Dang those squameetos! Don't they know it's not dinnertime yet?? I was attacked while hanging a load of laundry on the line - six bites in about seven minutes. 😠 I couldn't dance fast enough to keep them from landing. 😠
shareOh i hate them 'skeeters and chiggers!
My wife and her sisters make organic bug repellents from herbs, very effective, organic...NO poison involved
I have been amazed at how effective the herbal ones are and they really do smell nice (DEET is gross, i cant stand that stuff)
Do a quick google...you will surely find something to keep the little creeps at bay
Nasty little buggers. 😡 But I won round 2 - they didn't get me when I brought the dry clothes in.
As Dishonest John would say, Yunh, unh, unh!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SQ5qqxAyg9A
Spill, Shogie. What's this magic organic bug repellent your wife and her sisters make? After all, theirs is tried and proven to work! Who knows about the others. We've got itchy people here who need it!
My father was from the midwest and he told me about chiggers when I was a kid, but until now I'd no idea what they looked like. (Google scores again!) So, they're like flea-sized ticks? I remember him telling me sometimes they'd burrow under your skin 😨
Haha...sorry, i posted that the other day when my wife wasnt home
I just went upstairs to ask her the recipe...
At your local dollar store pick up a spray bottle
Fill half the bottle with Distilled Water
Add Witch Hazel until its about 3/4 full
ADD 7-10 drops of the following Essential Oils (order from Amazon or anywhere else...they are not very expensive...)
Peppermint
Eucolyptus
Geranium
Lemon Grass
Citronella
*Shake well and you are in the bug repelling business!
It actually smells kind of nice too and NO poison on your skin:)
Thank you, Shogie and Mrs Shogie!
GE, Dewey, and Stratego, are you seeing this?
Your'e welcome Cat:)
Mrs Shogun tells me there are Pinterest pages devoted to these organic repellents
She found a Spider one too which may be of interest to our guy db
GE will no doubt be interested in that anti-spider one too.
I wonder if there's one for ants. They're the only insect I've got a problem with here. I'd look, but Pinterest always wants to do something goofy when I try to look around. Probably because I don't have an account and don't want one, so they're trying to force people into it.
Try the site Balcony Garden Web
Search '30 natural home remedies to get rid of ants from home & garden'
Most appear to be non-toxic (several amount to mass-ant-murder but we are fighting the bugs so no half measures imo)
Boric Acid was my big Ant nuke in my old house...it wipes out the whole colony
Thanks, Shogie!
I've tried a few of these. Cinnamon (no go), a mixture of boric acid and sugar traps (ditto).
I'm of the "do no harm, if possible" kind of mind, so will see if the vinegar will help. If not, I may have to try aspartame.
I'm cool with ants *outside*, but seeing trails of them inside, and constantly having to be vigilant about not leaving the slightest trace of anything they like around is a pain. JUST STAY OUTSIDE, YOU ANTS, YOU!
I agree! All critters should stay outside. I didn't invite any of them in!
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My mom does that. Gives them a nice fresh quality.
shareYes, I do. Except during the winter, of course. Saves on the electric bill. Nothing better than slipping into fresh, sun-dried sheets at the end of the day.
shareI hang my best clothes on hangers on my shower rod. Avoiding a long dryer cycle REALLY extends the life of fabrics, and they come out better.
Delicates, designer jeans, formal wear.... None of them see more than 5 to 10 minutes of dryer time on delicate.
I'm with you - the less time spent in the dryer, the better. I have a number of things that I won't put in the dryer, even in winter. I've used the shower rod too, but now I have a collapsible drying rack that I use in winter.
shareAll fabrics, especially cotton and even polyesters, depend on moisture as a part of their makeup. They all burn. Thus, heat reduces their lifespan.
It's basic physics and chemistry.
Same here. I don't even have a dryer, but even when I did I never used it.
Uses up lots of energy, higher energy bills because of that. Cheaper and easier to hang-dry. Better for the fabric too.
I was hanging clothes on a line yesterday too. No washer or dryer here, so I had to buy a retractable line for outside because having laundry hanging in the (small) bathroom was getting old.
Bought a mini washer on Amazon, and it does work pretty well. The spin dry part gets clothes dry enough so by next day, they're dry. Beats going to a laundromat (ugh) by a long shot!
So true. A small washing machine beats a trip to the laundromat every time. Even if you have to do twice as many loads. It's worth it to be able to do other things while the laundry is going.
shareThis one's tiny! As in 22" tall, a foot deep, 20" wide, and mostly made of plastic. I think it was originally designed for RVs, boats, and people who camp.
The main problem is while it has an intake water hose that's supposed to hook up to people's bathroom or kitchen faucets, not only is it way too short, but fits almost no faucets. Which means filling it up with enough water a bucket to wash (will say it does a great job of washing!), then putting the soaking clothes into the (smaller, so not everything fits) spin side. Then putting everything back into the washing side and filling it up again to rinse. Then spin dry again 😄
So it is a bit of a chore, and the loads have to be small. But STILL better than going to a laundromat! Loading up the car, driving there, unloading, loading into washer, waitwaitwait, unloading, loading into dryer, waitwaitwait, and so on 😬
❤️️
How much water are you using with each load? It may be more of a waste with little loads. Just curious.
