Fighting pests with pests

I rent a basement unit with a deep stairwell to my front door that tends to be a safe haven for mosquitoes each spring and summer. This means that my legs and arms spend the summer covered in mosquito bites and being itchy.

In addition to being a rather unattractive sight on my skin, it means I spend a lot of money on anti-itch gels and other treatments for those bites.

In past years, I’ve used all kinds of bug killers and non-natural options to try to decrease their population, in addition to reducing/eliminating any puddles or standing water for them to breed in. But it hasn’t worked.

This year I’m trying a whole new technique, if it can be called that.

I’m building up my outdoor population of spiders to reduce the mosquito population. The way I see it, all those insecticides also killed of the natural predators of mosquitoes — spiders.

So this year, I’m not going to put down any pesticides in the stairwell or nearby ground. Moreover, I’m going to do what I can to keep my basement stairwell hospitable to spiders — leave a few leaves lying around, etc.

This tactic also solves another dilemma for me.

In living in a basement, I sometimes find a spider of substantial size in my bathtub in the morning. This usually occurs at least on weekly basis.  I guess they crawl in to get some water from the bottom of the tub and then can’t climb back out.

Instead of killing these spiders, I am now tossing them into my outside stairwell in hopes that they will set up home there. As of now I know of three different spiders that use my stairwell as home and it doesn’t bother me in the least.

I have seen one or two mosquitoes in my stairwell so far this year. The problem is that I can’t recall when in the spring/summer the blood suckers really start breeding. Therefore, I guess I won’t know if my strategy is successful until July or August.

I have one more tactic to try.  I will buy plants that attract birds and put out a squirrel-proof bird feeder. I’ve heard that having lots of birds in one’s yard is also a natural defense against mosquitoes and other flying pests.

What tricks have you tried to reduce the bug population?

 

Project declutter and the giant rainbow yarnball

I love to crochet and I love to shop.

These two enjoyments over the years have led me to collect dozens of skeins of yarn of various colors, weights and textures. The problem is that for most yarns in my house, I have only one or two of each type.

One contributor to this collection is that for some time I was buying only one or two skeins of any color. That was before I realized that a lot of yarn is needed for most projects of any substance.

Worse,  sometimes I would buy yarn because I liked it but with no idea of when or how it would be used.

The last time I gathered all my yarn in one place the collection took up all of my full-length couch and was piled higher than the arm rests. In other words, I have more yarn than I could crochet in a year if I worked hard at it every day.

For each type of yarn, I usually have enough for small projects such as gloves, hats, scarves, small clutch bags, baby things, and a couple dozen afghan squares (a lot less than what would be needed to comprise a full-size afghan), but not enough for a project of any substance or for anything that requires a thin yarn.

I tend to gather the chunkier/bulkier yarns because, for a long time, I valued speed/quantity of completing projects over quality — at least to some extent. You see, the thinner the yarn, the less space each stitch takes and the more stitches required to take up the diameter or length needed.

Now, as part of home/life project declutter, I am debating what to do with my yarn collection. My sister has offered to take some of it off my hands and there are some yarns I still have plans to use.

I believe the wise thing to do would be to give away my yarns through freecycle or donate it to a thrift store, and that will most likely be my decision.

I think I will better be able to enjoy the yarn I have, find the yarn I need when I have a reduced collection and be happier when my yarn isn’t taking up a fourth of my living room like a giant rainbow hairball.

It may also be wise to have a plan to prevent such a collection from accumulating again.

Once I get rid of the majority of my yarn, I will only buy yarn when I know exactly how much I need and what it will be used for. In addition, I will give away or toss whatever yarn of my new purchases that I do not use to complete the project.

Finally, I will limit my number of ongoing crochet projects to six — I can think of three that are currently unfinished.

Do you have any suggestions, thoughts on what I might do here both to deal with what I have and rules for going forward?

 

Project declutter: in progress

I recently read the suggestion of taking on cleaning/de-clutter projects for 20 minutes at a time as a way to make the mountain of a task seem surmountable.  The book that made this suggestion also recommended cleaning from the inside out (starting with dresser drawers, closets, etc) because those areas need to be clean/organized in order to put everything else away.

So I started with dressers and closets.

Friends on Facebook may have noted that for eight days (not always consecutive) I have attempted to de-clutter my home. I knew this could be a months-long project of 20-minute sessions (longer sessions on weekends) when I started on it. What I did not know was how hard it would be to free my life of some objects or how many old and unused objects I still possess.

The problem is that I grew up in a family where sentimentality was attached to nearly every object. I sometimes heard a parent suggest that an item may become a valuable collector’s object someday — not likely since  most of those objects show plenty of wear and tear.

