I love gardening. It is my passion.I could live forever in the yard and garden.The problem I am dealing with now is ticks. I don't mean an occasional dog type tick. I really don't know what type they are, but I am 99% sure they are ticks.I reached in my flower bed this morning to pull a few sprigs of grass, and when I pulled my arm back out, it was covered with something,about the size of fine black pepper.I run my hand over them, but they were stuck tight, and that quick.I wish now that I had snapped a picture of my hand before I washed them off, but in my panic,I rushed into the house and stuck my hand into Pop's cup of bleach. He keeps a cup on the bathroom vanity for soaking his teeth. I rubbed it across my arm, then dipped my hand into the bleach a second time to repeat the process.I could already see, floating in the bleach, lots of whatever it was on my arm.I took my five year old grandson's advice and got a magnifying glass, but they were so small, I could not tell what they were, although I could see multiple legs.I don't think it was spiders, since spiders don't cling that tight. That is why my guess would be ticks. What am I to do. I must work in the beds, and I am petrified of getting Lyme Disease from so many tick bites already.I purchased a bag of Diatomaceous Earth in hopes of getting rid of many types of insect pests, but don't know a lot about it either.I did fix myself up a shaker type can and dusted the beds after this happened, but the pests, whatever they are, have become so bad, I dread going out into the yard.I don't know enough about the D.Earth nor the bugs to know what to do.I am willing to try anything at this point, short of moving into town in an apartment, where there is no grass, no flowers,no garden,nor anything else I love.(the one option I will not consider)Does anyone have any other suggestions?
The first picture is the actual bugs in the cup of bleach. The second is black pepper, but the pepper is much larger than the bugs.
Snakes the other day and now ticks!!!!! I shudder just to think of it. I quit digging around in my compost bin, (you remember the shelf I used?) because of the ticks. I would have totally freaked if I had had as many as you! Hope you are able to find a solution soon!!
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Hello, I would say those are ticks, jessica and scott had them so bad in their yard and they was tiny like that, we got some spray mix at walmart that said it would kill ticks, took our sprayer down there and spray the whole yard and did did take care of them. Sure glad pop kill the snake, don't like them , one day i left my door open and when out to work for a while so i could hear will if he wake up, but on with the story, when i came in there was a snake laying in my floor, i open the door and throw a rug at it so it would go out but it when under my corner cabnet so i wasn't brave no more and call edna, when she got up here i open the gargage door and she took a broom and got ot out to the garage, when behind my deep freeze so when jesse came home he when out there and found it , try to get it to go out of the gargage and it wouldn't so he kill it and it was 3 ft and 4 inches long it was a spotted snake so it could of been a rat snake or a cow snake, what ever it was i'm glad it is dead. Have a good day Connie
ReplyDeleteWow and Yuk !
ReplyDeleteHappy 4th of July to you and your family !
Diane