You really don't have to like me to answer..... I won't SNAP!
It claims to only use a couple of gallons for each load, but honestly I think it's more like 4, between washing and rinsing. Still, not bad, and you can control the amount of water you use with it.
It's a nifty little machine for what it is, if you don't have easy access to a real washer, in that it does clean as well as a full size washer, and spins things pretty dry. BUT, it does involve some labour, and you can't just dump your laundry in and have it automatically washed, rinsed, and spun.
#nosnapping 😄
We just got our second attack too.
They came early this year. Then it was good for the last couple weeks.
Now the second wave has attacked. A bunch more rain this week so I don't think they're going
anywhere anytime soon.
I don't know what wave we're on, but it's unusual to see that many of the buggers at mid-afternoon.
shareIt is unusual.
We've have had hot , humid, cloudy days this summer.
Seems they're always around no matter what time of day.
Not to mention the overcast from the wild fires in Canada.
Haven't seen much sun this summer at all.
Around here, we don't see many skeeters during the day. They're out mostly in the early morning hours or shortly before dusk. That's why those buggers got me today - it was 3:30 in the afternoon when they launched their attack.
We had more of the smokey wildfire haze today, too. It's not as bad as last time, though.
This really has been one the strangest years for weather in awhile.
I'm sure I say that every year!
The heat and humidity came earlier and lasted longer.
The snow was later and wetter this year.
I just had a tornado pass over and knocked down an almost 50 ft. tree in my back yard.
Took out my fence.
Just now?
shareLOL!
A few days ago.
I'm just glad nobody was outside at the time.
Dang, you had me worried. Whew! Glad you and your family are okay. Sorry about the fence.
shareIf it had been now I would becoming to you live from my basement!
It's just a fence. Luckily it happened in the middle of the night.
Me and the pups are A-okay.
They didn't even know it happened.
I didn't even know it happened until the next morning.
My only crisis is the dang squirrels tipped my wood pile over. This will be the third time I have to re-stack it this summer. squirrel--->🐿🔫
shareSquirrels and I have a love hate relationship.
I love watching them but then I hate them.
The tree that went down dropped acorns. That means a lot of hungry squirrels
this winter.
I had two that got into my house last year!
So, you have a wood pile. Do you have a fire place or a wood stove?
My squirrel relationship is love-hate, too. Fun to watch until they start doing damage to your property. And around here, those buggers like to leave little landmines around the yard. They leave the shells from black walnuts wherever they decide to eat them. Those things hurt when you step on them with your bare feet!
Good grief! You had squirrels inside your house?? Yikes!
My wood pile is for bonfires in the backyard. The wood is from a tree that used to be next to the alley out back. It was quite old (50+ years) but I wanted it down because it was a safety issue. I couldn't see alley traffic when backing out of my garage. There is still quite a bit of wood left, even though I took a load out to my daughter's place so they could enjoy bonfires.
Awww. I just saw a hummingbird outside my window. Poor thing was trying to feed from my hanging basket of artificial flowers.
😡 Darn them anyway! Almost a bite per minute (BPM), that's crazy.
Coincidentally, I was hanging laundry on the line yesterday too. No skeeters here, which is great, but then it's because of the drought, which isn't so great.
They've been vicious this summer. I've been itching all over!
shareSo true. I just walked over to Mr & Mrs Neighbor's house to grab some produce for my little critter. Oh, and I watered some new plants (they're up north at their lake place). Three more bites in about ten minutes. Argh!!
shareBought a fresh bottle of Cutter today. Just covered myself head to toe and I'm going to sit on my front porch in nothing but a pair of shorts at dusk, drinking a beer. Feeling defiant ( winking ) !
shareGood luck, buddy! There were times I couldn't even sleep at night because I had to keep scratching myself.
shareNot a single bite yet; that Cutter is good stuff ! Half of my state has been on a high risk alert for West Nile Virus for weeks now. Thus far, two confirmed cases have come out of that.
This was eye opening ( the ' Eaten Alive ' episode ) a week ago: https://www.discovery.com/tv-shows/naked-and-afraid/full-episodes/eaten-alive.
"We're sorry. This site is not available in your region."
Not sure I want to know, though.😖
I'm in a similar boat - the site wants me to log in with my TV provider. I don't think it's talking about my Netflix account!
shareDid you see Mrs Shogie & Sister's tried and true non-toxic recipe above for keeping away those skeeters and other biting pests?
shareI just went back and read it. I'll give it a try. By the way, peppermint doesn't work with ants, either. You probably don't have boxelder bugs where you are, but a capful of Dawn mixed with water in a spray bottle stops them in their tracks (outside).
shareNo boxelder bugs here, but shoot, too bad peppermint doesn't work with ants. Tried rubbing alcohol last night to remove their scent trail, and they're back this morning. I'm going to buy some chalk and see if that does the trick.
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