Bugs, bugs, bugs...

There is one small disadvantage to having a home surrounded by gardens instead of manicured lawns and plantings. Often "nature" doesn't stay "outside" where it belongs. To listen to the news you might think we are inundated with "Killer Bees" and Fire Ants but most of our gardening concerns are fare more mundane.

Spiders

Every year I have a running battle with the plethora of spiders that live in my garden. I seem to have all shapes and sizes, few of which I have been able to identify by type or scientific name. Frankly, sometimes I just don't like looking at them long enough to figure it out. While I love having them in the garden, as they help keep "bad" insects at bay, I really dislike having them inside the house.

Part of this goes back to the days when I was afraid of every spider I saw. Icky, ish, yuck, scream! Since I have owned this garden, though, I have become more tolerant. I understand the benefits they provide and their place in the natural order of things. Instead of squishing them on sight (which plays havoc with white wall paint, by the way) I collect them with my handy-dandy spider trapping kit and move them outside.

This kit involves a small, clear plastic dome like you might get out of a bubble gum machine a your local grocery store and a stiff piece of thin cardboard. You simply place the dome over the aforementioned spider visitor and then slide the cardboard between the dome and the wall.

Unfortunately, spiders really seem to like my home and there is no way I can keep up with all the visitors. Despite regular patrols with my 16 foot cleaning brush, the cathedral ceiling in my office still regularly sports a nice collection of 20^th Century spider art. We also recently replaced most of the 50+ year old windows in the house. I was hoping this tighter seal against the outside would help but it hasn't seemed to effect the overall population.

As always, any hints or tips on reducing the number of summer visitors would be appreciated. Send your ideas to the AGN mailing list at agn@onelist.com. As it now stands, only the coming of winter will help.

Ants

Another bane of homeowners everywhere is ants. They come in all shapes, sizes and appetites. Some like fats, some like sugars, but they all seem to show up at the most inopportune time. Once we had invited a new couple to dinner for the first time and suffered a major invasion of the kitchen. Luckily, they understood as they had similar problems in their own home.

For whatever reason, my garden seems to attract large colonies of ants. I see them everywhere when I am working outside. They use the plastic edging around the beds as tiny ant "freeways" and I see long traffic jams of them heading this way and that. I have placed ant stakes in the past with limited results. Since our young son plays in the garden quite a bit now, I have had to discontinue this. His presence in the garden also makes me leery of using Diazinon or other pesticides.

Recently I did have one good sign that someone was helping me reduce the ant population. While trimming back some climbing vines I found a Western Fence Lizard (Sceloporus occidentalis) happily ensconced. I have read that these lizards like ants so I am hoping he is eating his fill every day.

Wasps

The final player in my insect bestiary is the wasp. Just as with the spiders I have learned their place in the garden, but a few seem intent on nesting underneath the overhanging roof on my front porch. These wasps aren't very aggressive but it can upset guests to see them hovering around the front door when they come to visit.

I have sprayed these sites with wasp killer and then removed the nest, but they continue to return even in the winter. I had hoped that removing these nests while leaving others alone would convince them to nest in less noticeable areas, but that hasn't been the case. A friend recently recommended that after removing the nest I should spray the area with some strong cleaner like Simple Green or chlorine bleach. It seems the pheromones emitted by the wasps remains even after the insecticide wears off. I will try this and report on the results in the coming months.

...but it's still better than Ohio!

With all my griping, I am happier in Southern California when it comes to insects. I still remember the pain and itch of deer fly bites and the feeling you were about to be carried off by clouds of mosquitoes. Our dry climate certainly helps with these animals insects and arachnids although it brings fears, sometimes over-hyped, of Africanized honey bees and first ants. On the whole I find I can cope with the California insects much more easily.

Keep digging?(and swatting!)

Douglas

Douglas E. Welch is a freelance writer and comptuer consultant based in Van Nuys, California.
He can be reached at douglas@welchwrite.com or via his web pages at www.welchwrite.com.