beveritt

photo: JJ Harrison – Wikimedia

You know we’re talking about mosquitoes. It’s approaching that time of year, and maybe you’ve even seen one or two. But with a little rain and warmer temperatures they’ll be out in force soon.

As we walk through the neighborhood, we’ve been seeing signs for services that promise to “rid your lawn of mosquitoes,” “give your lawn back to you,” and “eliminate yard pests.” Really? How does that work? Somebody’s going to rid your yard of mosquitoes and only mosquitoes? Hmmmm…

So we thought we’d do a little homework on mosquitoes. It’s an interesting, complex subject worthy of more than just a blog post. So, we put together a Mosquitoes page with the things we found out. Our objective was to gather some background information on how to safely avoid mosquitoes and enjoy your yard during the summer.

flyswatter We uncovered some things that work as well as myths and urban legends. The biggest surprise was the simple remedy of an oscillating fan to safely shoo mosquitoes away.

Hope it helps during this mosquito season.

bzzzzzzzzzzzz……!

There’s been much nesting activity in April, as there should be. Three of the four houses on the Peachtree Park Nature Trail have occupants and there is a Red-bellied Woodpecker pair nesting in a snag on the trail: (see the recent post Nesters on the Nature Trail). The bluebird house in the Darlington Road triangle is occupied, and Bluebirds are competing with Brown-headed Nuthatches for a box three houses down. Birds are nesting in shrubbery in multiple locations in our yard and Carolina Wrens in the oven vent. This is occurring all over the neighborhood, and most likely in your yard.

Also, Goldfinches descended in mass in the trees inback of us for several days and emptied the thistle feeders every day for a few days. The morning chorus at sunrise continues to be quite loud; some singers go on almost all day, like the Brown Thrasher below. It’s a great time of year.