Howdy..Is anyone else tinkering around with this?
I don't want to use pesticides, for toxicity reasons, and I believe they disturb the balance by killing so many things..beneficial with the bad, that ticks/mosquitoes can become MORE of a problem as a result..
unless you constantly spray with them.
I feel they disturb the ecosystem way too much and are a big reason for many of our problems with illness.
Don't want to disrupt what's already benefical..many of the creatures that would die or stay away with pesticides are doing good.
tho..specifics depend on your layout, ect..
but I would think utilizing native species of birds, or some of the below could work for many people.
Just some of what I have going here..
I'll let you know how it works out..
but was interested in anyone else doing this, or having ideas..
We are installing a bathouse (we have bats here already, so can probably lure a family of up to 100 on the property with a good box in the right location)
They can each eat hundreds of mosquitoes an hour under certain conditions.
Also, am installing a Chimney Swift house..
interesting birds that have nested forever throughout America..in chimneys..
now most chimneys are capped, so they need housing..
and their "house" is just a simulated matal chimney shaped structure, preferable with inviting interior, ledges along the inside for nesting.
You can get plans to make one on the web, and some people make them themselves..
private companies on the web, or ebay.
You can attatch it next to your existing chimney, or up high on it's own pole.
Chimney Swifts eat more mosquites than bats and/or Purple Martins do..and are easy to attract, since no other birds will nest in their kind of box. (of course, if you have an older uncapped chimney (not metal)..you probably have them already.
Then, there are many songbird species that eat lots of bugs, some eat ticks, too..
(since my son got a huge reaction and EM from a mosquitoe bite on the front of his knee before being diagnosed..the mosquitoes are just as much a concern as ticks, to my mind)
The birds, you have to see what may come to your location, and then tinker a little more with geting their houses up in the right spots, dimentions, ect..
bird conservation and other websites tell you what you need to know..
I'm trying for bluebirds and Tree Swallows.
Or course, keep the birdhouses away from the house and play areas..
but they are more beneficial overall than worrying about the ticks they carry.
We also place praying mantis pods in the spring..
they do a number on ground bugs/ticks/ect.
Other than that, a neighbor has tested spraying garlic .. a company in CA has a concentrate..
can be used many ways..sprayed on lawns, ect..to repel taicks, kill mosquitoes..and it happens to also repel many mammals (including deer)..
but, since I want the birds to stay as they are constant pest eaters..
I'm going to use the garlic along perimeters to hopefully control ticks with spot use..
and to keep the deer out.
They/we have tons of deer here, heards of them..and when they spray the garlic..they see none on their property. It doesn't repel most beneficial things, though..birds don't mind it. It won't interfeare with snakes and hawk predation and things like that eating the mice and such.
You have to spray that when you don't expect rain for a couple of days..and then it lasts three to four weeks..
but you can use one of the sprayers you attatch to your mower, and just do a round that way.
Am thinking about Purple Martins, but as I read all about them..I see they can be allot of work at first. Not sure if I will try them this year.
Any ideas..feedback?
Mo
[This message has been edited by Mo (edited 05 April 2005).]
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