do so, putting up a fence is the only fool-proof way to keep animals out of your garden. Barring building a rabbit-proof fence, the most effective deterrent for large pests is to scare the hell out of them. You can spray plants with nasty tasting substances like the garlic/pepper spray above, but that’s not as effective or far reaching as introducing the scent of predators.P Apply Bloodmeal Liberally: Bloodmeal is a by product of meat packing plants. It’s dried and flaked blood and animals strongly dislike the smell of it. Prey animals like rabbits and deer are spooked by the smell of blood, even old dried blood. Bloodmeal is also extremely high in nitrogen and a great additive for your garden. Sprinkle it around your plants and in your garden beds. Take care, however, not to sprinkle the powder directly on the plants. The high nitrogen content can burn the leaves.P Introduce Strong Scents: If you have a strong aversion to spreading bloodmeal all over your yard, you can also introduce other strong scents. Deer, particularly, are not fond of really strong smells like bars of scented soap, cheap perfume, and other strong smells. A neighbor of mine has kept her beautiful hosta beds unmolested by deer for years now using Irish Spring soap on stakes throughout the garden. *Bring in the Predators: You won’t literally invite predators-your neighbors wouldn’t approve of your use of coyotes as garden patrol-but you do want their scent. For about $30 you can purchase fox and coyote urine. Fox urine is great for repelling small animals like rabbits, squirrels, and skunks. Coyote urine is great for bigger pests like deer, raccoons, and opossums. You use it by putting a few drops every couple feet around the perimeter of your garden and plants. A $30 bottle will last you all season even with a fairly large yard as those few drops usually linger for a week or two barring a heavy rain storm. If you’re curious, no, human urine doesn’t work very well. Urban and suburban deer have adapted to the smell of humans and don’t fear us as much as they do the smell of other animal predators. *Scare ’em Off with Water: Scarecrow sprinklers look like regular lawn sprinklers, except they have a battery-powered motion sensor. Anything that gets in the path of the sensor gets a sudden and intense blast of water. I’ve never used one personally, but everyone I know that has one swears by them. They run $50-$75 , but they’re great for everything from deer to squirrels to solicitors. * This is by far the most long-term and expensive solution to pest problems. Some plants are more resistant to attack by pests than others whether due to bad taste, tough fibers, thorns, or other natural deterrents. We can’t provide a blueprint for your yard, but we can provide some suggestions and point you in the right direction. There are two schools of thought when it comes to using deterrent plants. The first school is focused on planting the deterrent plants as the main course in your landscaping and gardening adventures-selecting plants right from the start that keep the deer away and the bugs off. The second school is focused on companion planting. Instead of giving up on the plants you love but aren’t particularly resistant to pests, you instead plant your garden in pairings where naturally repellent plants are located near more vulnerable plants. A common pairing in gardens is tomato plants with oregano and basil. Not only are oregano and basil great for tons of tomato-based recipes when it comes time to harvest, but both plants are strongly-scented and great at repelling pests. Your best bet is to check with your local nurseries, nature centers, and university extension offices to see what plants grow best in your area and afford natural pest protection. +++++++++++++++ A Dan Thompson contribution CLOTHING CARE & SEWING TECHNIQUES Date: September-04-14 9:49 AM Today’s article was published in 2010. However, I believe techniques mentioned Are not time specific. It is considerably useful to be remindedhow to carry out tasks many think of no big deal or even learn for the first time. The techniques are beneficial for youth and on into the autum of our lives. God bless and have a great successful, faith filled day. CLOTHING CARE & SEWING TECHNIQUES by Carol Woodward, former Homemaking Teacher Texas School for the Blind and Visually Impaired, Austin, Texas February 19 2010 CLOTHING CARE & SEWING TECHNIQUES FOR VISUALLY IMPAIRED OR TOTALLY BLIND STUDENTS by Carol Woodward, former Homemaking Teacher Texas School for the Blind and Visually Impaired, Austin, Texas Revised March 1998 Marking Clothes Coordinating one’s wardrobe can be accomplished with the following techniques: A. Safety Pins This method uses small safety pins to identify colors in clothing. Let the students make up their own system for colors and their positions. It involves placing a safety pin in a specific hidden spot for each color on each garment. For example: . For shirts – tail, side seams, cuffs (side w/button or side w/hole), middle inside collar, under collar points, middle back tail . For pants – waistband to match the position of color on matching shirt (e.g., blue shirt with pin on left front tail and matching blue pants w/pin on left front