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It is finally drying out here in Utah. We have had record rain and snow all year, with the wettest May in 150 years. What that has been good for is to keep the bugs down. Except for the time I went fishing under one of the dams here and apparently stood in the middle of a mosquito convention where I got approximately one bite for every 3 mosquitoes I killed. And I had a lot of bites.
Anyway, here in the Salt Lake valley it is warming up. Today, Sunday it was almost 90 degrees, quite a turn around from what it has been. And as such, there have been mosquitos aplenty flying around. This is the first time that I have seenn bugs this year and I am not looking forward to them this year.
Not just the flying bugs either, my main bane is the earwig. Those little stinking buggers get everywhere. They are in the house, in the garden, in the fruit and in the ground. I found the entrance to a nest last year (just a note, while I am sitting here writing, I just killed a mosquito on my monitor. Bah!) anyway, the earwig nest. I found the hole in the ground where they were just pouring out.
I proceeded to fill the hole with the mixed gas I use for my boat motor, that way the oil keeps it burning longer. It didn’t seem to help, many died and the fire burned underground, but too many of those buggers still were **everywhere**.
So, this year I am taking action against many of the bugs that I don’t want around. Mosquito traps are baited and placed around. Yellow Jacket Traps….I didn’t tell you about the yellow jackets. Call them hornets or wasps or yellow jackets, those are everywhere as well. Last year I wrote about the ones that came out of my mailbox every time I opened it. Read that post HERE. This year I killed two or three inside and didn’t think much about it until my 9 month old son started screaming in pain.
I was sitting next to him on the floor, my 7 year old was standing on his other side and here is the baby screaming for nothing that I could discern. I picked him up and saw something in his mouth. After the swipe to rid him of said debris, it was a freaking yellow jacket that had stung him in his mouth! It couldn’t fly too well, being wet and all and took a while to die after I cut it in half. But the Baby got stung in the back of his mouth by a yellow jacket. Luckily we found out he is not allergic to the venom and had no problems.
But there are Yellow Jacket Traps up now. Earwig traps are littering my backyard as well. I have declared War on many of the insects in my world. Don’t get me started on the mice in the shed. They are next.
Do you have bug problems? Let us know in the comments below….
-Justin
Justin,
We sopped up some of the May rain before it got to Utah while we work on the wettest June in years. Since it is still cold, bugs haven’t been a problem but it seems that we still have an oversupply of voles. I haven’t seen them and our cat hasn’t been bringing bodies in but everything I plant in the garden gets eaten when it sprouts. We probably will have bugs aplenty when they weather warms up unless maybe voles eat bugs too. That is probably too much to hope.
Biggest bug problem in my area are aphids. They reek havoc on certain vegetable crops in my garden….Evil Aphids.
Living near the ocean I too have a variety of bugs, birds, land creatures,
and sea creatures. Now, it’s jellyfish season. Now many in the water, but
the kids seem to enjoy stepping on them, and of course, get a stinging
tingle. Hurricane season has begun so keep a watch on developing storms
heading our way. Each storm that comes ashore nearby, generally will
take off our roof. The laws of physics must be obeyed. If a class 5 storm
ever hits us, we totally rebuild. But, many still like to live along the coast
and are willing to take the risk.
I thought you supposed to pour the two cycle in the street…? For the neighbors and stuff.
I loved your blog article.Really looking forward to read more. Really Great.