Death to Earwigs!

[T]

Hi George and eFriends,

In my ongoing fight with swarms of earwigs, I have some progress to report. And maybe this will help George with his stink bugs.

Yesterday, I filled my Smith 190285 spray canaster with ~1/2 cup dish soap (7th gen free and clear) and ~4 Tablespoons of Cayenne pepper. Then I waited for dark and the daemon span to come out. The idea was for the soap to suffocate them and the Cayenne to repel them.

On my radish patch, it actually looked like they were socializing with each other. I killed ~100 to 150 of them. Then I waited another two hours to see if they would all come back, as they have before. I only found a few stragglers.

Sprayed my sprouting cups too. Killed about 20 over there. Got another 20 or so one of my hollyhocks that they have taken a liking to.

Today, I went out after dark again. I killed ~20: one here, one there. And none were back on my radish patch or my one hollyhock (I have about 20 hollyhocks total). Two had found my sprouting cups and got the soapy hot sauce treatment.

I love the way the Smith 190285 spray foams up the dragon's brew. I think it reduces the amount you need and makes it more effective.

When my traps get here, it should take care of the stragglers.

If you guys decide to do this, be careful of the cayenne pepper, it is like mace.

Interesting, by this afternoon, the ants had cleaned up all the daemon spawn carcasses. Now how to get ants to attack earwigs!

If I can get my zukes to grow after all the munching on them, the squash bugs are in for a real surprise!

Oh, and I almost forgot: death to earwigs!

-T

[George Shirley]

Ma no, my shah. Cayenne is the state spice of Louisiana. I can't handle it anymore at my age but we used to put cayenne on eggs and bacon. Cayenne is also used as a medicine in Loosyanna. We lived there for 24 years and made a lot of friends and stole a lot of good recipes.

Our lone zuke is finally making fruit. Damned thing is nearly three feet high and that much around and was planted in February.

It's still death to stink bugs here. Nearly had a heat stroke yesterday building a netting house for the young fig tree. Will have to finish it today to keep the !@#$% mockingbirds off the figs.

George

[T]

Can you eat other peppers? I LOVE Chimayo (New Mexico Red) peppers. They are the taste in enchiladas. I buy them dried by the bag from the local Mexican markets. Wal Mart has them too. Don't touch the ones from Raley's: they are sprayed with sulfites, which makes me explode from ever orifice.

Mumble. Mine are old four inches high. All bitten up by the daemon spawn.

Hot spices won't work on bird. They can't taste it. Squirrels can, so the old trick about including chili pepper seeds in your bird feed.

[George Shirley]

Mostly sweet peppers and a few mild ones.

Yesterday the fake owl and the flashing, jingling tape came in. I'm getting ready to put enough sand in the hollow owl that it won't blow. Plus instruction said to move the owl every two or three days as birds will find out it isn't a predator. We shall see.

[T]

Oh you know what, if they get use to the fake owl, they might not run from a real one and become what's for lunch. Try to attract real ones. Maybe there is some kind of nest/bird house they like.

[George Shirley]

We had real owls in the woods nearby and then the woods became a very large subdivision. Common owls live around here but are mostly nocturnal critters. Haven't seen any hawks but lots of buzzards due to the amount of road kill around here. Barn owls like nice little houses but haven't seen any of those. I really haven't seen any owls at all around here.

Birds, supposedly, are afraid of owls unless they don't move every day or two. I'm planning on moving the fake owl every day, this is a very small property with a big house on it so it should work. I'm rigging platforms to sit the fake owl on in various places. In addition I will be hanging out the shiny tape that makes weird noises in the wind, of which we generally get plenty. Our home fronts on a two mile long street that runs north and south and that's mostly how the wind blows. Behind the house is a natural gas pipeline runs the same directions. With all the house having six foot board fences we get two wind tunnels.