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July 20, 2009 Newsletter
Rats! Plus: We Are Now Winning the "War on Grasshoppers," and Other Stuff
Within the last three weeks I learned that Washington, D.C. isn't the only place with rats. The thing is, we have the "good kind" out here in the mountains of west Texas: the kind you can whomp on the head without having the police state institute martial law on you. And, if any readers here are "animal rights" types, I'd like to see you do things differently when one the size of a month-old kitten is eating up your house plants!
About four weeks ago I woke up one morning and found a partially eaten tomato that was on our food-preparation counter by the food chopper. A mouse trap was put by the front screen door. The following morning, a banana on a pantry shelf was eaten into, so then we put two more traps out, one on the counter on a paper towel and the other where the bananas were, at night (having put the tomatoes and bananas and anything else edible into the frig). Peanut butter was in the traps. The following morning, both those traps were sprung and no mice. Well, this went on for about a week. And another week, where we started plugging any holes in our house whereby the mouse could come in and out at night. And don't forget, we have a mother cat and three kittens, with the daddy cat usually in the vicinity. There should under ideal conditions be no way we could be having a mouse problem.
I went with hubby on a "business trip" (with our daughter at Girl Scout Camp as a Counselor) to Odessa overnight last week. When we got back we noticed all the traps sprung but nothing else out of the ordinary, so we baited the traps again. When I woke up the next morning and noticed a "wandering jew" plant fully eaten...then a hibiscus plant fully eaten...then a jade plant's heart eaten out of it...and a few missing aloe leaves... And these plants were not on the floor but in pots that are at least four inches high on a dresser drawer! So I put the two jade plants in the loft and moved the two aloes into the bathroom with the aloe in the big one-foot diameter pot near the window sill. That morning at 1:30 a.m. I got up to use the facilities then went back to bed, and thirty seconds later a trap sprung, the one where the house plants were. When I went to investigate I saw this thing. A huge rat, the likes I've never seen in this area, the size of a month-old kitten or a small rabbit. With flashlight in hand trying to get it to act like a rabbit in the headlights, in other words, freeze its movements, I grabbed one of those foot long staplers at the stapler end and whomped it on the head with the handle end, and got it. Then two more times until it fell motionless on the floor, then stabbed it with a kitchen knife. Then picked it up with a tongs and delivered it out to the kittens.
The "war on grasshoppers" is finally being won. That is the biggest reason this post is late (I was intending to put it up July 17). We have used nosema "grasshopper spore," (both Nolo and Semaspore brands) within the garden, in traps and on the ground as well as a more quick and lethal "EcoBran," a partially non-organic substance carrying nosema which is banned for use in California. The EcoBran was also placed in the traps this past Tuesday (July 14) within the garden and in rocky areas on the outside perimeter. If this stuff is eaten by grasshoppers, they die almost immediately, and several body parts have been found in the traps, cannibalized or not. It helped that my husband weed whacked the entire outside perimeter. Well, it rained really hard yesterday (Sunday) as well as hailed, washing away the grasshopper spores. After the rain, I sprayed "tobacco water" (suggested by subscriber Rich T..thanks!) on the non-nightshade plants, and, after a smaller rain, sprayed it again. So now it is Monday, July 20, and have counted a handful of grasshoppers--in the garden and on the perimeter.
According to Rich T, who got this recipe from a friend who "swears by it," take a small can or package of CHEWING TOBACCO (doesn't matter what brand or flavor, I suppose, but it must be chewing, not smoking, tobbaco) and place it in a gallon jar filled with water. Place the jar with the chewing tobacco out in the sun for a day or so, as if you are making "sun tea." After that, fill a spray bottle (ours is a quart, all purpose sprayer--do NOT use a spray bottle that has had chemicals in it!) with 1/4 cup of the "tobacco tea" and the rest water (Rich's recipe is 1 cup per gallon, and that is equivalent to it), being careful not to get any remaining tobacco leaves in the sprayer (since it will clog the spray mechanism). Spray the plants--except nightshades (potatoes, tomatoes, peppers, etc. according to a local resident up here that is actually growing tobacco in her garden along its edges to keep out the grasshoppers)--and spray after each time it rains, or whenever you think you need to. Tobacco will NOT hurt the plants or make the food taste like tobacco. It is just that grasshoppers do not like to eat plants sprayed with tobacco.
Now, according to this neighbor of mine, growing tobacco for personal use is perfectly legal. However, do not get caught selling it, bartering it, or any other method that shows you are using it not just for personal use. The BATF or other agencies will levee a huge fine and/or jailtime if you are caught. She got her tobacco seeds from some Canadian company over the internet.
Now the only big problem with our garden are the "cucumber" bugs, small brown critters that look and smell like "stink bugs." They, attached front to back in tyandem, as if they are trying to mate, like to hide themselves underneath cucmber leaves, between stems and cucmber flower pods, or on the brown dirt camouflaged in it. I go out to the garden every few hours and when I find them I smoosh them, simple as that. They smell, but what the heck. They are slow and if you look hard enough, easily found. So far, they have not been the infestation that grasshoppers were.
Between taking care of the garden--and gardens really do need to be taken care of--helping my husband bring the ambulance that needed repairs to and from the repair shop in Odessa 200 miles away, and with his paperwork, which is as redundant as can be (the paperwork doesn't get less just because Texas is a more "small government" state), and bringing our daughter back and forth to and from her Girl Scout Camp job every weekend because she wants to sleep in a real bed and not a cot or sleeping bag, as well as doing stuff for my nearby mother-in-law who is elderly and not always at her best, I have been watching the news on decent alternative and foreign web sites. However, I don't have time to comment on all the machinations of the Obama Administration's BS. You know I have never known a lying president who lies with as much aplomb on the one hand with as much a code signal on the other. When Obama says, "Let me make one thing clear," (a take off on Nixon's "Let me make one thing perfectly clear..."), folks, you have the feeling (as with Nixon) that the guy is lying through his teeth. Hillary Clinton has actually let the cat out of the bag with this video where she claims that the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) tells her and her ilk what to do. Thanks, Hill, for your honesty, but I'd say most of the folks who come to this web site already know this.
The Cryptogon.com website operated by American ex-pat Kevin Flaherty in New Zealand has two interesting videos that I will provide the links to, since I can't seem to download the embed code. The first video, featuring a New Zealnd rap artist talks about taking the swine flu vaccine and its ill effects. Even if you don't like rap music--and I don't--it's a pretty good video. The second video is based on the 1988 cult classic movie "They Live," where aliens take over and induce conformity and obedience in a "sheeple"-like population, here, supposedly to teach Americans how to learn to stop worrying and love the depression.
Hopefully, by the time the next newsletter goes up, I will have a method where readers can leave comments without me having to do a whole lot of monitoring them. But I will say I will not allow anonymous comments...not with my Bible blog having come under attack from what could be paid agents of Israel or the ADL calling me anti-semitic because I defend Palestinian Christians and Messianic Jews over Talmud believers. If someone is threatening to sue me for "defamation," I want to know beforehand who it is! The same goes for Obama-bots and other lovers of the nanny state.
Don't forget, if you have a comment on this or other posts, e-mail me with your comment, and put the name of the article in the subject line.