waistband) . For socks – on top at the back or front, outside on instep (a preferred method is to pin matching socks together with a large safety pin when they are taken off, washed, and put away; then unpin when socks are worn; to match a special pair of socks to a piece of clothing, pin the socks to the piece when taking them off and wash with the garment) B. French Knots or Yarn Knots This method is similar to the use of safety pins, marking in different area for different colors. The students should decide on the code used. The knots could stand for the Braille color names, for numbers, or have different shapes (e.g., squares, triangles, circles). Note: Most people have more clothes of one color than another. The prevalent color could be identified with no pins or markings. For clothes which coordinate with several colors, such as plaids, mark each color in the appropriate spot (e.g., left front for blue, side seam for green). C. Commercially Available Products Maxi Aids, PO Box 3209, Farmingdale, NY 11735, phone 1-800-522-6294 or 516-752-0521, fax 516-752-0689: . Do-Dots: These clear plastic braille buttons (1 male, 1 female) snap together easily and nondestructively through hem, cuff, or collar. One side of the button tells you the design (light, dark, print, plaid, stripes, plain). The other side tells you the color (45 different colors). A braille-coded key to the abbreviations is included. They are in packages of 100 for $51.95. . “Say What”: Made of strong plastic, these tags are reusable by changing the desired information on a removable label. Each kit contains 10 tags and enough 1/2 inch braille tape for 23 labels. The tags measure 1 1/2″ x 5 3/4″ and cost $4.95. . Match Makers: Special plastic covers with large tactual dots are bonded to nickel plated safety pins. Count the number of dots to find matching clothing. 200 pins are available for $37.50. Independent Living Aids, 27 East Mall, Plainview, NY 11803, phone 1-800-537-2118, fax 516-752-3135: . Thick Sock Locks: These plastic squares with gripper holes will keep socks paired in the washing machine, dryer, and sock drawer. They are in packages of 20 for $1.75. Lighthouse Enterprises, 36-20 Northern Blvd., Long Island City, NY 11101, phone 1-800-829-0500, fax 212-821-9727: . Teflon Scott Tape: This tape can be brailled on a slate, cut to size, and sewn into clothing items. The tape is 1/2 inch wide and 5 feet long and costs $2.95 per roll. Maggie’s Sew Free Buttons, P.O. Box 54, DeWitt, NY 13214 Threading a Needle A. Self-Threading Needles Self-threading needles have two holes, one of which is open. The thread is placed across the top and pushed down through a slit into the second hole. There are several hand positions that can be used to thread the needle while holding it in your hand. The recommended method is to place a pin cushion on the table with the needle stuck straight into it. This allows two free hands to hold onto the thread. Wrap the thread around the two index fingers and use the thumbs to locate the position of the needle in the pin cushion, then push the thread down onto the needle. A disadvantage of self-threading needles is that the thread pulls out of the slit in the needle very easily. B. Wire Needle Threaders Wire needle threaders can be purchased in packages of three for about $1. To use this, push the triangular shaped wire through the eye of the needle, put the thread through the triangle, and pull the wire back through the needle with the thread. These may be difficult to use for some students because the wire has to be pushed through the eye of the needle first and the wire may bend or a student may not find the hole in the needle. My students like to wrap the thread around a straight pin and stick the straight pin through the wire loop. This gives the student something stiff to stick through the wire triangle instead of the limp thread. Dental Floss Threader Wire Needle Threader C. Dental Floss Threaders Dental floss threaders can be purchased in packages of 20 from the drugstore for about $2 – $3. My students prefer these threaders over the wire needle threaders because they are stiff enough to easily thread into the eye of the needle and the loop is flexible, unbreakable, and large enough to feed the thread through. The loop is pulled through the needle from front to back. Using Scissors To teach a student with visual impairment how to hold and use scissors: 1. Put the scissors in your own hand and let the student feel the hand position and the cutting movement (hand-over-hand, student’s hand on top). 2. Let the student hold the scissors and put your hand around the student’s hand to help guide while cutting (hand-over-hand, teacher’s hand on top). 