Last night while reading a stack of old gardening magazines (I know they were old, no web addresses) I saw an article on pest control. The man ran contruction line "fences" between his crops and introduced an abundance of spiders to make webs on these string fences to trap and control insects. As the article pointed out, use of insecticides kill benificial spiders also.

-- Jay Blair in N. AL (jayblair678@yahoo.com), December 03, 2000

Answers

We toured a local produce growers operation.he does a pretty big business.but is not organic. We noted how few creatures were there,not just no bugs,either.Not many birds,hummers,frogs or snakes either.After all they need something to eat.

Contrast that with our place.When you sit on the porch,all sorts of things zip by and run amuck! granted we aren't as big a producer as he, but I'll take my place anyday.We specifically manage our farm to benefit the wildlife, all of it.That means,for instance no mowing down the whole place every fall, like all our neighbors do.That makes our place"snakey", so we are not well liked among our immediate neighbors.We could care less.Others in the area look up to us for what we do.We've both been asked to serve on various boards.

-- sharon wt (wildflower@ekyol.com), December 03, 2000.

My husband was doing some work in the barn and mentioned he saw a few really BIG spiders in the barn. I told him he better not have killed them because they eat the flies and bugs. He said he just flung it out of the way but who knows. He won't kill another now.

I get so upset when people use weedkillers and fertilizers on their lawn to get it perfect. I won't let my husband do it saying the weeds are green too. (I can't handle chemical either) You can stick a shovel anywhere on my property and pull up worms. Try that at these green lawns. One woman was pregnant and had her house sprayed for ants. Her son now has bad allergies to foods and chemicals. Gee, think there is a connection?

The spider string sounds like a great idea. Thanks

-- Dee (gdgtur@goes.com), December 04, 2000.

I had so many benificial insects this year in my garden I'd didn't even use the soap and water spray even once, I just let them do it all. It was so cool. I have lace-wings and the tiny wasps that get the horn worms (leave the horn worm covered with eggs alone.) Also I noticed I had at least 10 different kinds of tiny bees and wasps, and you should have seen them cleaning the green beans! They went over each leaf like vacume cleaners.

I planted some Zinnias in 99. The tiny, tiny blossems attract these guys. And the Zinnias came up all over the place by themselves this last year even bigger than before. I have gotten Organic Gardening for years, and love reading about this stuff. I had lots of spiders too, but can't say I like walking right into a big web strung across the rows! But I left them alone to do their job as much as possible. I would like to build some sort of home for the wasps near the garden so they don't take over the garage! I want them here, but they sting me in the garage, never in the garden.

-- Cindy in Ky (solidrockranch@msn.com), December 04, 2000.

Oh boy,you guys do alot of the thing we do for our garden.Cindy if you do find something on "relocating" wasps let me know.I always get stung at buildings too and not the garden.I try to get stung tho, at least once every year to keep my immunity up.That old beekeepers trick is working for me.I got allergic to stings and was swelling up, like my whole arm, but then I kepted getting stung,accidently,and each subsequent sting was less reactive.Finally,if I make sure I get stung every season,and so far NO PROBLEM there,then it seems to keep me from overreacting again.I guess that would be listed under natural control,huh?

I do have instructions for orchard bee nesting boxes, if interested. It's very straightforward.On an aside you know those old black door locks with the skeleton keyhole in them? That seems to be the perfect size hole for orchard bees.That's where I first found mine here.They've never stung me even tho they nested right in the back door.

-- sharon wt (wildflower@ekyol.com), December 04, 2000.