Good News

I am so thrilled to report that the majority of the earwig swarm has moved on from our home in Yucaipa. We sprayed that first day around the parameters of the house and Gazebo but left the pool and bird areas untouched. All three nests of birds on our patio have miraculously survived the spray!

There are two House Wren nests full of babies and one nest of Oriole's. I even saw a few lizards on our stucco walls.

"The best we Could"

After fifteen years of using organic products to maintain our urban farm, we finally gave up the rat bate box. We heard the news of a famous southern California mountain lion that died eating rat bait. After that I felt If I didn't kill any more animals, his death would be worth something.

Then came an unbelievable attack of earwigs! Flying *&(+"^! Earwigs. Several nights were right out of a horror movie. I saw the air was thick with insects but failed to acknowledge that they were earwigs! We were finding them on our bodies and in my hair but I thought they were falling from the trees and maybe jumping off the walls. I didn't know earwigs could fly. One woke me up crawling on me and I found several more that night in the bed. I thought maybe they were nesting in one of my house plants. I decided to drag my big tree out to the patio and check it out.

As soon as I opened the door, earwigs dropped from the door sill into my hair and onto my body. My husband ran to get a can of Raid while I frantically vacuumed hundreds of earwigs up from the floor and walls. We were up most of the night vacuuming as they came ot of hiding in the cracks and door jams. Our pest control company was kind enough to send someone out the next morning.

So after fighting the urge to use pesticide's to keep almost an acre of fruit and garden's looking good I have failed. They sprayed the hard stuff.

We have three nests of birds on our patio. Normally we have blue belly lizard's running all over the walls. I had to watch them die after enjoying a last feast of sprayed insects. The birds are eating the dead one's too. I am just sick over it. The hardest part is looking out to see millions of earwigs filling the air again. They are landing on me on our patio columns and our tress and plants. Spraying did not decrease the number of earwigs or stop them from swarming. I have possibly killed lizards, frogs and maybe some birds too in my bug panic. This is the problem. Most of us grew up in pretty sterile environments and have lived on concrete most or all of our lives. We are terrified of bugs that don't even hurt us. They may pinch you if they get scared but probably not. It is a gross event to go through but if patient for a few days the bugs will usually move on with just a deterrent like soapy water, Rosemary, or neman oil. I hope this is the last time in my life I ever feel the need to spray pesticide. The "best we could" just isn't good enough!

Security Alert

We learned this morning that our neighborhood mailbox center was stolen. Yes, they ripped out the whole unit of around ten mailboxes. It was a standing metal unit attached to a pole in the concrete. They took several in the neighborhood apparently. What is happening to people? Maybe the toxins that are killing the plants and animals are also making people crazy? For a country who claims we all have good paying jobs it is a wonder why there is so much crime and gun violence. I have put a credit freeze as is suggested on credit agencies for both my husband and myself. I can only hope the mail they got away with isn't identity revealing and didn't contain money or mail orders. Putting the freeze in place with top three credit reporting agencies took half a day to complete. Tomorrow I will call our individual creditors. You can put a credit alert or freeze on your account if you have any suspicions of a breach or just want to be careful. The only inconvenience (beside the time it takes) is that you have to go through the process of lifting the freeze if you want to apply for credit. Keep a careful watch on your identity these days. Ordering free credit reports every year is a good maintenance habit.