For me, objects were used as a way to feel secure and safe in the world. As in, if I am surrounded by everything I might ever need on any occasion, then it must mean that my life will be easier to go through and I will not get bored (always having some project to do).

I also have to fight thinking that by not throwing something out, I would be saving myself the cost of buying it should I ever find myself in need of such a thing.

The reality is that the things that I rarely to never use or haven’t touched for years (my old high-top roller skates, tennis rackets, bulky winter ski suit) take up a lot of space. For most of these items, I would be able to rent substitute equipment or make do without those objects if the need for them comes up again.

Then there are the objects that were a part of my past, that remind me of younger and crazier days. These include my wide-legged jeans with reflector stripes, plastic bead/candy jewelry, wigs, glow in the dark things, childhood toys , stuffed animals and children’s books. It turns out I also have a pretty big collection of music CDs (including a box of empty jewel cases) and audio tapes — yes tapes.

I was able to make myself put most of these things in the donation pile. However, I am keeping the children’s books that I’m pretty sure are now out of circulation and that I would like to share with my own children or future nieces and nephews someday.

Then there are the objects that belonged to or were gifts from deceased friends or relatives. Last night I came across a small porcelain decorated mask that a grade-school friend (Derick N.) had given me as a birthday gift. He died in a car accident some years ago. After staring at it for some time, I decided to put the object in the donation box and keep the memories of my classmate in my heart.

For some objects, I take a picture of them so that I can still have the memory but just use up less space in the house.

Another challenge is deciding what to do with the clothes that my grandma wore, including some things I don’t think I’ll ever wear. The obvious answer is to get rid of the things I won’t wear and keep a select few items, which I am doing.

I also had filing cases full of tax, bank account and other important documents to sort through. Some documents went back to the early 1990s.

The end result of sorting through those files, is that I am keeping the necessary things (useful maps, car titles, notes of loans being paid off, and the last few years of necessary tax records) but have several large bags of papers that need to be shredded before they can be recycled. I imagine this will take several evenings to shred all those pages.

As of now, I have filed the backseat of my car with stuff to give away and my outdoor garbage bin/recycling bins with broken and useless items. But I can tell there will be many more trips to the donation site and full dumpsters to go before my life is organized enough to make it easy to keep the house clean with daily maintenance.

Although many of the books I have read suggest selling the more valuable things for some revenues, I know in my heart that I will never find the time nor make enough money to justify spending the time on a yard sale or eBay. It is more important to me to get those things out of my house before I change my mind about them.

What are some objects you would have a hard time parting with?

 

A convert to flats

While I love a pretty pair of high-heel pumps, lately I’ve become a huge fan of flat-heeled shoes. They may not be the most attractive for my calves but I find flats have several benefits.

1. Flats = less reluctance to exercise/walk on a daily basis

I am more likely to walk a couple of blocks rather than get a cab or take the metro to my destination if its less than eight blocks away.

2. Flat shoes are wonderful in emergency situations and for dancing

It make running a heck of a lot easier and in a good pair of flats, I find the latin dances and swing are much easier.

The other day I took a late train from DC to my home metro station and stepped out of the train car to see my bus ride home pulling out of the stop. Because the Takoma station straddles DC and Maryland, cab sightings at the station are about as rare as seeing Big Foot.

In other words, I had to walk home. Thanks goodness I had on comfortable flats and the temperatures were moderate.  I would have been in a lot of pain if I had to walk the 40 minute trek home in heels.

2.  Flats = less blisters and callouses in weird places on the foot and a savings in the costs of band aids and blister bandages. Enough said on that.

3. In flats, my shoe heels do not sink into the dirt in my yard on my way to and from work. While it’s true that my yard — I must go through the yard to get to the road/sidewalk —  is more often a swamp than not, it’s a lot easier to walk back there when wearing heels.

Overall, I like flats and I’m hoping that it will inspire some more healthy activities now that the warm weather is coming around.

Anyway, it’s been a while since I last wrote in my blog. But I’ve made some adjustments to my life and have taken away a big time consumer from my life, for now.

I entirely expect to write much more frequently.

 

What does your keychain say about you?

Have you ever stopped to consider what your key chain says about you?

If a stranger looked at mine they would know that I own a foreign vehicle — based on the manufacturer’s symbol on the car keys and door lock remote.

By the mini silver abacus, which also includes a small gender symbol, one might surmise I have some interest in Asian things and/or math and that I’m a female.  All except the math image would accurate.

I also have two library cards,  a CVS card, a grocery store card and AC Moore Rewards card attached. From this you might guess that I like books and crafts and shop at a chain grocery store.

Finally I have a three fairly indistinguishable keys (house and office) attached and I’m not sure whether this tells anything about me unless you have Sherlock-like sense of observation.

What is on your key chain and what might it say about you?