3. Let the student practice cutting on raised line paper until the student is able to cut along the line. Note: Some students’ hands are too weak to cut through two thicknesses of fabric. Let these students cut one thickness at a time. Electric scissors are sometimes helpful. Patterns and Fabrics A. How to Make Your Own Patterns For students who have poor tactual discrimination, I recommend making patterns out of heavy brown paper or butcher paper, using conventional tissue paper patterns as guides or creating your own: . Outline the edges with a 1/4 inch line of Elmer’s glue. . Mark the straight grainline arrows with a strip of 1/2 inch masking tape or brightly colored labeller tape. . Put a strip of masking tape folded over the paper edge to identify the lay on the fold. . The crosswise grainline arrow can be marked with a strip of masking tape with staples at each end. . The bias grainline can be a strip of masking tape with staples lengthwise along one side of the tape. . Use staples to identify the location of notches. For beginners, I sometimes omit the notches completely to avoid confusion. . To identify darts, make a heavy glue outline and put a staple at the point and at the two ends. Note: The pattern number, size, and pattern piece could be marked on each pattern piece in braille or large print. B. Adapting Conventional Patterns 1. For tactual markings: o Before trimming any excess margins off tissue paper patterns, put an Elmer’s Glue line on the cutting lines. Let dry overnight. To keep the tissue paper from sticking to the counters, I put scotch tape on the wrong side of the pattern piece along the cutting lines. o Mark these patterns with masking tape as described above. o The student should be able to tear off the excess margins outside the glue lines before pinning the pattern on the fabric. Otherwise, I cut off the excess margins outside the glue lines. Note: This is the method that I use in my clothing classes. You will need plenty of counter space. 2. For visual markings: Use a color broadtipped felt pen and retrace all the cutting lines and special markings, such as darts, dots, and pocket placement lines, etc. It is easier to do this before the excess margins have been cut off of the tissue paper pattern. I usually ask the students what color is best. C. Patterns Available for Visually Impaired Users Fingertip Patterns, 155 North Bellaire Avenue, Louisville, Kentucky 40206. These patterns are specifically made for the blind. All of the markings are in braille. However, the paper used is similar to butcher paper and it is sometimes difficult to feel the edge of the paper when cutting the fabric (no glue lines). I understand this company has pattern catalogs available per request. For a fee, an adapted pattern can be made if you send a store-bought pattern to the company. Unfortunately, it takes over six weeks to get the pattern back. D. Buying Fabric Students should be encouraged to learn to differentiate textures and weaves of various types of fabrics (e.g., cottons, double knits, wool). A trip to a fabric store should include opportunities to tactually explore fabric. Describe the characteristics of different fabrics verbally to the students. Help them pick a pattern, or practice soliciting help of a sighted person, and practice buying the fabric and all the sewing notions needed, and paying for the purchase. E. Transferring Patterns Fabric Make all necessary adaptations (e.g., glue lines or colored felt-tip lines). From this point on, the student should be able to lay out the pattern (using the masking tape grainline arrows as guides), pin the pattern to the fabric, and cut out the pieces. For beginners, I recommend simple projects, such as an apron, tote bag, poncho, skirt with elastic in the waistline, pants with drawstring or elastic in the waistline or a “torn project” (where the student tears out the pieces rather than cutting out the pieces). I strongly recommend that the fabric chosen be a woven polyester and cotton fabric. Only special markings such as darts, dots, pocket placement lines, or notches need to be marked on the fabric. Darts can be identified by placing a small safety pin at the point and at each end, where the staples were on the adapted paper pattern . When the darts are ready to be sewn, the safety pins are replaced with straight pins. I sometimes have my beginners trace the pattern markings with a tracing wheel on tracing paper, in addition to the safety pins, so they will be familiar with that technique. Machine Sewing A. Pinhead Guide The use of a pinhead guide helps the blind student sew straight. Place a row of straight pins horizontally onto the sticky side of a piece of masking tape. Let the heads of the pins extend over one side. Place another piece of masking tape with the nonsticky side directly over the pins. Stick the pinhead guide to the metal slide plate on the sewing machine. The placement of the pinhead guide may vary depending on the task (regular seam at 5/8 inch, staystitching at 1/2 inch, topstitching at 1/4 inch). A notched metal seam gauge, similar to a 6-inch ruler, but with indented notches at each half-inch mark, can be used to aid the placement of the pinhead guide. Most sewing machines come with an etched line on the metal slide plate that marks the 5/8 inch regular seam line. Most students can feel this line and place the pinhead guide on it. When beginning to sew, the fabric is lined up with the first pin on the pinhead guide (which is even with the machine needle). B. Metal Seam Guide Most sewing machines have a screw hole to the right of the needle for a metal seam guide that functions like the pinhead guide. These metal seam guides are also available in a magnetic form. I prefer the screw on type because the magnetic ones tend to