Around 50 or so years ago, in my carefree youth, I had a mosquito for a pet. One night after riding my bike through the fog of a mosquito truck, I checked on my pet and went to bed. I awoke the following morning to find that he chewed through the chain and got away.

This brings us to the current spring and a winter that was eventful. Usually, May is the official start of mosquito hunting season. This year the season has started a little earlier due to the rain.

The one thing that we all must remember is there is no magic bullet for controlling mosquitoes. The best battle plan is to eliminate the environment that mosquitoes need to live and breed. Stop the larva by having no standing water. I cannot emphasize the importance of keeping your gutters clean. Keep the grass cut short, beds maintained, and don’t overwater your landscape. Do not forget to treat your bubblier and French drain lines, along with rain barrels and saucers for the potted plants. You can treat these areas with products like Mosquito Bits or Mosquito Dunks. The active ingredient is BT (bacillus thuringiensis) with the subspecies israelensis, or just call it BTI.

Promote habitats for the purple martins, bats, and dragonflies. They don’t eat as much as you think, but every little bit helps. Plant a variety of herbs (including citronella), as most have a repellant effect. Change outside lighting from white to yellow light bulbs or lenses, as they will not attract these flying vampires. Don’t forget the citronella Tiki torches and candles. They have a small effect on mosquitoes, but you will get that island feeling. One repellant that I’m impressed with is the very effective Patio Egg.

The Spartan Mosquito Eradicators are the most innovative mosquito control products to hit the market in a long time. They are sold in a two-pack that covers an acre and will last 90 days.  As always read and follow the label directions.

The use of sprays and granule repellents in the environment is an option. One of the best all-natural sprays is a cedar oil product called Yardsafe by the Cedarcide folks. Others include citronella, garlic, and orange oil sprays. Synthetic sprays include permethrin, cypermethrin, and lambda-cyhalothrin. Granulated cedar and garlic work as repellents. Permethrin granules are used as broad-spectrum insecticides. The all-natural repellant sprays will last about 2 days but the granules will last substantially longer. Synthetics, both liquid and granulated will last from a couple of days to a month. Length of effectiveness for all products will hinge on the weather.

The last resort is to hose yourself down with a repellant of some sort. Products that contain cedar and marigold oils are on the all-natural side. Synthetics include Deet, permethrin, and believe it or not, Avon’s Skin so Soft. For better or worse, products containing Deet are the most effective.

It’s spring in Texas. The winter slumber is now over for all of Mother Nature’s critters including everyone’s favorite parasite, the CHIGGER! Also known as a red bug, berry bugs, harvest mites, scrub-itch mites and those low life, belly crawling, pond scum sucking………. Chiggers are such an irritant that the US Army has a fact sheet on them. For us homeowners, the best defense is a good offense. Chiggers come into our environment from wildlife including birds, mammals, and reptiles. They also like an undisturbed environment. Start by disturbing their environment. Keep your lawn mowed, watered, and fertilized on a regular basis. In other words, maintain your lawn. The next step is trying to control the wildlife in the yard. This means taking down the bird feeder for a month or two.

Applying sulfur to the yard is the most common all-natural method for chigger control. Sulfur is a repellant, not a killer and because chiggers live in clusters, sulfur must be applied heavy. Light applications just spread out the problem. Powder sulfur is more effective than the granulated but does not last as long and is a mess to apply. Putting powder sulfur in a sock and dusting yourself is another method. You need to apply the sulfur everywhere you don’t want to get bit! This same methodology applies to the lawn. The rule of thumb is a 50-pound bag of granulated sulfur should cover 2,500 square feet and lasts about three weeks depending on the weather. A 50-pound bag of powder will cover about one acre and last until it gets wet.

There is another all-natural product called Yardsafe from the Cedarcide folks. This high concentration cedar oil product is in a ready-to-use quart that will cover about 2,000 square feet for the initial application. Repeat application in 7 to 10 days. This will kill the existing chiggers and will keep them out for several weeks depending on the weather.

There are also quite a few choices on the chemical side in both liquid and granulated. A good rule of thumb is to pick products with an active ingredient that ends with the suffix, “thrin”. Some of the most common are bifenthrin, cyfluthrin, and permethrin. My favorite product, lambda-cyhalothrin, is the active ingredient in Cyonara. This quart will cover about 8,000 square feet.

Prepare yourself if you venture into woods and pastures during chigger season. The aforementioned sulfur sock, Chigg Away, Tick Shield, and Cedarcide’s Original work very well. As always please read and follow all label directions.

April is a month rich in history.  Here are your monthly history lesson compliments of Wells Brothers! Check out these interesting April History facts.

April 1, sometime in the 1500s, is the best guess for the start of the April Fool’s Day festivities.

April 3, 1948, President Harry S. Truman signed the European Recovery Program better known as the Marshall Plan. It was intended to stop the spread of Communism and rebuild the economies of Europe devastated by World War II.

April 9, 1866, the Civil Rights Bill of 1866 was passed by Congress granting blacks the rights and privileges of U.S. citizenship despite a veto by President Andrew Johnson.

April 9, 1942, in the Philippines, the Bataan Death March began. American and Filipino prisoners were forced on a six-day, 60 miles march from Bataan to Cabanatuan without food or water.

April 11, 1945, the 6th Armored Division, part of the Third Army liberated The Nazi concentration camp at Buchenwald.

April 14, 1865, President Abraham Lincoln was shot while watching a performance of Our American Cousin at Ford’s Theater in Washington. He died April 15 at 7:22 a.m.

April 18, 1775, The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere and William Dawes occurred as the two men rode out of Boston to warn patriots of the approaching British.

April 19, 1775 – Dawn in Massachusetts, about 70 armed militiamen stood at Lexington Green against a British advance guard unit. An unordered ‘shot heard around the world’ began the American Revolution. https://www.loc.gov/item/today-in-history/april-19/

First year gardens (especially raised beds) can be very frustrating. The main reason is the compost we are adding. Because most of us are buying compost (hopefully from Wells Brothers) we are at the manufactures mercy as far as the age of decomposition is concerned. The last statement is not meant to degrade any manufacture or retailer. The compost and compost mixes have not finished the decomposing process and that’s a good thing. We want that process ongoing. But, one of the key nutrients used in the process is nitrogen (the first number in fertilizer). In short, this means that the soil and plants are in competition for the available nitrogen. This is one reason we fertilize.

Try to fertilize a couple of weeks before you plant and again at the time of planting. This is especially important for the all-natural gardener. Having a constant supply of nutrition will yield better results. But, not having enough food for the plants will yield frustration.