The war between me and my backyard pests has just escalated dramatically. It's time for me to break out the napalm and nukes. Before my second trip to Oklahoma, the bug zapper bulb burned out prematurely (by about 11 months). I put off replacing it until I returned, and that might have been a tactical error. It allowed the mosquitoes to bloom, which fed my spiders until they grew fat and happy. The banana spiders are moving in closer to the house, and they're about two and a half inches across (toe to toe) now. It's going to take a lot of work to retake the ground I surrendered when I went on vacation. I ventured out on the deck well after dark tonight, and shone a flashlight around to see who creeps out when I'm not looking. If I had been armed with a flame thrower, my deck would be cinders right now.
I was so happy to finally learn which of my bell pepper plants was which, as the red peppers started to ripen and turn an orange-y red. And now they are red with giant bite marks in them. Two days ago, I had a fist sized tomato that was starting to ripen. It's gone now. And as a final insult, some disgusting beast crawled on the next biggest green tomato, and pooped all over it. Was this necessary? I suppose it did me a favor, because I doubt I will ever just eat a fruit or vegetable straight out of the garden again. I'm still holding on to a couple small watermelons. The largest one is now as big as a grapefruit, but it has a nibble mark on the top of it. Is there anything I will get to keep?
We went from a guarded posture to DefCon 1 this afternoon. I watched the dogs act fascinated with the barbecue grill when I let them outside. They peered into it from all sides. So I sent them back inside, and opened it to see what was so interesting. I did not expect to see a face peering back out at me. There was a gray rat underneath the burners, and he was as surprised to see the lid open as I was to find him there. I immediately shut the lid, went inside to grab the phone, and came back to see whether he had scurried off. He was still there, so naturally I took a few pictures. He crawled back out of the vent holes when I went next door to show my neighbor the photo. I knew I couldn't put off the trip to Lowe's any longer. I bought a replacement bulb and lure for the bug zapper, and I'm trying an experiment. I bought one of the sonic rodent repellent plug-ins, and I have it out there now, even though it's for indoor use. I had to try. The plug is somewhat protected from most rain, and I had to do something to push back on the rats. Sprinkling the mole granules did nothing. Unfortunately, I forgot to buy a brush to clean the grill, as I obviously need. I'm tired of bringing the grates inside to clean them, and they need it desperately after the last party. But if it will keep the pests away from the grill, I'll hit them with the magic erasers again. Pesticides are sounding more and more appealing. Give me strength to stick with less poisonous pest control solutions.
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