move out of position. Some of my students use a combination of the screw on type seam guide and magnetic guide (or pinhead guide) in order to make a longer edge for the fabric to move against. C. Needle Finger Guard This is a small 3-sided metal bar attached to the sewing machine on the same bar as the presser foot near the needle. It is a safety device to warn the user that the needle is close by. The finger guard is pulled down in front of the needle when sewing and pushed up to the left of the needle when threading. Most new sewing machines have a finger guard. D. Seams Have your students pin the pieces of fabric together with straight pins parallel to the fabric edge with the points of the pins pointing toward the needle of the sewing machine. This makes it easier for the student to pull the pins out of the fabric and it gives the student a better idea of where the stitching line will be. I recommend using pins with large colored plastic heads. Beginners should practice sewing two pieces of Braille paper together first, using the metal seam guide to sew straight. E. Darts If the darts were marked with safety pins, fold the dart in half by making the safety pins even. Replace the safety pins with straight pins and put a straight line of pins from the wide end to the point by using the seam gauge or ruler as a straight edge. Place the pinhead guide directly in front and in line with the needle and presser foot. Start at the wide end of the dart (at the fabric edge) and begin stitching, holding the pins in the fabric flat against the pinhead guide and remove the pins one by one to the point of the dart. Hems Mark the length desired with a pin. Measure the fabric to be turned up with the notched seam gauge and pin up the entire hem. Press the pinned up hem. A. Sewing Hems with the Sewing Machine Whenever possible, use the sewing machine to sew in hems. Use the metal seam guide or pinhead guide, placing it as far from the needle as the depth of the hem, and stitch. B. Ironing Hems with Stitch Witchery This is an iron-on adhesive, mesh-like material available in strips or by the yard. The strips are easiest to use for hems. After pressing the hem up, remove the straight pins and place the Stitch Witchery between the fabric and iron. C. Sewing Hems by Hand Thread a needle using a double thread. A single thread comes off the needle too frequently. Hold the hem in one hand with the thumb on the pinned hem edge. With the other hand, put the needle through the fabric until the point just touches the index finger and then push the needle back up through the fabric. Position the thumb so that the first stitch is on one side of the thumb. Now take the second stitch on the other side of the thumb. Continue around the hem, using the thumb as a guide for the size of the stitch to make. Ironing Clothes A. Safety Techniques Teach the student how to turn the iron on and off, the positions of basic temperature settings, how to add water to steam irons, how to set the iron down when it is hot, and which parts of the iron get hot. With a cold iron, show the student how to hold the iron correctly. Teach students to put the iron down by keeping the forearm straight out with the elbow next to the body. To find the iron again after putting it down, trail up the ironing board on the side closest to the body or find the cord and go up the cord to the handle. B. How to Iron a Shirt * Iron the collar first by putting the collar wrong side up on the ironing board with the seam on the outer edge of the ironing board (side away from body). Hold it in place with your hip and pin the corners of the collar down with straight pins, then iron. Remove the pins. * Iron the shoulders and, if applicable, yoke by inserting the tip of the ironing board. Hold at the collar and at the bottom of the yoke or pin the yoke down (with the collar closest to your body). Remove the pins. * Iron the sleeves by finding the underarm seam and folding along that seam. Pin the sleeve to the ironing board and iron. Push the iron sideways toward the collar to feel when the side of the iron reaches the armhole seam (and avoid ironing the collar again). Remove the pins. * Iron the body of the shirt, starting with the button side of the front. Pin the tail of the shirt down and hold onto the collar as you iron. When finished ironing a section, unpin it, slide the far edge of the shirt at top and bottom toward the edge closest to your body to position an unironed section. Pin this unironed section down and iron. Continue in this fashion around the shirt. When ironing the body of the shirt near the armholes, slide the shirt so that the end of the ironing board is sticking inside the top of the sleeve. This will keep the shirt flat on the ironing board. Folding Clothes A. Folding Shirts First button every other button and the cuffs, if applicable. To find the top of the shirt, put your hand inside the top of each sleeve. Shake out the shirt holding onto the top of it. Lay shirt face down on a table with the collar to the left. Pull the sleeves out to the sides uncreasing the body as much as possible. Bring the body of the shirt close to the edge of the table. Put the index finger side of the left hand next to the collar (right side of