Attack Of The Pests

These last months of summer are the worst for annoying bugs. Mosquitoes, flies and paper wasps are my current enemies. I broke one of the rules of water harvesting and didn't keep up on adding bleach to one of my tanks and it was teeming with mosquito larva. This was the tank I use to water my trees. I need to get a lid for it. I added plenty of bleach to kill the larva and it should be ok for the trees in a week. The dog run is attracting hoards of flies. I scoop the poop daily but it doesn't help much.


And the paper wasps are back under my 5th wheel hangover. Last year I just waited for them to leave when it got cool. Unfortunately, then I forgot to seal off the hole that they were going in to. This year they thought it was such a fine residence that they are building a guest home a few feet away (on the left side of the picture). I have flying insect spray but I am too chicken to spray them. There are too many. A friend of mine put a picture on facebook of her new fly catcher that she bought from Walmart for $5. Walmart is a 40 minute drive, one way, so I wasn't eager to jump in my car. I had seen how to make a trap out of a soda bottle before so I searched for it again.


I cut off the top, turned it upside down and taped in on. Here I made 3 of the traps and put soda and a piece of hot dog inside. I don't know if it is stinky enough to attract them. Perhaps I should put some dog poo in the one for the flies.



The website also suggested cat food or tuna because it is smellier. I hope it works. The flies are annoying but the wasps are down-right scary.