shirt), fingers pointing to the shirt tail, and fold over right side of shirt. Fold the right sleeve lining it up lengthwise with the shirt. Repeat for left side of shirt. Bring the tail end of the shirt up to the collar to fold in half lengthwise, or fold in thirds by bringing the tail end up one third and then fold again in half. B. Folding Creased Pants By holding the bottom of each pants leg put the seams together, making sure the inside seams are touching. Hold the bottom of the legs and put under your chin. Bring the waist of the pants up and fold in half, or hold on to each end and bring hands together. Hanging Clothes A. Hanging Shirts and Dresses Put the hand inside each sleeve or armhole and slide the hanger in. Button any top button to prevent the garment from sliding off. Line up either the tag on the shirt with the hanger hook or the shoulder seams with the hanger arms. B. Hanging Pants Crease the pants the same way as when folding pants. Lay the pants flat on a table with the pant legs out in front of you. Slide the hanger under the pant legs, almost to the crotch, and raise up off of the table. Laundry A. Washing and Drying Most washers and dryers have various types of settings. If possible, mark the settings for regular and permanent press with glue dots, puffy paint, or Hi Marks. Do not overload the washer or the dryer! Teach how to sort clothes according to color and type of laundry and how to measure detergent. Remember to put the detergent and bleach into the washer with the water before putting the clothes into the washer (it is a good idea to swish the water a few times to dissolve the detergent). To avoid ironing, take polyester clothing out of the dryer before completely dry and hang up, or as soon as the dryer stops, hang up the clothes quickly. It is not recommended for blind students to use bleach in their laundry. If bleach is to be used, then use it only on white cottons (make sure the student knows about different fabrics). An alternative would be a detergent with bleach safe for colors. B. Stain Removal Stains or spots on clothing must be found or identified by a sighted person. The stain should be marked with a safety pin, or if the spot is large surround the spot with safety pins. Use a prewash or stain treatment and let it soak for a few minutes. Then wash the garment with the other laundry in the washing machine. +++++++++++++++ How to Get Rid of Ants http://store.doyourownpestcontrol.com/crawling-insects/ant-control-products I have included several resources for identifying types of ants, behaviors, baits and differences Differences Between Ants and Termites for readers to check out. There are very helpful brief articles regarding each specific type of ant at each link. Hope this helps someone in this ant season. First identify the type of ant, then pick the correct product to remove the infestation. Household & Carpenter Ants: Ant baits and non-repellent insecticide sprays are two popular methods for household ant control. More information on ant baiting can be found here; http://store.doyourownpestcontrol.com/crawling-insects/ant-control-products/ ant-baits More information on non-repellent insecticide can be found here: http://store.doyourownpestcontrol.com/crawling-insects/ant-control-products/ non-repellent-ant-spray Baiting and insecticide spray can be combined for the most effective treatment if a non-repellent spray is used. Ant Baits: Ants require two types of food cycles to thrive. The cycles are referred to as the sweet cycle and the grease/protein cycle. There’s no easy way to tell which cycle an ant requires at any given moment. Using both protein and sweet baits More information on protein and sweet baits can be found here; http://store.doyourownpestcontrol.com/complete-ant-kit protein and sweet baitsis the most effective method to bait ants. Non-Repellent Insecticide Sprays: http://store.doyourownpestcontrol.com/taurus-sc-insecticide Sprays such as Taurus SC (Fipronil 9.1%) are preferred for ant control. The ants cannot detect its presence and crawl through the treated area. The insecticide kills the ant slowly so it has plenty of time to track the insecticide back to the nest. Fire Ants: Preventive Fire Ant Control: Preventive treatment with Bifen LP granules is the easiest method to control fire ant populations. Existing Fire Ant Infestation: If fire ants have already infested an area, then a fire ant bait is required to get rid of the infestation. more information on ordering and using Bifen LP granules is found here: and http://store.doyourownpestcontrol.com/bifen-lp-granules-granulars A video explaining ant behavior. Kinds of ants and demonstration of how to get rid of ants can be found at the link below. Once arriving at the page mentioned below, locate the “play” link and hit enter or click on that link. http://www.doyourownpestcontrol.com/ants.htm Resources regarding several types of ants found around homes are provided below. *Small Sized Ants (Inside and Outside) Argentine Ants http://www.doyourownpestcontrol.com/arg.htm Description: Description: fire ant Fire ants http://www.doyourownpestcontrol.com/fire-ants.htm Ghost Ants http://www.doyourownpestcontrol.com/ghost.htm Leafcutter ants http://www.doyourownpestcontrol.com/leafcutter.htm Description: Description: odorous house ant Odorous House Ants http://www.doyourownpestcontrol.com/odorous.htm Pavement Ants http://www.doyourownpestcontrol.com/pavement_ants.htm Pharaoh Ants http://www.doyourownpestcontrol.com/phar.htm *Large sized ants: (Inside and Outside) Carpenter Ants http://www.doyourownpestcontrol.com/carp.htm Fire Ants 10 Top Things to Know About Fire Ants http://doyourownpestcontrol.com/pest_control/questions_and_answers/top_10_th ings_you_should_know_about_fire_ants.html Ant Baiting Tips for Ants http://www.doyourownpestcontrol.com/baiting.htm Differences Between Ants and Termites http://www.doyourownpestcontrol.com/diff.htm _________________________ From the pages of Donna’s travel diary Thoughts of Kelowna Ah yes! Kelowna! A beautiful city in British Columbia Canada and lying on Okanagan Lake. A city with much warmth exuding from its residents. Kelowna is a city on Okanagan Lake in the Okanagan Valley, in the southern interior of British Columbia, Canada. Kelowna is a recreational lakeside paradise with miles of beautiful parkland and several sandy beaches. Amid summer sunshine, sparkling waters and warm Okanagan smiles, the city of Kelowna is the Okanagan’s largest and liveliest population centre. The Okanagan Valley in British Columbia, Canada is beloved for the unparalleled variety of its climate and landscape. The Okanagan Valley has something for everyone. I traveled to Kelowna in May of 2012 to attend the annual general meeting of the Alliance for Equality of Blind Canadians and at that time I was the national president of this organization. I arrived on the Friday and left on the Monday and celebrated my birthday there on the Saturday. In comparison to other cities of British Columbia, Kelowna is small and compact. The weather is supposed to be pleasant all year round but sometimes Mother Nature throws in a few surprises and temperatures can certainly dip below the zero mark. At the other end of the spectrum temperatures can certainly wander into the above 30 mark and it is not unusual to see this during the summer. Kelowna has lots of parks and pleasant down town streets that are all very accessible to the blind and partially sighted. Kelowna is the place where the Alliance for Equality of Blind Canadians was born in 1992. Kelowna could be your next vacation spot as it is certainly a place with lots of possibilities. I’m Donna J. Jodhan enjoying my travels. On your next trip you could enrich your down time with some of my audio mysteries. Take them with you wherever you go! In the car, on the plane, on the bus or train, at the beach, anywhere! Affordable, portable, (computer or i device) and you could either purchase or Subscribe for unlimited access to my library at www.donnajodhan.com/store.html From the pages of Donna’s travel diary Thoughts of Kelowna Ah yes! Kelowna! A beautiful city in British Columbia Canada and lying on the tip of British Columbia. A city with much warmth exuding from its residents. Kelowna is a city on Okanagan Lake in the Okanagan Valley, in the southern interior of British Columbia, Canada. Kelowna is a recreational lakeside paradise with miles of beautiful parkland and several sandy beaches. Amid summer sunshine, sparkling waters and warm Okanagan smiles, the city of Kelowna is the Okanagan’s largest and liveliest population centre. The Okanagan Valley in British Columbia, Canada is beloved for the unparalleled variety of its climate and landscape. The Okanagan Valley has something for everyone. I traveled to Kelowna in May of 2012 to attend the annual general meeting of the Alliance for Equality of Blind Canadians and at that time I was the national president of this organization. I arrived on the Friday and left on the Monday and celebrated my birthday there on the Saturday. In comparison to other cities of British Columbia, Kelowna is small and compact. The weather is supposed to be pleasant all year round but sometimes Mother Nature throws in a few surprises and temperatures can certainly dip below the zero mark. At the other end of the spectrum temperatures can certainly wander into the above 30 mark and it is not unusual to see this during the summer. Kelowna has lots of parks and pleasant down town streets that are all very accessible to the blind and partially sighted. Kelowna is the place where the Alliance for Equality of Blind Canadians was born in 1992. Kelowna could be your next vacation spot as it is certainly a place with lots of possibilities. I’m Donna J. Jodhan enjoying my travels. To learn more about me, visit http://jodhanmysterybook.club/about-the-author/ On your next trip you could enrich your down time with some of my audio mysteries. Take them with you wherever you go! In the car, on the plane, on the bus or train, at the beach, anywhere! Affordable, portable, (computer or i device) and you could either purchase or Subscribe for unlimited access to my library at www.donnajodhan.com/store.html and you can now take advantage of our free downloads here. Follow me on Twitter @accessibleworld and at author_jodhan And like me on Facebook at www.facebook.com/donnajodhan and at www.facebook.com/authordonnajodhan]]>

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